Anatomy of Natural Light Portraits

Anyone can use a smart phone to take a picture of another person and end up with a nice memory. It happens hundreds of millions of times every day. No thought or artistry goes into a snapshot. All you have to do is get your finger away from the lens and push a button.

Taking a timeless portrait, however, is different. That requires a skill set, an artistic eye, an awareness of light, attention paid to the environment, and often a lot of patience.

Let’s examine the ingredients necessary for successful and enduring portraits using natural light. What makes good portrait photography challenging is that you have to think about these factors at essentially the same moment. With practice, though, it becomes second nature.

1. The light. My favorite type of light for portraits of people (and animals as well) is soft and diffused light. You can never go wrong with this type of flattering illumination. Overcast skies are not great for landscapes, but they are the ideal type of sky for outdoor portraits because the light is always soft.

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Diffused light means no harsh shadows or overexposed highlights. In addition, the subject isn’t squinting from direct sunlight. If you find yourself shooting on a bright sunny day, ask the person to move into the shade of a building, a tree, or some other object that creates the kind of diffused, directionless light you want.

Low angled sunlight is also good for portraits, but you have to be aware that the angle of the subject to the sun is important. In the shot at right, the golden tones of sunset bifurcated the young woman’s face to create dramatic sidelighting. The cowboy’s face below was also illuminated by golden sidelighting at sunset. If the yellow/red skin coloring is too strong for your taste, reduce the intensity of it in the hue/ saturation dialog box in Photoshop by reducing the saturation of both red and yellow.

Window light is another approach to portraiture using natural light. It is a beautiful and

flattering type of light for either males or females. I usually don’t include the window itself, and I feel it’s important to make the background dark or at least somewhat muted. Make sure direct sunlight is not streaming in through the window. Instead, diffused light is best. The portrait above I took in Chilean Patagonia is an example of window light. Notice I faced the man toward the window itself.

2. The background. Backgrounds are just as important as subjects in making a picture successful. If a background is too busy, too confusing, or too distracting in any way, the picture is seriously degraded. There are two approaches to backgrounds. First, you can make the background completely out of focus and unobtrusive. All of the pictures in this article thus far have backgrounds that serve only to direct our attention to the subject. In other words, they are out of focus and completely nondistracting.

Second, a departure from that is the image shown on the next page. In this type of portrait, the background environment is sharp, complementary to the subject, and in fact becomes a second subject. It isn’t just an out of focus part of the picture that directs our attention to the subject. Instead, it’s an integral part of the composition. All of the other pictures in this article were taken with a medium telephoto -- usually around 200mm. I took this portrait in Mongolia (the model is dressed as a 13th century queen) with a 24mm focal length.

3. The subject. Not all people are photogenic. Some faces are beautiful, intriguing, and compelling. Some show character, wisdom, or a life of struggle. Choose your subjects with these factors in mind. The more interesting, dramatic or beautiful the face is, the better the portrait.

4. The pose. Body language and facial expression is everything in portraiture. Here are some tips:

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• With very few exceptions, slouched shoulders look bad. If your subject is seated, ask them to sit up straight even if it feels unnatural to them. If they are standing, ask them to straighten their posture. If you are photographing a very old person, then one would normally expect poor posture. But for most people, a straight back goes a long way to improving a portrait.

• Take shots where the subject looks into your lens as well as when they look away like in the portrait below of a Balinese dancer in Indonesia. Both can be produce excellent images.

• Experiment with the orientation of the subject’s body. In other words, try shooting when their body is facing away from the camera but their face is turned toward the lens. Then, have them face the camera squarely or even have them look over their shoulder to the lens. Different types of poses produce different results. You can decide which ones you like later when you examine them on your home computer.

• Some people become stiff and uncomfortable when a camera is pointed at them. Spend a few minutes talking to the person so they feel more relaxed with you. If you are photographing children, tease them about something or do something silly to elicit laughter. This instantly relaxes people, especially kids. You can also show them a few test shots on the back of your camera. Get them involved in producing good pictures.

• You can use shallow depth of field as long as at least one eye is in focus. If only one eye is sharp, it must be the eye closest to the camera.

If you are photographing a subject in diffused light, i.e. shade, the background shouldn’t be sunny. It should be diffused as well. §