Natural Lighting

[cgipson1]

Not every photo benefits from strobes.

True... but there are many, many shots that could benefit from strobe. Often, there is not enough light, or the wrong light.. to obtain the photo you (or your client) wants... if you are a "natural light photographer".. you (and your client) are screwed! Agreed?

I agree.

I do have to say, though, that I think it also depends a lot of style....

So a style that utilizes only natural light.. is going to have an extremely limited clientele (willing to wait for decent light), and extremely limited times that they can actually shoot, correct? lol! So they are like part time photographers.. whereas a person who understands flash, as well as "natural light" can utilize both to their advantage... mixing them (or not) as he chooses!

What is that "natural light" photographer going to do in a dark building at 1am to get shots of his model wearing black on a black background? The light is still natural, there is just a lack of it! (yes.. I know that is ridiculous.. but it happens!)

 

[Derrel]

I think there's another type of natural light photographer: the one who understands how to use large reflectors and scrims, often multiples, in order to modify natural light. Hollywood, California was where the US movie industry sprang up because of "good light", lots of it, for months on end. When I say reflectors, I do not mean these tiny little 2x2 foot things that cost $29 from e-Bay--I mean DOOR-sized and PLYWOOD SHEET sized reflectors and diffusion scrims. When it comes to flash "improving" outdoor portraits, I think actually it makes a lot of them look slapdash and less than ideal; to me, the "ideal" fill light is natural, reflector fill. I think reflector fill looks far better than flash fill, most of the time; at least when done by LARGE reflectors. Reflector fill allows for a LOT of creative choices, since there is never any maximum shutter speed limitation. Flash works well as fill, don't get me wrong, it does. But I think reflector fill produces an entirely different "look" that is easier to actually "see" when shooting, and is also typically softer than flash fill due to the ease of making a reflector a large source,relative to the subject size, at normal portrait distances.

California SunBounce has some beautiful large reflectors and scrims. An Australian wedding tog I used to know swore by their gear.

If one wants to see what natural sun light looks like when paired with reflectors and diffusion scrims, a good place to start is the Sports Illustrated swimwear pages, where you will be forced to sift through hundreds of images, most shot with daylight and no flash...It's laborious work, but somebody's gotta do it...

 

[cgipson1]

I think there's another type of natural light photographer: the one who understands how to use large reflectors and scrims, often multiples, in order to modify natural light. Hollywood, California was where the US movie industry sprang up because of "good light", lots of it, for months on end. When I say reflectors, I do not mean these tiny little 2x2 foot things that cost $29 from e-Bay--I mean DOOR-sized and PLYWOOD SHEET sized reflectors and diffusion scrims. When it comes to flash "improving" outdoor portraits, I think actually it makes a lot of them look slapdash and less than ideal; to me, the "ideal" fill light is natural, reflector fill. I think reflector fill looks far better than flash fill, most of the time; at least when done by LARGE reflectors. Reflector fill allows for a LOT of creative choices, since there is never any maximum shutter speed limitation. Flash works well as fill, don't get me wrong, it does. But I think reflector fill produces an entirely different "look" that is easier to actually "see" when shooting, and is also typically softer than flash fill due to the ease of making a reflector a large source,relative to the subject size, at normal portrait distances.

California SunBounce has some beautiful large reflectors and scrims. An Australian wedding tog I used to know swore by their gear.

If one wants to see what natural sun light looks like when paired with reflectors and diffusion scrims, a good place to start is the Sports Illustrated swimwear pages, where you will be forced to sift through hundreds of images, most shot with daylight and no flash...It's laborious work, but somebody's gotta do it...

Have to agree with you on this! But that is basically outdoor studio work... limited location in that you have to carry all those huge reflectors to whatever location you want to use them at, plus have a crew to work them.

I have on 4x6 collapsible reflector that I love.. but don't use much, because it requires an assistant... which I usually don't have.

 

[Sean1965]

Is there anyway to hang these with something that's collapse-able like the light stands we can buy? I really have no idea but as I was reading through these threads I was wondering about a reflector before even coming upon Derrels thread I have been thinking about buying a few but that is why I haven't I am not sure as to how I can utilize it by myself. I can't get an assistant to let me photograph them never mind holding a reflector now and then.

 

[Buckster]

Is there anyway to hang these with something that's collapse-able like the light stands we can buy? I really have no idea but as I was reading through these threads I was wondering about a reflector before even coming upon Derrels thread I have been thinking about buying a few but that is why I haven't I am not sure as to how I can utilize it by myself. I can't get an assistant to let me photograph them never mind holding a reflector now and then.

You're looking for a reflector arm.

 

[cgipson1]

^^^ This! And yes, they do work.. pretty well at that! There is also the Lastolite series of handheld reflectors that have a grip on them... Amazon.com: Lastolite LL LR3628 30-Inch TriGrip Reflector (Sunlite/SoftSilver): Camera & Photo that you can use with one of these Super Clamps Amazon.com: Manfrotto 035RL Super Clamp with 2908 Standard Stud - Replaces 2900 (Black): Electronics

 

[Tee]

I shot this under a row of trees with no flash or reflector. There's still some catchlight in the eyes. Going off memory, this was taken around 2pm or so. I do use flash on location but I felt the available light was good enough without adding to it.

 

[Sean1965]

That is a beautiful woman, ahh see you get a model like that you can do anything wrong and it still looks right :=), I do like how you still held the catch lights