Posted on: June 12, 2017 at 2:37 am

We are largely dependent on the time of the day for outdoor lighting conditions. Usually morning and evening light is good for portraiture, when the sun is not too high up – this gives pleasing directional light. We can always use reflectors and additional light sources to compliment the sunlight.

This image of actress Deepa Sannidhi was photographed by KAPA mentor Karthik Srinivasan on SONY Alpha 99 (1/160sec, ISO-800, f/5) with a 135mm block lens. Notice how the light has been expertly controlled to give a strong highlight in the hair. You can achieve this in a couple of ways. What remains crucial is the metering.

When shooting outdoors with mixed light sources, metering becomes critical for the two light sources. To get the effect of the photo we are discussing, the simplest would be to have the sun behind the model to create the hair light, and give nice fill light on the face using a reflector or fill flash. For this, you could take an ambient light reading from the background, and fire a fill flash on auto mode, to illuminate the face. Another method, maybe a little more complicated would be to create the entire lighting on the model with studio lights. One key for the face, maybe with a soft box, and a brighter light for the hair. Again, meter from the background for the ambient reading, and adjust it using shutter speed. Use the aperture to control the studio lights. Ensure both are exposed accurately…