Outdoor Portraits Tutorial: How to use natural light and fill flash with digital photography Video Lecture | Capture like a Pro: Digital Photography Tutorial - Professional Skills

hi I'm Tony Northrup and we're at the
Harkness park in Waterford Connecticut
today to discuss taking outdoor
portraits now
our reporters are a lot of fun but if
you get the lighting wrong it can be
really unflattering I'm gonna take a
quick test shot here so we can see what
it looks like when the Sun is to the
photographer's back so as you can see
it's a nice picture and the lighting is
nice but there's a problem
Chelsea is squinting and she's squinting
because the Sun is at my back which
means she's staring right into the Sun
now as a photographer that makes sense
you want that in front lighting for a
portrait
but people squint when they have to look
into the Sun that's not good at all so
it's actually way better to have the Sun
in front of the photographer so now
Chelsea and I will trade positions and
we'll try that again take another shot
as you can see that little change made a
big difference just having the Sun at
her back allowed her to open her eyes a
little wider and made a more natural
pose but also created this really great
rim lighting around her as you can see
from the picture the Sun highlights her
hair and shoulder there's one thing
that's missing from this picture though
and it's a catch light in her eyes now
when she was facing into the Sun the Sun
was a main light and it created a nice
catch light if hearses back is to the
Sun you can create a capsulate despite
turning your flash on so I'll do that
now and we'll take another shot so you
can see the difference so as you can see
adding that catch light made a big
difference in the picture it fills in
any shadows which makes it much more
flattering for the skin and the catch
light adds a lot of life to the eyes now
I want to go to a different location to
show you the difference between working
in the Sun and working in the shadow
when you're in a more closed in
environment so at this very nice outdoor
pergola and I'll do what most people
will do which is to quickly take a
picture and looking at that picture you
can see the effect that the direct Sun
has it casts odd shadows on her face the
hair in her face cast shadows across her
forehead and her nose casts a deep
shadow across her mouth in this case
making a
is really easy I'm just gonna ask
Chelsea to take a few steps over so that
her face is in shadow the setting will
be the same it only takes a second but I
promise it will make a world of
difference to the lighting so Chelsea if
you can step over a little bit just so
that your face is in that shadow very
nice except for there you go perfect so
as you can see there the diffuse light
of the shade looks much better than the
direct sunlight did the diffuse light is
bounced off of her surroundings and the
ground and even the water molecules in
the air and it casts about the most even
light that you could hope for one
problem with the puce light is that it
doesn't necessarily give you a catch
light it also doesn't give you the
sharpest of pictures if you want really
sharp pictures you need some form of
hard light in there this is easily
rectified just by turning your flash on
so I'll take my flash on and take a few
more shots so that we can see the
difference so I like that third picture
even better the catch light from a flash
isn't ideal it's not what you'd get in a
nice studio environment but I think it's
better than nothing so let's take one
more look at those three pictures to see
how much difference just a few steps
makes in this first picture the hardened
sunlight is casting odd shadows on
Chelsea's face in the second picture we
moved her into the shade but we didn't
yet add flash as you can see the shade
provides a much more diffused light in
the third picture we kept her in the
same place but just turned the flash on
this added a nice cache light to her
eyes and filled in the shadows a little
bit this was for chapters 3 & 6 in my
book stunning digital photography
available on Amazon now if you get the
e-book you'll find many videos like this
embedded right in it that you can watch
directly on your ebook reader no other
book has it to see more pictures check
out Tony Norfolk photography and if you
happen to take a picture by following
these tips I'd love for you to post on
the wall so I can see what you've done I
hope you enjoyed the video I release new
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down below and remember if you want to
take a stunning portrait don't just take
it make it