Get More Confidence with Outdoor Flash Photography

My current class, Portraiture, has been seriously testing my skills with specific instruction and although I am feeling more confident about using my strobes I am still facing some issues on how much knowledge I still lack in problem-solving photography obstacles.  I have been scouting locations and scheduling extra shoots not only for added practice but also to cover myself for when I make those inevitable errors like forgetting to reset a setting--I have actually done a few shoots where my Auto-Focus was set to manual and I never caught it until I caught previews of noticeably-blurry photos--no one else noticed it either, but I still felt so disappointed in myself.

In an effort to get better results with my on-location, outdoor shoots using flash I had to do some extra research to help me understand what it really means about strobes being controlled by aperture and ambient light controlled by shutter speed and how to effectively use flash photography outdoors during daylight hours.  I recommend reading the entire article here but I will highlight the points that I found very informative.

An Introduction to Outdoor Flash Photography

If you're like me and knew so little about the field of photography, the challenges these classes offer to get us real-world experience should be accepted as a means to acquire or hone our skills.  Many of these assignments will provide us opportunities to venture out of the studio where we face even more elements for consideration.  Good time management is very important as well as understanding your environment.  The studio gives us greater control but how do you set up your strobes during the day..?  Using ambient light and likely a reflector card would be the first go-to, maybe even a speedlight, when shooting outdoors during the day, but effectively using flash photography outdoors can be both an invaluable skill and fun to experiment with.  This Nature photographer here cannot resist the urge to be shooting outside so it was important for me to learn how to be able to combine the two for portraiture -- Double bonus!

The first problem we face is balancing the mixed light.  You have natural ambient light and flash to consider so make time to do a custom white balance using your gray card.  

Next, since we cannot control the sun we can effectively control the strobes to light the scene.  It is often noted that we should avoid shooting when the sun is high but rather shoot early or shoot around sunset.  Sometimes we cannot avoid it so the best approach when using strobes is to first set the exposure on your camera to match the available light.  You will need to keep an eye on your shutter speed so that you are metering for an exposure that is within your sync speed.  This will help you determine the aperture at which to meter your strobes.  It is important to take test shots beforehand to obtain the correct exposure balance before you start shooting because natural ambient light can change pretty fast.  You will also need to determine the quality of light you want to create by using modifiers appropriately and also getting creative with how you use them such as for bouncing light for use as fill light as you will see later when discussing cross lighting.

 Depending on how much you want to over- or under-expose the background will determine the level of drama you want to create.  This is where we learn what it means about what shutter speed and aperture control.  Changing the shutter speed slower than sync speeds typically around 1/200th will control the exposure of the background.  Slowing it down will brighten up the background thus lessening the contrast and opening up the shadow regions.  The aperture will control the subject and how over- or under-exposed it is.  Say you metered for f/8 @ 1/200th and you are ok with the illumination of the background but you want to emphasize your subject by making them brighter you would open up the aperture to f/5.6 or f/4 or something similar and let more light in.  If you wanted them a bit more under-exposed you would stop down the aperture and close it down to something similar to f/9 or f/11 while the background remains constant.

Something to consider about light placement is outdoor cross-lighting.  This is where the lights face the direction of the sun and the model is captured in between--something comparable to shooting under the mid-day sun with no shade.  It is highly recommended to have the sun illuminating your subject and your strobes fill their shadowed side or you will end up running into issues with them squinting.  Follow the same instructions for metering and checking the desired exposure.

These tips will help you achieve more effective outdoor lighting and  increased success when using your strobes outside.  As with pretty much everything we learn, practice does indeed make perfect and hard work almost always pays off.  Let your passion and curiosity inspire you to be the best photographer you can be.  Do you have tips about flash photography outside or questions I might be able to answer?  Please leave a comment below!  

Works Cited

Eftaiha, Diana. "An Introduction to Outdoor Flash Photography." photography.tutsplus. Envato Pty Ltd., 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 8 Aug. 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/an-introduction-to-outdoor-flash-photography--photo-4272>

All images are my own and from my recent experiences using my strobes during the day.

7 Techniques for Better Portraits

If you know me, you will know that this is a rather odd post for a Nature photographer, but this blog post is going to explore two areas: 1.) 7 posing techniques and 2.) why you will be seeing more portrait tips from your Tuesday Ambassador.  Let's get started with some great tips.

