Finding The Light

How to see and shape light on your Natural Light photoshoot

Shooting with a client in natural light can be one of the most enjoyable sessions as a photographer. Natural light gives us great skin tones and we don't need a lot of setup or gear to effectively use it letting you focus more on creating stellar images with your client. However, Natural light or the light from the Sun in most cases, requires a little finessing since we don't control the source.

Time of Day. Golden hour both morning and evening are traditionally the two best times for natural light, since they offer the softest light with interesting color. Most clients aren't going to have time in their schedule to get up very early or stay out late. So, between 4 and when the sun goes down gives us good directional light we can work with.

Front Light. If we are shooting outside we can avoid using a reflector or a flash by making use of front light. This gives us some catch light in the eyes and a well exposed subject. Front light has the disadvantage of being harsh on our subjects eyes, so we can ask them to close their eyes for a few seconds and then open them again to grab some shots.

Side light. While front light will give us our most consistent looks we can also use side light to create different shadows on our client's face. This can work to make more stylized images and give us a little diversity in our shots. The contrast we get from side light is great with more serious photos with a more traditional model look.

Working with light. If your light isn't hitting exactly where you want it to then you can ask your client to turn their face until we find that light that gives us a flattering look. Finding objects in your scene to cut the light into shapes can highlight areas of our subject to create a more interesting shot. We can use any white or very light objects to bounce light on our subjects face. Tree branches can often provide some dappled lighting to make interesting shadows on our subjects face.

Taking your time to experiment with the available light will give your clients an array of different beautiful images and expand your knowledge. There is no one right way to light with Natural or Artificial light, but knowing how to work with the light you have to bring out the best of its features, will certainly elevate your photography. Thank you, kindly.

-Tarver Petersen