Available Light Portrait Example

Last Tuesday I demonstrated a portrait session using available window light. What we are striving to achieve here is a quality of light to use in your portraiture that can be controlled and provide you with high quality consistent results.

The results shown below will be discussed next Tuesday with all students and then you can produce your own images using a simple formula.

This is my portrait showing a good example of a photograph taken using available light. The reason I am showing you this is because this was taken in my living room... not  a studio.

Please take note of the quality of light which is available to you under normal room conditions. This portrait was taken at f5.6 - 1/125 sec using 200 ISO speed setting on a Fuji S3 Pro camera.

 

Here, on the right is the image produced on Tuesday 27th Oct using window light and notice the "natural expression" I suggested you should always include in your portrait sessions. Now we will build on this example to produce a set of "must do" portraits.

Next Tuesday all students will be producing similar results to start building there own portfolio of images using this lighting technique.

If you have any questions so far please click the "comments" tab below this post and I will reply as soon as possible.

Here's to your success,

Billy McCallion.

PS  Here is the link to the November updated Free Photography Resources PDF:  Free Photography Resources

Welcome to the first Location Portraiture Blog

Every week I will update this information from the Tuesday lunchtime club.

Week 1: Equipment.

Of course we start with the camera and the minimum requirement which is a 35mm DSLR camera complete with an appropriate lens. I won't recommend which camera to use because that's not as important |Nikon, Fuji, Pentax etc are all good makes/brands so it will be quite difficult to make a big mistake using brand names.The minimum requirement for recorded pixels is 6-12 million along with a reasonable size memory card.

I also suggest you shoot at the best quality setting for your camera but not RAW because it's not really necessary for this type of photography work. Within the course we will be using Pentax dsl, Fuji S3 Pro and Nikon D40.

Tripod, I suggest here that you invest in a good tripod because it will serve you well. A good brand is Manfrotto so click here to see more examples Calumet Uk Tripods It is wise to have a look at the selection of tripod heads that you can use because remember with a 35mm camera on the tripod you will have to move the camera from horizontal to upright so you need a tripod head that does this easily. We will be looking at pistol grips, fluid video head and standard tripod heads.

The first part of this portraiture series will be using and controlling available light indoors and I will include examples of each portait tutorial as we move forward.

Please leave any comments or questions by clicking on the "comments" link below this post.

Thank you,

Billy McCallion.