Natural light sometimes rocks

In our quest for creating the perfect shot we sometimes forget to just start at zero.
I see a lot of photographers complaining that because they don’t have expensive strobes that they never can compete with the images you see online….. and although I have to be honest that owing those strobes can sometimes makes live a lot easier it’s also a mindset. In other words if you go out to shoot natural light shots you will come home with natural light shots, if you go out to shoot strobe shots but you don’t own strobes you will come home with….. zip, nadda, niets, troep, jammer dan (yeah those last three are Dutch, actually they are all).

In this blog post some images I shot with Roosmarijn and the only things used were natural light (no reflectors, no strobes), the Canon 5DMKIII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS L and the Canon 50mm 1.4 lens.  Now when shooting with just natural light you have to be a little bit lucky sometimes, and with lucky I mean that you can change luck. In this case we wanted to have some nice backlit images, but….. well the Dutch weather wasn’t in accordance with our ideas so we had to improvise, and this is something you really have to take into account if you want to come home with good images, you must be able to change your ideas in a heartbeat and find something else.
What I always try to tell people is to make sure that you have your models face as much as possible towards the sun when there is an overcast sky, this makes sure that the light is really giving attention to her face and not that the images are too dark in the facial area (where our eyes always go first, well……. ok I know). In this case because we did not have the light we wanted I faked it a little bit, I know I’m the “why fake it, when you can create it” guy but hey, sometimes we have to bend the rules a little bit right ?

In the case of the shot above I added two new layers to my original layer and used a large white brush to paint some areas I wanted to have light from, these were blurred 1000% (thank you CS6) and opacity did the rest, a very very simple (and fast) trick, but it sometimes just does it.

As with studio work, always think ahead, meaning if you see your location already try to visualize what you want to do and choose lens and position accordingly. When shooting with natural light only it’s most important to make sure that you know where the sun is (and that’s easy). In this case because we had overcast skies we could talk about having a huge soft box in the sky, this makes things a bit easier but also less spectacular, but seeing the clothing I think it was the fitting look this time.

Now the next tip sounds a bit weird, but I will give it anyway.
Always make sure you have somewhere where your model can change, of course some models don’t care and will have no problem with just changing on set, however when shooting outside always realize it’s not only you and your model/team. Imagine a model changing and a mother and child walking by…..  this could be a problem, and it will also put you as a photographer in a situation you simply don’t want to be in. If you don’t have a location to change bring some huge reflectors and let her change behind that, or bring some sort of cloth/towel etc. at least it looks like you are trying.

We can’t control everything on location but when making your composition make sure that IF there is something that has to be taken out, that you CAN take it out easily, sometimes it’s a matter of just changing a few inches and you will have a few minutes less work in Photoshop, and let’s be honest we all want to shoot and spend as little time as possible behind the computer.

Natural light is sometimes a very liberating thing to use.
Force yourself to leave everything at home, only bring a camera and a spare lens (if needed) and force yourself to find the light, find the right location and build your composition. Shooting in areas with loads of detail is great but also brings you more problems, for example “things” growing out of models head, “things” that has to be cloned out etc. but always remember that when you are “smart” while shooting you can really solve about 90% of the problems in camera.

In the end we are story tellers and we have the understand light (as photographers), and if you realize this it really doesn’t matter what gear you’re using, as long as you know how to make the most of it. Practicing this and mastering this will give you an edge, because then you can really maximize your locations, but also get a better understanding of what light does and best of all how to let it do what YOU want. And the fun thing… you will work much faster. For example this whole session was done in about 40 minutes.

Hope this helps.