Working With Natural Light

Natural light is freely available, requires little or no kit, and comes in enough different forms to keep your portraits looking varied for many years to come. In fact, many professional photographers use natural light exclusively.

Of course, this comes with as many challenges as benefits, with the weather, intensity of the light and time of day being just a few of the variables you’ll need to consider.

You’ll need sufficient light on your subject’s face to create an exposure, but not so much that they end up squinting. You’ll need to protect your kit – and your subject – from extreme conditions. And you’ll need to react as the light changes, sometimes on a minute by minute basis.

Although you’ll never be fully in control of natural light, there are ways you can react to what’s available: you can position your subject cleverly to get the benefits of shade, time your shoot well to benefit from the golden hour or use two low-cost tools – a diffuser and a reflector – to manipulate the light.

Having limitations forces you to be creative. Read the advice on the following pages then go out and get experience in every type of lighting situation – soon you’ll be able to handle anything nature throws at you.

WINDOW LIGHT

Using window light means you get all the benefits of natural light without having to worry about the weather. There are two main restrictions, the first seasonal: some rooms, particularly with small windows facing away from the equator, may not get enough light in the winter months to make indoor portraiture feasible. The second relates to time of day – obviously you will need to time your shoot for when the sun is strong enough to light the room sufficiently.

Direct and indirect window light

If you have strong, direct sunlight streaming into the room, this can cause the same problems as shooting outdoors without shade – your subject’s eyes may be forced into a squint due to the glare, and there will be high levels of contrast in the image. To resolve this, simply hang a thin, white sheet across the window to diffuse the light.

In the northern hemisphere, a north-facing window will always have indirect light, which has a softer, more diffused quality as it is reflected, but this also means it is weaker. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite is true.

Larger rooms with big, floor to ceiling windows (or patio doors) and pale, plain walls are ideal for window-lit portraiture.

Positioning your subject

The distance between your subject and the window will affect the strength of the light that falls on them. The closer the subject is to the window, the more intense the light will be. However, it falls off faster too, leaving any background looking dark and underexposed. Sometimes this may be desired, especially if the background is cluttered or will otherwise distract from your subject. Sometimes, however, you may want to show…