Adding light to your portrait subject

When you are adding light to a subject (which I hope you are always doing), things can get complicated quickly. Here is my set up for a simple single light exterior portrait:  I like to use the Canon EX 600 RT Speedlight on a light stand bouncing into a umbrella, or shooting through and umbrella. Nikon has similar speed lights that are easily triggered wirelessly from a Nikon trigger mounted on your camera. The Canon wireless trigger is the ST-E3-RT. Here is one method I use when shooting outdoors that really helps get nice results without having to scratch your head about your camera and flash settings in front of the client. Scratching your head does not help keep the subject calm and happy!

Find a shaded area for the subject and decide on the background. Find an angle on the background only and meter it (or just shoot the background in Program mode with an open f stop of f 2.8 or f 4. (The open f stop will help blur the background for a pleasant effect…..and a longer lens will accentuate the blurred background. 70 to 100 mm focal length is always safe for portraits.) Let’s say you are shooting at ISO 100 and it is a sunny day. Your metered shot of the background at a shutter speed of 125 (fast enough to hand hold your 100 mm lens and not get hand shake blur) will be around f8 or f11. Let’s say it is f8. Now put your camera in manual mode with the same settings – ISO 100, shutter speed 125 and f stop at f8. You already know that these are the perfect settings for the background. You know that the background exposure will never change. It is set. No longer do you have to worry about the background. OK so now, your wireless trigger on the camera will also be on manual. Your trigger will automatically tell the flash to fire in manual too. Set your trigger on your camera to a flash output of half power to start. If you have a light meter, you can determine exactly how much light the flash is putting on the subject. If you don’t then you can just eyeball the test shot to see how the light falling on the subject. You are looking for an f stop that is AT LEAST what it is for the background which you have already determined is f8. Better yet, bump up the subject to f8.5 or f11 because we always want the subject to be the brightest part of the image since the bright area is where our eyes naturally go first when we look at a photo. Now, this means the background will be a bit darker than the subject, which adds drama. Click away and ask the subject to face the umbrella and to face away from it so you can get both short lighting and broad lighting options. I like to start sessions by asking for NO smile. This is easier for anxious subjects to get started, and often is the most accurate representation of them. I constantly compliment them – sometimes showing them the images on the back of the camera – and ramp up the smile by asking them to “turn up the volume”. After 20 or 30 shots with these techniques you are sure to get 5 keepers!