Portraits using Natural Light

I have decided to take some portrait shots using natural light - most of the books I have been reading recommend experimenting with people and placing them by a north facing window slightly sideways on to create soft shadows and tones. Scott Kelby recommends using F/11 to great great sharpness a shutter speed of 1/250 and ISO 100, I will see what the conditions are like and experiment with a number of settings.

I've also been reading about how high to position my camera when taking portrait shots and making sure I do not crop anyone at their joints such as knees or elbows. It's very important to have the camera positioned correctly or the portrait images can look distorted and in some parts larger than normal.

I did not use my tripod for my natural light shots but I did for some of the engagement portrait shoot, fashion shoot and the burlesque theme, which were taken in the college studio using the studio camera stand. When taking full length shots using a tripod the camera should be aimed at waist height and the lens kept straight. Shooting 7/8 (or from the calf up) the camera should point towards the chest and the lens straight and finally head and shoulder portraits the camera should be focused on the models eyes or slightly above.

Continued.....

The models I used were my friend Sharon and her little girl Antonia, who is 20 months old. Please click on the link to see some of the shoot which I have edited, as I have imported some duplications of the same images after experimenting in photoshop with saturation levels.

I started shooting indoors at 4.30pm with my Canon 300D and my 18-55mm lens, the window was north facing - I set the camera initially at ISO 100 and as advised by Scott Kelby used a shutter speed of 1/250 and F11. It was far too dark for these settings - I think if I had artificial lighting this may have been ok. I experimented with my three lenses and experimented with different settings never exceeding ISO 800 I used only natural light indoors and outside which fortunately was sunny conditions. The shot above is taken using ISO400, 1/125 at F/5.6 and focal length of 51mm. I have desaturated the image in photoshop as it is quite dark on the right hand side.

Here I have used ISO 400, F/5.0, 1/250 focal length 140mm using 75-300mm lens - window facing in front of Antonia and to the left hand side. I stood slightly to the right.

I changed the image to black and white by desaturating it in Photoshop. I really like the contrast of Antonia's dark eyes with her pale skin and the cute characters on her high chair create pattern which depicts childhood.

I then experimented and reset my camera, I changed the lens unconventionally to my macro lens EFS 60mm USM so I could get close up head shots, I changed the ISO400 and the shutter speed 1/125 at F5.6.

In the image above, I love the blue hues in this image and the vibrancy of Antonia's lips. I really like the soft light which travels across Antonia's face dark to light as the left side of her face is positioned closer to the window.

I decided to take shots outside seeing as it was still very sunny at 5.30p.m. This was slightly more challenging getting the correct F/stop as at first the images were looking over exposed.

I have edited this image in photoshop and have removed a lot of the saturation creating an almost pastel effect like Lara Jade and Mary Ellen Mark's Miami Beach series - I have increased the saturation on the ribbon of Antonia's straw hat. I used a 75-300mm lens, ISO200, 1/125s at F/13, focal length 75mm.  After the shoot I became very aware of what was in the backgrounds which is worth noting for future reference on location portraits.

I'm really happy with the results of the shoot - it was quite challenging shooting a toddler as they tend to do their own thing and this is the attitude I adopted whilst photographing her 'doing her own thing'.