Natural Light Fashion Shoot

At the beginning of 2014 I decided to take the plunge into portrait photography. A genre of photography I never really saw me taking on. I guess it put me off, having to stand in front of a complete stranger and look proficient in the skill of posing, communicating, lighting setups to name just a few skills needed.

As I do with most things I spent weeks and weeks reading up on everything portrait wise, model poses, clothing, location, backgrounds, lighting setups, 1 flash, 2 flash, I was bamboozled by the whole situation. I could have spent months putting it off and with very little kit I decided to look at natural light photography which has various advantages for me, firstly it was considerably cheaper, light is everywhere, its just a matter of finding the 'right light'. That's a whole new chapter. It meant I could focus on other aspects such as posing/communicating with the model without have to get bogged down in the setting up of lights etc.

I decided the only way to get this started would be to attend a workshop purely on natural light, no reflectors, no strobes just good old fashioned ambient light. So in March of this year I attended my first course. 2 models, 1 make up artist (MUA), 1 hair stylist and a wardrobe stylist. Along with a professional photographer who was there to help set up the scenes and explain what make a good fashion/editorial image. The location was an eclectic house in Hertfordshire, UK, a really quirky property with lots of character. Large big ornate windows let in so much natural light it was unreal. The models were all professional and very understanding to the groups varying skill level and were able to pose without much direction (a plus for me). They were open to a Q&A session over lunch where we had a chance to probe them on the best ways of posing, the do's and don'ts which helped.

Since then I have been back to the same house with the same pro photographer on another course, different models, different time of the year. Literally 3weeks ago I re-visited, the light was different, lower in the sky, casting different shadows. Having had several months under my belt and a few other portrait courses covered in studios (blog in due course) I was confident to be able to at times pose the model in a way I wanted to get the best image with the light available.

I have now got enough confidence to be able to arrange my own shoots, with my own organised MUA's, to be able to turn up at a house similar to this location or out on location and shoot my own images without them being staged by somebody else. I will also be delving into studio portraits this coming year, to get over my phobia of lighting setups, understanding settings, as I'd like to get a bit more artistic with portraits to test my skills on another level.

Below are a few of the images I took from the 2 natural light workshops this year. I have also done outdoor location shoots with natural light which will follow in Januarys blog aswell as my love for landscape photography.

See you all in 2015, have a GREAT NEW YEAR!