Jayne

jeytee · Jun 7, 2017

smoke665 said:
@jeytee I can understand your confusion, as I'm struggling to perfect natural lighting as well. In practice I've found it much easier to control in studio, where everything remains constant. On this snip I've circled the shadow area created by the young ladies cheekbone.
View attachment 141108 As JC pointed out the placement of reflectors or strobes is dependent on the light you're working with, there is no one size fits all. In general though the height of the reflector light in relation to the subject is going to lengthen or shorten that shadow. We have several excellent photographers on TPF that work wonders with natural light. One that comes to mind is Dan Ostergren suggest you read this thread as well as his others.

Portrait Contouring Light Challenge

One thing to remember is that you can recover a lot of shadow detail, but blown highlights have nothing to recover. Without a meter, it's difficult to learn the exact lighting without a lot of trial and error, but using the camera meter, you can get an approximate. On this young lady, I'd shoot for a 2:1 to start, maybe increasing to as much a 4:1. That means that for a 2:1 there should be f-stop difference in light between the right cheek and the left cheek.
View attachment 141109 Adorama has good discussion on lighting ratios as well as other subjects in their learning center. Understanding and Using Lighting Ratios in Studio Portraiture - ALC Understanding and using ratios will help you get to a properly exposed shot without seriously blowing your highlights or underexposing the shadow.

Thank you for all the help! I'll read up on these for sure and try again when I get some time.

jeytee · Jun 7, 2017

jcdeboever · Jun 7, 2017

jeytee said:

Nice. That soft light really adds dimension to her jaw line and adds a twinkle in the eyes.

smoke665 · Jun 7, 2017

This last one is quite nice. I would highly suggest reading the link to Dan's portrait contouring, I gave you above, as this young lady has such fantastic bone structure, the possibilities are many.