Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

Look at the Subject’s Eyes.Outdoor lighting can be very complex, which
is why many photographers resort to on-camera flash or return to their favorite
tree over and over again. But here’s the one secret you need to know—the se-
cret to simple light: look at the subject’s eyes. It’s that simple! When you have
the subject as described above (with the sun to the subject’s back and the re-
flector in the main-light position), have your assistant add more light until you
first start to see large catchlights in each eye. When you first start to see distinct,
beautiful catchlights in the eyes, this is when the intensity of light is just strong
enough to become a main-light source. Add more light than this you will over-
power the fill provided by the ambient light in the scene. (Note:If you add light
from the reflector but don’t see two catchlights that “pop” from camera posi-
tion, the light lacks direction and you have basically added a fill source to a fill
source.)
I work outdoors every day—in fact, my last appointment each day is an out-
door session, since a beautiful park is only three minutes away from our new stu-
dio. I use this lighting principle at all times
of the day, in all seasons of the year, and it
always works. It always produces salable
outdoor portraits.

In Short.

Outdoor and location sessions can be both
the most challenging and the most reward-
ing sessions you do, but success, again,
comes back to what the client wants and
not what you want to give her. Portraits on
location require more control over the
session—not only the technical parts of the
photography but the human elements, as
well. Your clients must be guided into the
correct choices to make the outdoor images
work. This is exactly what we are going to
discuss in the next chapter, which deals
with customer service.

106 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

My last appointment

each day is an

outdoor session.

Creating outdoor portraits can be more of a
challenge than working in the studio, but the re-
sults can also be even more interesting.