Is that the best option? In photography, there is no right or wrong answer. It’s a tool available in the hands of an artist and some prefer one over another. For a long time, people used to associate portraits with studio lights, however, a few great portrait photographers like Dani Diamond proved otherwise. From what I have observed in many beginner-level photographers, they get seduced by speedlight tutorials, and in the bargain, their images always come washed out or appear cold. However, seems I have jumped ahead and before going forward, let’s visit the basics first.

The fundamental concept of good portraiture is when a portrait is not only adequately lit but also when the viewer instantly accepts that the light is emanating from within the scene and not artificially lit. Even if you use artificial lights, the light should bend naturally. That applies even if artificial light is the dominant light, it should appear to be the ambient light or the audience will feel detached from the scene.

For most cases, natural light can be a go-to source, but when you need a directional light, then artificial light may win. Also in some scenes, you may look for more sparkle and hard light, and in those situations, one can use a strobe, but care needs to be taken to make it look like a natural light.

So in a nutshell, majority of cases, I would say 99% of the time, one has to blend the artificial light to make it look like coming from a natural source for a good portrait. Hence imperative that first one has to have a mastery of shooting natural light portraits, and introduce reflectors to play with natural light in terms of diffusing or making it directional or fill before introducing other light sources into this mix.

To illustrate further, the above lifestyle portrait was shot during an afternoon within a typical Brewery setup where we had natural light coming from an open terrace on the backside. With the help of a reflector, the shot appears to be lit by a straight-ahead strobe.  By the way, if you aspire to do commercial shoots, one has to plan these type of shoots with minimum distractions in terms of strobes firing when these commercial setups are also open to their customers.

Hello and welcome to my blog where I share my passion and tips for portrait photography. I am assuming that my audience is a fellow photographer and hence I talking only conceptual level. If you looking to learn from the basics or want to build your portfolio with my support, look for my 1-2-1 mentoring sessions in Lucknow.

In the future blog series, I will share with you some of the tips and tricks that I have learned over the years on how to take stunning portraits with natural light. I will cover topics such as:

• How to choose the best time of the day for natural light portraits
• How to find the best location and direction for natural light portraits
• How to use natural light modifiers, such as diffusers, reflectors, or filters
• How to adjust your camera settings for natural light portraits
• How to pose and communicate with your subject for natural light portraits

I hope you will find this blog post helpful and informative, and that you will be inspired to try out natural light portrait photography for yourself. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below, or contact me here. You can also check out some of my natural light portrait work here, or follow me on Instagram to see more of my work. Thank you for reading, and happy shooting!