natural light photography tips

We have focused  a few posts so far on getting creative with off camera lighting at night or indoors but haven’t spoke about natural light yet.  You can get just as creative with natural light as you can with off camera light (and can use the sun not only as a main light but as a backlight or side accent light).   There are many ways that we use the sun in a creative way.  One way that I love to shoot that really goes well with my photography style is to use the sun as a backlight, getting just the right angle of the sun you get this awesome lens flare coming across the image. 

The sun has to be pretty low for this to work and the exposure should be manually set.  Setting your exposure to auto will really underexpose the subjects faces especially if there is a lot of the sky in the image that will really effect your exposure.  The easiest way to get the right exposure for your subject is just zoom in on their face and lock in that exposure to your camera. Some photographers really like this look and it fits their style others don’t, but next time you are out shooting with the sun low try it out. It never hurts to try something out if you have time and you might really love the results.

This can work great around sunset, a lot of times with the beautiful golden sunset hour you want to have your subjects basking in that awesome light. That can always work good and we often get shots with our clients in that golden light.  But after we get the safe and beautiful shots then we have fun for a minute and try and get some different images. Here is a quick example of having the sun come in from behind your subject.

Check out more of our portrait photography tips and lighting tips here:

Using multiple off camera lights for portraits
Using video lights for creative photography
Creative off camera lighting