"Dramatic Lighting" Portrait with only natural light

[kompressor]

This is a simple setup for a dramatic, half-shadow portrait. Definitely just a beginner How-I-Took-It. The reason I am sharing it here is because a lot of my friends, shooters and civilians alike, assumed that I had shot this in a "studio" when they saw it. I wish I had known how easy this was years ago when I first starting shooting. So here you go.

I've always loved these type of shots and always figured that once I got some good strobes. flags, softboxes, etc. that I would make some portraits like this. As I began to realize that my camera does not see the world as I see it, I figured out this could be done with only natural light.

This is where I took the photo. Model stood right in front of french door. I did place a Flashpoint diffuser over the windows in door, but its not necessary. Made sure all the curtains were closed in living room and lights were off.

Untitled by Woods Photo, on Flickr

Shot the photo in RAW, 2 stops underexposed. Just set your camera in manual, select a wide aperture, then dial down the shutter speed until you see you are -2. I shot this with a nifty fifty, 1.8.

Here's the photo, SOOC.

1 by Woods Photo, on Flickr

Processed the photo with curves to knock the background to solid black and brighten the highlights.

2 by Woods Photo, on Flickr

Coverted to B/W using ACR. Went back with Exposure adjustment brush to paint some light on his name in jersey. The idea was to have him turned enough so that you could read his last name in the picture. Should have had him put on his shoulder pads... next time.

3 by Woods Photo, on Flickr

I know I'm not breaking any new ground here, but I hope that some other fledgling photogs can get some use of this. The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for peeking.

[sjmiller]

Thanks for sharing this. I will try your technique.

[dbop]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I'll try this on Sunday

[Stila]

You gave me some encouragement to try this myself! Nice light

[sgbofav]

I tried the window lighting technique, and came up with this shot.


Window light by sgbofav, on Flickr

[jdepould]

You might also try hanging a sheer curtain in front of the window, and shooting into the window at an angle. Add fill card/reflector (any largish white surface will do) to taste.

I don't have a copy of the image handy, but it's basically what I did here:
http://www.thenewshouse.com/users/anyanni

[Leneb2010]

i just bought a 'Nifty Fifty'. Should have it in a couple of days - looking forward to trying some of these techniques! Thanks

[mattjordan]

Here is a shot similar I did recently, I was in the studio trying to come up with a different type of pose, and with a little tweaking I could have made this one a little better (in hind sight).

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by mattjordan

Here is a shot similar I did recently, I was in the studio trying to come up with a different type of pose, and with a little tweaking I could have made this one a little better (in hind sight).

Add a little bit more distance between them and the backdrop, and add in a touch of fill, just to get some shadow detail. Also, you might want to iron/steam the backdrop, wrinkles are killing you.

[mattjordan]

Thanks for the advice, but the backdrop was pulled pretty tight so the wrinkles you see might just be the design in the backdrop. The was a dark grey, with a lighter grey distressed design. I wanted to avoid shadows because I just wanted about half of their faces illuminated, and everything else to be as dark as possible. Taking closer look I briefly used the burn tool in PS to darken the background even more, but I need to touch it up just a little.