My Sunday Series on Available Light Portraiture gets back on track and continues today with an photograph of an aspiring model who had been referred to me by another model who you may have seen here recently—Leslie.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
She wants to believe they’re lying in moonlight, but she knows the light through the window is probably mostly electric.—Emily St. John Mandel
Long before the invention of the electrical light bulb in 1879, skylights and windows were used by painters and photographers alike as the main lighting source for creating portraits. It’s the combination of shadows and soft light that gives window light portraits a distinctive effect that looks different from portraits made using any kind of artificial light. I’ve noticed that sometimes maybe the best and certainly the most dramatic glamour or boudoir portraits are made using available light, unavailable light, available darkness, low light, or whatever euphemism you prefer to use.
Some Lenses to Try
My decision about what focal length lens I’ll use for a specific glamour photograph is based on whether I’m shooting portraits in my home studio or on location, even if it’s a location around my house. This is especially true when deciding on where the photographs are going to be made: Is it outdoors or indoors, where today’s featured image was made.
One of Farace’s Law’s is that there’s never enough space to shoot portraits indoors and more often than not, I often find myself pressed up against the opposite wall from the subject when shooting available light portraits. These kinds of conditions typically mean \ I’m using shorter focal lengths than I might prefer but that doesn’t mean you can’t make great portraits no matter what lens you use and where you use it.
Sometimes, the amount of available light dictates the use of prime focal lengths, such as 85 or 135mm lenses but don’t discount the so-called “normal” 50mm lens for full frame cameras. Even a cheapie normal lens can be used to make great shots, although sometimes you cant beat the flexibility of a zoom lens.
A corollary to that Law is that there is also never enough light to shoot indoors. To me, glamour portraiture is all about soft light and there’s nothing softer than window light. The only problem is that there isn’t always the proper amount available. To supplement the available light, you can use speedlights and I’ll occasionally use them for fill but more than not, the choice boils down to higher ISO settings. In that case, higher ISO’s can produce more digital noise, which is why I wrote Finding Your ISO “Sweet Spot. You might want to check it put when you have time.
How I Made this Portrait: Shooting available light portraits under low and mixed lighting conditions can be a challenge. This featured image is a portrait of Amelia, a student chef at Johnson & Wales University, who was referred to me by Leslie. Amelia was Leslie’s brother’s girlfriend! Just as referrals are a key part of a traditional portrait business getting referrals from models who you worked with before is one of the best way of finding new models. This is especially true in this post-COVID era where the on-line modeling business, like almost everything else, has been badly scrambled.
This portrait was shot in the dining room of my former home with most of the light coming from a window in a door that she’s standing next to. The camera used was Canon EOS D60 with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 lens. The exposure was 1/200 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 200 with a plus one-thirds stop of exposure compensation.
The final photograph is actually a composite of three different image files that were made from 11:04:19 to 11:04:46 AM and were assembled in Photoshop with layers using the steps outlined in my tutorial, Technique: Cut and Paste Portraiture. Is this cheating? I don’t think so, since the images were made of the same person at the same time and in rapid succession to create a final photograoh that I could have made and doesn’t change the reality of the situation. You may not agree and that’s OK with me.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New copies are available for $42.44 with used books starting around thirteen bucks.as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital forma