When photographing a subject/model, there are many things going through your head as you fire away--is my exposure good, is my white balance set appropriately, am I shooting in RAW, how does the subject look in relation to the background, are they framed appropriately, did I make adjustments to my camera settings that I should have reset before I started, oops they blinked -- take another shot, etc.  There are far more things to consider besides these basics to capture some really technically proficient portraiture, and, although it may seem overwhelming, the more you practice and implement these techniques the easier it will come--like second-nature. 

The first tip to better your portraits is posing the hair.

"How do you pose hair?" you may ask.  There is generally no "rule" for what works best here because everyone is different, but pay attention to the way the hair lays over the shoulders and where the hair is parted in relation to the camera.  It is recommended to avoid having hair falling over the sides of the shoulders.  If possible try one or more of these hair poses:

1. All hair behind the shoulders.
2. All hair in front of the shoulders
3. All hair on one side.
4. All hair on the other side.
5. All Hair up (pulled back).

Hair will tend to fall naturally or with an intentional part.  It is further recommended to have this part in the hair facing the camera so that more of their face is in the frame and not hidden behind hair.

The next tip is to pull the ears forward.

"Wait, what?  How you do pull the ears forward?" you may be wondering as you question where I learn these crazy tactics.  This is a development to originally asking your subject to pull their chin forward; often, asking your model to do this will cause them to lift the chin up and you will therefore be capturing the inner-workings of their nostrils.  Avoid this by asking them to pull their ears forward and by doing this you are hiding the appearance of a double-chin and it makes the jaw line slightly more defined as in the examples below.  It may feel unnatural and uncomfortable to them but the intent here is to make your portraits better and with that comes a slight, temporary awkwardness.

Tip number three: lift the arms up.

When having your subject or model posing for you the natural response is typically to let the arms fall flat to the sides.  It causes them to look awkward and squishes the arm against the body causing it to look bigger.  You can ask them to lift the arm an inch or two away from the body as if it were floating or have them place a hand on the hip with the pinky-side of the hand facing out.  This will create the illusion of length.

Tip number four: leave visual space at the waist.

The above photo is an example of how you can maintain the perception of a slimmer waist as demonstrated by the red line.  The arm, when pulled away from the torso, will reduce its visual size.  This also applies to other objects that may be in the background such as light poles, trees, and even other people.  These have the potential to add bulk to the torso so be conscious in isolating the torso.

Tip number five: turn the shoulders.

This may be second-nature to you, but it is important to understand exactly what this does.  When your subject or model stands square to you it makes them appear larger and more broad.  By having them turn their shoulders they are slimming their profile and will thus appear slimmer in the photo as we can see below.  Note the slimmer area between the first red line and the one on the right.

Tip number six: avoid showing the whites of the eyes.

You may start thinking about how much editing you have to do to make the eyes look whiter, but this is about position of the iris.  To keep a portrait looking natural and not awkward, avoid telling them to simply "look away," rather, give them a specific area to focus on where you can control their eye-line.  If you can see more of the whites of their eyes than you can the iris, or colored part, ask your subject to direct their gaze somewhere that brings their eyes to a more pleasing position as you can see in the photo below.

The seventh and final tip for better portraits is to not let the nose break the face.

It sounds confusing, but let the photo below illustrate what I am talking about.  Turning the face too far in one direction will ultimately cause the nose to break the natural curve of the face.  This tends to make the nose look bigger and is also referred to as the "Pinocchio" effect.  Have them turn their face back towards you until there is a small space between the nose and the adjacent cheek.   




It certainly sounds like a lot to consider, but once you put it all together you will have new skills to create better portraits.  So, as a self-proclaimed Nature photographer you might be wondering why I am offering tips on portraiture all of the sudden.  I am currently in the Portraiture class right now and I feel as though I have uncovered a hidden talent, opened a door of potential that I never knew I had or never thought I would want.  I know I have a lot to learn still but these small steps will help us all create better portraits.

Do you have any tips for better portraits or questions that I might be able to answer?  Comment below and thanks for reading today!

Works Cited

Lucas, Ben. "7 Posing Techniques for Non-Models."photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>

 

Lucas, Ben. "Portrait Posing Chin 1." Photograph. photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>

 

Lucas, Ben. "Portrait Posing Chin 2." Photograph. photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>

 

Lucas, Ben. "Portrait Posing Waist." Photograph. photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>

Lucas, Ben. "Portrait Posing Shoulders." Photograph. photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>

 

Lucas, Ben. "Portrait Posing Eyes." Photograph. photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>

 

Lucas, Ben. "Portrait Posing Nose." Photograph. photography.tutsplus.  Envato Pty Ltd., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-posing-techniques-for-non-models--photo-15608>