How To Use Natural Light For Portraits

You can get started in portrait photography by keeping things simple and using natural light. You don’t need much equipment (any decent camera with a kit lens will get you started) and you don’t need to use flash. All you need is a good idea (for location) and a model.

Natural light is subtle. It’s easy to to use and, best of all, it’s free and in regular supply during daylight hours.

Let me show you an example. I made the portraits below on different days. I asked the models to stand in the doorway of an abandoned concrete bunker. Both times we were there in the early evening, so the light was soft. The dark interior of the bunker, covered with graffiti, made a great background. The technique was simple, effective and repeatable.

There are photographers who work almost entirely in natural light and create beautiful portraits without touching a single Speedlite.

Eduardo Izq is one of my favorites. He’s built an impressive portfolio of natural light portraits of local models and dancers. He photographs beautiful women in an unconventional way, often without make-up. His portraits are beautiful in a deeper, more fundamental way.

You can see some of his work in my interview with Eduardo about his ballerina portraits.

Intrigued? Here are some techniques to make the most of natural light for your portraits.

Keep your natural light portraits simple

A friend of mine (who is a model) told me a story about a portrait shoot. She worked with a photographer at an outdoor location. He spent so much time setting up lights and measuring the flash output that the shoot never got going. She wasn’t happy with the photos and I guess the photographer wasn’t either.

Flash takes time to learn to use properly and you have to factor that into the learning curve. Natural light is much simpler. All you need is some good quality light. We know that is most likely to occur at the end of the day during the golden hour. If you want to create beautiful natural light portraits, then keep it simple and get on location in the late afternoon or early evening. The beautiful quality of the light at this time will help you a lot.

You might find it helpful to take a reflector with you (and somebody to hold it) but that isn’t always necessary. I often go on a portrait shoot with just one camera and one lens.

This minimal approach to gear lets you concentrate on composition, making the most of the beautiful natural light and, most important of all, building a good rapport with your model.

It’s also quick and easy to move from one place to another if you don’t have much gear. This gives you the freedom to explore the location to find the best spots for portraits.

This approach paid off when I made some portraits of Lera with her horse. We shot in the early evening, on a local beach as the sun set over the sea. The light was so beautiful all I had to do was find the best composition and get to know Lera better. We talked about her horses and the rapport created helped us make portraits like the ones below.

Use the beauty of natural light

I touched on this in the previous point, but it’s hard to beat the beauty of natural light at its best. This is something you’ll come to appreciate as you make the effort to get on location when the light is at its most beautiful.

The portraits below are another good example. We were at the beach at the end of the day. The light became more and more magical as the sun disappeared over the horizon. For a few short minutes we experienced the beautiful red afterglow of the sunset.

Moments like this don’t come often, but the results are worth it. Shooting in natural light that is beautiful, yet fleeting and difficult to find, elevates your portraits to another level.

Be aware of the links between natural light and location

To get the best out of natural light in any situation (not just portrait photography) you need to become an observer of light. How does the quality of the light change from hour to hour, and season to season? How is it affected by weather and location? The more you look, the more you’ll come to appreciate the subtleties and nuances of natural light.

As you become more aware of light you’ll understand that the quality of light is linked to location.

When you take a portrait of somebody outdoors the light links the model and the place they are in. The uniqueness of the light becomes part of the image.

The light in the portraits below was linked to the locations. I made the first portrait (left) at a memorial made from marble and set on a hill. The light had a beautiful quality created by the way the marble reflected the light. The sun had set and the sky was filled with the soft glow of the remaining light.

I made the second portrait (right) at a local beach in the early evening. The soft light suited the dark tones of the concrete wall, cliff and stony beach.

Build a relationship with your model

One of the biggest factors that determines the success of your portraits is your relationship with your models.

Building rapport is essential, especially if you’ve never worked with your model before. Simplifying your approach means that you have more time to concentrate on building the relationship.

The better your rapport, the more your model gets engaged in the portrait session and the working towards getting a good result. You’ll get better poses, better expressions and better photos.

A portrait shoot is a collaboration. It’s two people working together to create beautiful images. The more time you give to your model, the better your portraits. Keeping things simple and working with natural light helps you focus on composition and building rapport with your model.

The model in the portrait below has become a friend and participated in many shoots. The rapport and understanding we have built up helps us create beautiful portraits with soulful expressions.

Master the art of masking in Lightroom

Let’s not forget that there are two steps to creating a portrait. The first is making the portrait itself, which is what we’ve discussed here. The second is developing the portrait, whether that’s in Lightroom Classic or whatever software you prefer to use. Either way, mastering AI powered masking tools is essential to realizing the creative potential of your portraits.

Here’s a simple example. Look at the two portraits below. The top one has no local adjustments, the bottom one is what I created after using masks to apply local adjustments. That’s the difference that AI powered masking makes.

You can see an example of how to use masks with portraits in my article How To Intersect Masks In Lightroom Classic (scroll down to the second example). You can also learn more about masking in Lightroom in my new ebook Mastering Masks.

Conclusion

I hope the ideas in this article inspire you to use natural light in your portraits. It’s simple, free and helps you focus on composition and building that all important rapport with your model.

For many photographers an important part of portrait photography is capturing character. I have some helpful ideas about that to share with you next week, plus plenty of examples to fire your imagination.

The Natural Portrait ebook

Learn how to make beautiful portraits in natural light with my ebook The Natural Portrait. I wrote the original edition of this ebook for Craft & Vision and it became one of their bestsellers.

Click here to learn more or buy.