Dancers

[mng100]

I've been asked to photograph a ballerina... outdoors, natural lighting, no studio shots... any tips?? Thanks so much!

[Benji]

Most people think that because there is a lot of light outside then it should be good usuable light for taking pictures of people. This is like thinking that one cannot die of thirst while in a fishing boat in the ocean. There is a lot of water, but most of it is not usuable.

Good outdoor portrait lighting can be found but one must know what he or she is looking for.

1. You cannot use direct sunshine.
2. You cannot use daylight from an overcast open sky without adding a flash unit off to one side. You can (and should hope for) an overcast day so you can add a flash off to one side. An overcast day will gurarantee there are no huge overexposed areas of bright sunshine to contend with anywhere in the image.
3. You should not use on camera flash unless you want flat uninteresting boring lighting, the same lighting that the girl's mother can do with her P&S camera. If you do she will wonder why she is paying you to do something she could have done herself for free and probably obtained the same (or better) results.

If you have an off camera flash or a silver reflector you need to find an area with an appropriate background, then see what the lighting is like in that area. I would do this BEFORE the shoot so you can see what the lighting is like and make any changes that may be needed. Take someone along and pose them then look at the resulting images. There should NOT be any raccoon eyes in the eyes of your subject, no huge areas of bright sunshine anywhere in the image, and definitely no streaks of sunshine on her body or clothing. If it is sunny you must find a shady area where the overhead light and sunshine is blocked by leaves, a porch roof or something similar or your subject will have raccoon eyes or overexposed areas.

I have posted two images below. The bride was shot on an overcast day with an off camera flash at camera left just out of camera range. The young man was shot on an overcast day with a silver reflector at camera right just out of camera range.

Benji

[mng100]

Benji - Thank you so much for this advice, it's so helpful! Wish me luck.