Photographing People Using Natural Light Outdoors

My favorite location to photograph people is outdoors, using natural light.

The first step (other than finding someone to photograph), is to choose a location for your photo session. Usually, I find some location outdoors that will be comfortable, and a time of day that will provide good lighting.

Jamie liked the roots of a fallen fir tree as background. There were a couple to choose from, and we chose one which blocked the light from the sun, and allowed Jamie to be lit by soft light reflected from clouds. A little sun came around one side of the roots to highlight Jamie's beautiful hair.

I try to avoid mid-day, or if I can't, find an area that will be in shade, with open sky or light reflecting from clouds. I feel that soft light is most flattering to photograph people.

I like for people to look and feel comfortable, so I generally let them choose a background, or some activity or location that seems comfortable to them.

Here, I photographed Jamie against some fallen leaves, using an umbrella on a light stand to shade her from the sun, allowing soft light from the open sky to illuminate her beautiful figure.

I usually use an incident meter to measure the light falling on the subject. If you are using an in-camera meter, the best way to measure the light is to compose your photograph, then move closer to your subject (without refocusing) to fill the frame with skin tone, take your meter reading, and then compensate for the skin tone of your subject.

Meters, of course, think that everything is mid-grey. If your subject is not, than you should expose more or less, depending on what their skin tone is. You might try bracketing a few shots, and record your exposures, until you've determined the proper compensation for different skin tones.