Holly back lit outdoors
January 15th, 2009Hi everyone ! December was crazy busy for me. I was out of town shooting, getting ready for the holidays etc. Now let’s get back to work and keep learning !
So this beautiful model is Holly. We shot out in the hills of Simi Valley. As you can see we timed it perfectly right at the golden hour. For this shot I asked her to just walk back and forth and occasionally look at the camera. Seems pretty easy right ? Well, as she walked back and forth my exposure kept changing as she went in and out of the sun. I love the look on her face. The sheer fabric of her top and her long legs all add to make this shot just beautiful and timeless.
natural lighting on location, fashion photography
Lighting like this is one of the techniques I teach in my workshop. There are many questions that arise. For example, do I use a lens hood ? How do I keep my focus dead on ? And also how to gain the trust of your model to get basically half naked out on location ?
Comments and questions are welcome.
January 17th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Great shot, would love to do the workshop soon.
BTW, whats the black gradient at top?
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Jason Christopher Reply:
January 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi Stikman. Thank you for the compliment. The black gradient is something I was playing around with in Lightroom. I just got the program and it has a graduated neutral density filter tool. I have a feeling I didn’t do it correctly. I’m still messin with the program.
The workshop would be a great opportunity to learn how to achieve a shot like this. It really is not easy however I will teach you how to make it easy so you can get results like this every time.
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January 18th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Wow, amazing. love how the sun shines through the dress and the hair. What opening and exposure did you use?
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January 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Too bad I’m so far away (in Ireland) to be able to attend one of your workshops
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February 3rd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Dietrich I apologize I don’t think I answered your question. Thank you for the compliment !
My settings were: Shutter – 80th , F/6.3 and ISO 200. But remember that settings will be different depending on what lighting situation YOU are shooting in.
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May 27th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Jason,
Thanks for sharing. Love this blog!
@ an 80th & F6.3 how did you get the focus so dead on and not blur the image?
If I am not mistaken you have natural light (no flash but possibly white boards), a moving model, and a hand held camera right? If the model was stationary I “might” be able to handhold the shot but with the model moving, even on a tripod, I’m not sure how to not have some sort of motion blur? When she looked back did she stop for you or keep moving?
Thanks again,
Steve
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May 28th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Hi Steve,
Thank you for the compliment. I actually did not use flash or reflectors of any kind. I just exposed for her which obviously is not as bright as the background. I was hand holding my Canon 1Ds which is very heavy but I set my camera to focus tracking so it locks focus on the moving subject. When she looked back at me she did slow down, her walk was slow to begin with but she did not stop.
I wanted a natural reaction so she kept looking straight, I called her name out, she turned to me and I clicked. It took about 5 shots to get it perfect.
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May 29th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Nice…thanks for the details
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July 3rd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Focus tracking, huh. Cool, i’ll have a look to see if my camera caters this function. Gotta Nikon D50. Im getting some noise and blur in my pics. Can’t understand. I shoot on default Auto focus (AF-A),gonna try AF-C, apparently better 4 movement. My focus area is set on Dynamic. Tryna figure out little things to help my images turn crisp as possible.
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Hi Yaseen,
Almost all DSLR cameras have focus tracking. I compare it to a jet fighter who locks on his target and stays locked on when he fires his missile and bam ! His target is destroyed.
Now your noise is due to your high ISO setting which in the lower end cameras is more noticeable. I’m not familiar with your camera so I don’t know how well your camera handles noise. My 5DMark 2 is amazing at handling noise. The blur obviously comes from trying to focus on a moving subject.
If you’re getting blur with a stationary subject then it could be the result of many reasons. Could be a slow shutter speed. Rule of thumb is to always match your shutter speed with your focal length of your lens. If you are using a 100mm lens, then use 125th for your shutter, and so on.
Thank you for your question Yaseen.
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July 13th, 2010 at 4:33 am
Hi Jason
I cant thank you enough. Bout my flash blog questions, I think I’m gonna do some flash research, familiarize myself with technical terms and stuff, then read through your flash blogs. Better that way, i think. At least i’ll me making more sense that way.
The slight blur I’m getting but its more noise i think… to help alleviate this problem, thinkin bout using tripod. But it becomes so tedious with fashion. Do u use a tripod. U’ve gotta loosen then tighten, then loosen little more to aligning, then the model moves out of frame a little… HuHHHHH !!! Can get bit much. What u think ?
Somehow i feel i need to research Foul length VS subject distance…. donno if I’m doing something wrong here. I’ll let u know as soon as figure this sense I’m having out.
Love the jet fighter-focul length example, got it immediately !
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 13th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Hi Yaseen,
You’re very welcome. I am happy you are learning. When you say you are getting noise does it look like film grain ? That is called digital noise. That is something totally different than blur. You get digital noise by setting your ISO too high. You can also get digital noise by not getting enough exposure in your shadows. Is that what you are talking about ?
I do use a tripod at times. It depends on what I am shooting.
I’m glad you like the jet fighter example lol.
Keep me posted on your results.
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July 14th, 2010 at 12:11 am
” digital noise by not getting enough exposure in your shadows”, yes. Spose the answer to this is to expose for shadows ? Not really? Don’t really have equipment, so i’ll try bouncing light into shadows maybe. An example of when u would use tripod ?
Thank-you
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 21st, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Hi Yaseen,
Yes you could bounce light into the shadows and that will help with digital noise. You only really need to use a tripod when you are using a shutter speed of less than 1/30 or if you are using a very heavy camera and lens combination. Using a tripod has nothing to do with digital noise. It only helps with camera shake which causes blur of course.
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February 19th, 2011 at 11:12 am
Hi Jason,
May I ask which lens you have used?
Regards,
Kelvin
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Kelvin Reply:
February 19th, 2011 at 11:13 am
Oh, and where did you put the focus point? On her eyes?
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Jason Christopher Reply:
September 6th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Yep ! Her eye closest to camera.
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Jason Christopher Reply:
September 6th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
I used an 85 1.8
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