Portrait Photography with Simple Gear

Some examples of natural light portraits. Some purely natural light and others augmented with fill cards. 

Easy to follow ideas for making your natural light portraits even more interesting.

An introduction to our first shoot assignment: Ivy with natural and augmented natural light.

I shoot a lot of headshots. For businesses, models, talent and those who need a good, natural shot for PR, Advertising or simple personal use.

This is a fast, and easy way to do some natural light headshots with only a few white cards to help fill the shadows. You can get the Fome Core boards at most art supply stores. I have recently found some matte ones at the Dollar store.

Inexpensive tools like these can really add some subtle fill and greatly enhance the skin tones and contrast of the portrait.

This is the shoot with Ivy outside the studio door.

We use fill cards and natural light for a very pretty headshot.

Follow along and try doing this image with success before moving to the next assignment.

This is the shot I chose of Ivy.

Follow along with the Post Processing.

Download this layered PSD file to use to follow along with the video.

An overview of a single light portrait shoot.

We review some portraits done with one light and a fill card.

An introduction to a one light / reflector shoot with Briana. What to look for, and how to plan the shoot.

Watch as we shoot with a small speedlight - no modification - and a few white boards.

I start with a single speedlight, bouncing the light off of a couple of reflectors in front of Bri. This light is so reminiscent of sunlight, and so easy to do. 

We then change the light to a small softbox for a change-up in the look of the backlight, but still in keeping with the feeling of sunlight lit headshot.

This is a great beauty light for fashion / headshot shooters who want to have a lovely, filled face with little retouching.

There are a few different things I do in Photoshop to work with this type of shot. I use only what I need to make the portraits I want to make.

These are not difficult moves to learn in Photoshop, and we are keeping it simple for this course on portrait lighting. Go on, jump in and have a blast.

BTW, you can also do most of these on Photoshop Elements.

Here is a link to Mama Shan's Powder action. I love it and use it.
NOTE: this is not an affiliate link, just a link to a cool product.

Download the Photoshop file used on this tutorial on the next lecture.

Use this Photoshop file to follow along on the lecture previously.

As with all the images in this course, you are only given permission to use the image for this class.
No sharing or posting of it or any other images.

Traditional beauty imagery is one of the hallmarks of a portrait photographer. We can use many lights or a few lights... or one light.

This is a classic beauty light that is easy to do with simple tools.

We use an umbrella with a diffuser for this shot.

This is called a softlighter.

You can use a softbox or a bounce umbrella for this type of shot as well, so try using what you have to do some traditional beauty shots with one light - in real close. I do not use shoot thru umbrellas for this type of shot unless there is a reason for the resulting fall off, or I am using a lot of fill cards all around to scoop up that lost light.

We look at a few images from my Traditional Beauty work.

This is a simple, one light shoot.

This shot can be accomplished with a softlighter (round or umbrella shaped softbox), a square softbox or a bounce umbrella.

The key is how close you get the light to the subject.

Controlling the fall off of light on the sides of the face as well as below the chin is of prime importance. We use some inexpensive white cards to fill in the side of the subjects face in this shoot... and we add a nice, simple, soft hair light with an additional card.

One light for everything... main, fill and hair.

Easy to do, and easy to see results quickly.

Do this shot before moving on to the Softbox shoot in the next lecture.

Grab the Photoshop file on the next lecture for working with this Photoshop movie.

Use this Photoshop file for the previous Photoshop tutorial.

Please respect copyright on this and all images on this tutorial.

For this shot we used a Westcott 28" Apollo.

This modifier works really well with speedlights and small strobes.

You can see the Photoshop post processing here.

These are simple to do post processing moves. Give them a try.

We look at images that were - or could have been - shot with strobe and natural light to create a sunlight look to a shade shot image.

This is one of my favorite little methods. You can go mild to wild, and create the feeling of sunlight in weather that is not sunny.

I live in Phoenix, and we are always amazed by clouds... heh.

Using the speedlight for the sun can be very subtle, or it can be very wild.

We discuss the process here.

