Naturally Lit Fashion Portraits

[Alanna Olson]

Anyone have any pointers on how to best use natural lighting to illuminate the face of the model? Sometimes you can get lucky, but often times throughout the day the sun bleaches out features...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Anyone have any pointers on how to best use natural lighting to illuminate the face of the model? Sometimes you can get lucky, but often times throughout the day the sun bleaches out features...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alanna-Olson-Photography/129510670448406#!/photo.php?fbid=145987542134052&set=pu.129510670448406&theater

Alanna,

I use a sun screen to drop down the power of the sun.

California Sunbounce, a German company, makes very sturdy for light diffusion but light frames for this. It softens light and drops it by a given factor of say 0.5 to 1 stop. It's not the bleaching of the skin that's the difficulty so much as the harsh shadows.

Asher

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

It's not the bleaching of the skin that's the difficulty so much as the harsh shadows.

Indeed, diffusion is a basic lighting technique to reduce contrast and create smoother shadows. The use of fill light is another way to reduce the lighting contrast. If it needs to look natural, make sure the fill light comes from the front, not from the opposite side of the main light.

Cheers,
Bart