A Pro's Secrets to Creating Brilliant Natural Light Portraits
Capturing natural light portraits can be one of the most difficult tasks any photographer can attempt. Here are some tips that might help, straight from expert Bobbi Lane.
Creating top-notch natural light portraits can be difficult for any photographer, veteran or otherwise. We've all experienced the way direct sunlight can wash out an otherwise perfectly composed portrait, or how indirect lighting can leave subjects murky, under-lit and uninspiring. So how do you strike a happy medium?
Master photographer Bobbi Lane makes it look easy. Her photographic portraits have won her widespread recognition, and she loves to teach other photographers her secrets. In this article, she shares some of the basics.
Fall in love with light...
One thing you notice when chatting with Bobbi is that she's enthusiastic about light. That's Lesson One: if you want to take decent natural light portraits, you need to get infected with her enthusiasm. Study light; observe the way it falls on a subject, its subtle interactions, its endless opportunities for interpretation.
"I'm always aware of the light," Lane says. Natural light is a special favorite. "I've had so many years of being in the studio controlling the light, and I can do anything I want to with it. Yet in natural light, I find myself continually amazed at what can happen."
To take good natural light portraits, you need to take advantage of the surprises it offers."Whether it's the way that the light's falling on the subject, the way it's bouncing in the background, how it's providing a hair-light or a rim-light, how it bounces off the sidewalk...there are so many things that can happen.
"The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to natural light."
...Or else!
If you don't learn to love light, Lane cautions, you'll learn to take it for granted -- and that's a huge mistake when trying to compose worthwhile natural light portraits.
"We have a tendency to just look at the subject, and our brain compensates," she notes. "[We're] not learning how to see what the light is actually doing, how it's falling on the face, its quality." Having that awareness of the light is absolutely critical.
Another mistake people make when composing natural light portraits is posing subjects in direct sunlight. That's something you should never do, "except the first hour of sunlight in the morning, or the last hour of sun in the evening. At that time of day, the light is lower in the sky, diffused by all the atmosphere.
"It's warmer in color. That's why it's really the only time you put somebody in actual, direct sunlight -- but there's light all the rest of the time. That's what people forget."
Any time of day
Most of that forgotten light is indirect, which makes it possible to take stunning natural light portraits at any time of the day -- as long as you're careful. "There's light everywhere," Lane points out. "There's window light, backlighting, shade. There's light that's bounced off a building. There's overcast days.
"All provide a tremendous amount of light and different qualities of light without being in the direct sun. It's just a matter of understanding the different aspects of light."
Bobbi Lane has made a career of taking stunning photographic portraits in natural light. If you're itching to learn more of her secrets for creating luminous natural light portraits, then take a look at our interview with Bobbi at 7PhotographyQuestions.com.
