My Sunday Series on Available Light Portraiture continues today with a featured photograph is Tomiko, a wonderfully talented and lively model who I got to photograph twice, booth times during group model shoots. Today’s image is from our second shoot together.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I prefer every time a picture composed and painted outdoors.–Winslow Homer
Glamour photograph, is often shot using a moody interior or a studio setting but there’s no reason you can’t shoot this same kind of portrait outdoors and in today’s post I offer a few suggestions on that subject, starting with how to use one of my favorite outdoor lighting techniques by using flash.
Glamour In The Great Outdoors
When shooting portraits outdoors, I think you should always use flash. Depending on the time of day and lighting conditions, the image might otherwise be underexposed. Adding flash to a portrait can make a subject pop out of the frame, especially, if like Tomiko in the featured photograph is wearing bright colors. And it’s easy to do. When using speedlight that have TTL capabilities. It can work by simply putting the camera in Program mode–I know that will upset some- the-turn on the flash and just shoot. You still have control over the final exposure by using the camera’s the exposure compensation feature.
If you plan to shoot full length portraits instead of close-ups, a more powerful speedlight, like the Canon 550EX that I used for the featured portrait at left, will be more effective than the pop-up flashes that found on most entry-level digital SLRs or mirrorless cameras.
Another technique I’ve found useful when making portraits outdoors is backlighting and can produce highlights on the subject’s hair and blow out the background minimize the effect of a less than exciting background. The next time you’re photographing a model outdoors, place her in a pose you might normally use but turn her around iso the sun is behind her. The subject is relaxed because the sun is behind her and she won’t be squinting. Be sure to use flash,. You may have to open the lens a stop or two over the metered exposure but this method should produce an attractive glow around all or part of your model.
How I Made this Portrait: Over the years I have been blessed to photograph some amazingly wonderful and beautiful models, such as Tomiko who I photographed in Phoenix, Arizona during two different group model shoots. For this image, I’m using my basic outdoor flash technique although the effect here is decidedly more subtle. The exposure with a Canon EOS 60D and EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens (at 60mm) with 420EX speedlight used for fill was 1/100 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 200.
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Several photographs of Tomiko appear in my book Available Light Glamour Photography that’s available from Amazon with used copies of the book selling for just $49.94, as I write this. The Kindle version is $27.84 for those preferring a digital format.