Follow along as we do a simple headshot / portrait with the speedlight acting as the sun.

You can add warming filters to the strobe if you want to warm up the light a bit, and you can change the angles for all kinds of backlit feeling to the images.

Follow along with the post processing of the image we did with Briana in the previous lecture.

Blending an ambient light from outside while shooting an image inside can be a tricky photograph. You want to blend your strobe and not have that 'flash' feeling to the image. 

Indeed, there are many ways to go with this kind of image. You can deal with the background with shutter speed, making it as dark and as light as you wish.

Your main strobe light will probably not change much at all, as it is a function of power and distance. Notice how close I have this softlighter umbrella from Briana. I keep it in close so that the size of the light is larger than the subject and creates a soft, wrap around light.

In addition, the closer the light to the subject, the faster it falls off. That means that I can keep the light ON my subject, not flying all around the room. And... it helps 'model' the subject with light-to-dark fall off. And while it is not dramatic, it is still enough to help the image have dimension.

Watch how we subtly create light, shape and dimension with the post processing.Simple moves for more interesting imagery.

Download this file for the Photoshop demonstration above.

This is a fun and easy way to create some great light with a modern look.

Three point lighting is quite popular, and when you use it on portaits, it can add some interesting hairlight.

This is not the three point lighting that shows on cheeks, we are instead using it only on the back side of the hair for a beauty shot.

In addition, we turn the same backlights around and make the white background shot without moving the model. This is a fairly simple thing to do... just make sure you chimp the background alone... making it only as bright as it needs to be.

The portrait of Amanda with three point lighting: Photoshop tips and post processing.

PSD Layered file for above Photoshop Demonstration.

See how the post processing of the image with the white background is done.

We use a bounce umbrella to bring the subject up to the correct level for exposure. These situations can be quite tricky, and quite troublesome.

It is paramount that the photographer understand how important the background is in shots like this. Choosing the background/subject placement can be the difference between success and failure in the final image.

This is where 'placing' the exposure can be so important. You have so many choices on the background exposure, the subject exposure and mix of the two, that understanding the final result becomes the first thing to think about.

Using the string meter we made earlier in the workshop makes this very easy. Finding the ambient first is key.

Follow along as I do the Photoshop for this image.

Download this layered PSD file to see what we did in the demo above.

In this shot we had to add contrast. The scene was mostly in the shade - deep shade - and that meant we needed to add some dimension to it.

The settings from the previous shot with Briana did not work for the background, although the strobe light was fine. I had to bump the ISO to 400 and lower the shutter speed to 1/50 to make the background be seen the way I wanted it to.

Since we had made the sensor 2 f-stops brighter (4 times the exposure) by going from  ISO 100 to ISO 200 to ISO 400, I had to compensate with the flash power as well. Since we went up with sensitivity, I went down with power. Two stops more sensitive / Two stops less power.

The resulting image is just as we want it to be.

We then added a second background light to open up the shady bank behind and across the stream from Iveena. I started with a full power flash, but ended up cutting it to 1/2 power, zoomed to full extension (105) to get the look I wanted. 

The zoom gave the light a tighter shape, and let some darkness fall in at the edges. This also helps with the dimension.

Using very simple and repeatable Photoshop moves, we make the shot of Iveena look even better than captured.

Use this layered file to follow along with on the above Demonstration.

This set of images takes us through a full on Natural Light shoot with a beauty/fashion flair. Five different portraits with total natural light, and five different ways of using the environmental light for portraits that are both fashionable and beautiful.

Photoshop post production of Jasmine's portrait in black hat.

Layered PSD file of Jasmine for the above Photoshop Demonstration.

Photoshop post production of Iveena in the backlit sun shot.

Download to follow along with the above Lecture.

Photoshop post production of Miranda's shot in backlit sun.

PSD layered file for the Photoshop Demo above.

Photoshop post production of Aliza in soft, natural light.

Follow along with the Photoshop Demo.

Photoshop post production of Briana in strong backlight.

Layered PSD file for the Photoshop Demo Above.