Outdoor Portraits Tips with Natural Light, Fill Flash & Diffusers

On this short video photographer Tony Northrup and his wife Chelsea take a look at shooting in natural light outdoors with the help of a fill flash and diffusers.

If you have good natural lighting, using it will almost always give you the best results, however there are a few things that you should know about shooting outdoors and a few tips that might help you get better results which is exactly what Tony and Chelsea discuss in this video.

One good tip in this video is to use fill flash to get a better overall exposure. You can use something like a bender/bounce (shooting the flash directly isn’t a good idea). Add flash to an image where you have an over exposed background (when shooting a portrait).

Another good tip has to do with how to let your model pose – hands in front look prominent in the frame if they are in the same depth of field – they will look more proportional. Also, putting an out of focus element on the side of your subject (see Tony’s example) can add interest to your image.

If your model looks right at the sun try to have him/her close their eyes and on the count of 3 open them so you can take a picture (or just move to a different angle/location).

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid. If you liked Tony and Chelsea Northrup you can check out more of their videos here on LensVid.
Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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