Four Portraits on Location… When the Light Isn’t Perfect, We Improvise and Produce
Keeping a few small flashes in the kit can save you from dull, flat lighting.
(These are a few portraits I have done when the light wasn’t great, but I had to modify the light on the subject to get the portrait the way I wanted to present it.)
These images are from a few years ago, but they hold up OK for this discussion.
The photo above was taken on a very cold afternoon on a Florida beach in the wind. Rio was a trooper and asked if I wanted to do the shot in a swimsuit. That was not going to happen. It was far too cold, and I didn’t need another swimsuit model shot. I wanted something a bit more real.
The light is somewhat backlit, and it was quite harsh as it tried to wrap around her. I thought about a fill reflector to see if that may work. Did I mention that it was windy?
Real windy?
So out come the flashes. I used a stand for the one on the right, and a human stand for the left side. I tuned them to the brightness that pulled her out of the background, but not in a way that overlit her against the ambient. I wanted that sunlit feeling, although we were in the shadow of a large cloud.
Both flashes were modified with a strong, small beauty dish that would not be destroyed in the gusty wind.
You can see the main light (sun) dropping a shadow to the immediate left of her (from camera) and it is about 1.5 stops darker than the ambient. I placed her there so the shadow would not be seen so blatantly across the sand. The surfboard shadow is visible on the left side of the image, and that truncates her shadow.
Flash number one is placed to the right side of me about 30 degrees and is quite high, pointing at the side/front of her to simply open up the shadows. Flash number two is to my left and is opposite the sun. This is my main fill and subject light. it is a foot higher than her head.
Without the lights, the shot was either silhouette or so harshly overexposed to get the skin tones that it made it abhorrently hideous.
Cold. Fog. Wind. Storm conditions. Terrible, dark, muddy light.
Yeah. That’s the challenge when we only have one day to shoot along that magnificent coastline.
I positioned Ivy along a fence with a great serpentine shape, having her intersect it twice. This added visual depth was important because the shot was looking so flat.
This was a perfect time to use my 6' square bounce reflector. As long as someone makes a video of it flying down the beach at 60 mph. 6' bounce reflectors become very large frisbees in any kind of wind.
Out came the flashes and some tiny diffuser panels on the front. One was placed a bit to the left of her, the other over my left shoulder at a ‘natural’ height.
I tried to get a flare from the light in the lighthouse, but it was too fleeting to get in the portrait, so I captured a few without Ivy and remade them in Photoshop.
You can see that the light seems to be motivated from above to the right. Note the subtle highlights on the right side of her jacket.
My second light is being held in the air by an assistant holding it just to the left of me, and a bit above Ivy’s eyebrow line. I used a wider angle lens than I normally would and included as much context as I could in the shot. A sense of place was important. Otherwise, we could have shot it anywhere and not been frozen and wet.
The wind was strong, and her hair put up a great struggle — but in the end, it was flying all around her face. I kept shooting, and she never broke character. In the end, I got a few with some very natural hair in the face shots.
This was so much fun. We were looking for places to shoot in the forest when I noticed the sun breaking through the coastal fog and becoming quite distinct in the trees.
I wanted that flare. And I could get it for sure, as long as I was happy with a dark and nearly unseen Miranda since we were in the bloody forest and it was as dark and contrasty as it possibly could be.
I knew I could put a flash higher up a bit on camera left, aiming at her, and have it feel like it was motivated by the sun. Simple. It is on a stand about 8 feet above and to the left of her (camera).
The second flash was mounted on a stand and facing right toward her. This is an unmotivated light and makes the shot look unnatural. I knew that it would feel a bit manipulated, but that is OK for me for some portraits.
It was an ethereal landscape, so I went for ethereal light and didn’t care about it being motivated or not.
A 35mm wide angle looking up, combined with the interesting light and the sun flare from above and, voila, we have a portrait that is a lot of fun to view.
The sun had all but disappeared from a dark fog bank to camera left. But I wanted a shot of Anca for my GLOCAS series, and I needed her to stand out from the boring gray landscape.
For those of you wondering what GLOCAS means, it is quite simple. Girls Looking Off Camera At Stuff. The series is on my site if you are interested.
The light was as muddy and flat as it could be, so I attached a small octabox to a flash and placed it directly in front of her. I didn't want to beat the ambient into submission, I only wanted a wink of light to open up her skin tone and show the texture in her dress.
Most occasions when I use flash are to open up shadows, provide a bit of fill, or kick a little contrast into an otherwise flat situation.
This little kicker light helped me pull her skin tones up without adding harsh or strange shadows to her face or making the background go even darker and flatter than it already was.
I keep two speedlight type flashes in my "go-to’ kit, one larger Godox AD200, as well as a medium softbox, medium octabox, large umbrella, and 24" beauty dish. There is a C-stand in the trunk at all times, and a second set of smaller stands for holding anything else I may need.
I love shooting natural light, but to me, the definition of natural light includes making the image look as natural as possible with the tools I have.
And if I want to step off of that reservation, I can do that as well.
Never be limited by situations you may not be able to control. Having a couple of lights you can use may make the difference between coming back with a good photo or coming back with an empty card.
It’s up to you.
All photos are mine.
I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System (enrollment begins January 6, 2023) where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
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