Want to shoot some portraits with great lighting while stuck at home? We show you how – and you probably won't need any new gear to do it! If Chris and Jordan can light a scene with a Rubbermaid container lid, so can you.
Canon cameras have a bit darkish "deep" look by default, but some monochrome processed shots are flatter which is what the reality usually is unless it is a really sunny day. My preference for sunlight altitude starts at about 30 degrees and below until it is too dark. Going above that altitude limit looks too bluish and dull.
Then there is that digital shadow lifting which can produce a CG look. It would be better to give more light to the shadows than relying on typical post-processing methods.
Awesome kiddo. Thanks, Chris, for trusting us. Thanks also go to *MUM*, who may have frowned her eyes a bit as that's exactly what mums should do. Rightfully so.
These in-door, natural light portraits, are also my lockdown domain. By now, I know what time, in which spot of my home is a specific lighting environment. Also, "negotations" with familly models, to be in the light spot, at specific time, is a part of fun.
Oh Wow - Learn how to take Portraits with Natural Light Wow? Question didn't we learn this WHEN WE WERE SHOOTING WITH FILM??? Come people it is the same style technique, and thinking in your mind when we were all shooting with Film. Remember theses Photo Magazines? Modern Photography, Popular Photography, Petersen's Photographic, Camera35, US Camera & Travel Natural Light Photography? They all had the same articles in photographing Natural Light Photography in using medium to fast speed films. If your a Movie Film expect like watch the Film Noir films like the film Dark Passage, that their is a film to learn a film of Lighting.... Get with it people faster ISO's and high pixels is NOT going to bring back the days of Film Noir style, as YOU have to Develop a style of your own. And again it is not the camera that cost $4000, it is you..... A Camera is only a Tool, and you have to develop, and use that tool right, not in what it has the Bells & Whistles.
In times of Corona, social distancing and lockdown Chris and Jordan demonstrate what you can do with your camera indoors. Why shouldn't they? Many visitors here - whether they are more experienced or less experienced in terms of photographing - appreciate the efforts of Chris and Jordan (and others) to keep this website going even when the flow of news on the gear side is slowing down.
If you're interested in the effects of natural light from the window, look for Jan Vermeer who made a lot of indoor paintings when artificial light wasn't invented yet.
ContaxIIIa Slow down, put on some chill music and relax a bit. Not everyone here has the same education or experience. You seemed to have learned the craft through buying magazines... where others may choose to watch their favourite Canadian photography vloggers put on yet another great episode of DPReviewTV. And yes, I am old enough to remember film (sheet film no less lol).
The rubbermaid lid usage is awesome! Special request guys, why not a video on how to shoot the perfect business profile? As we're stuck at home, a profile picture is now an essential commodity. I would appreciate any tips...thanks for your work, your videos are great!!!
That little girl looks such a sweetheart. I'm blessed with a lot of young brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews (ten under twenty at the last count, haha!) and as a portrait shooter it's just photo bliss.
Using natural light indoors, primarily indirect sunlight from a window, can give portraits a lot of character, especially when compared with the flattening of features that a head-on flash gives.
However, be prepared to do a lot of color correction, mostly warming up the scene, in post.
I was once shooting a wedding and, while my second-shooter/assistant was elsewhere, I needed some fill in a portrait of the groom. So I got the best man to take off his jacket to reveal his white (very white!) shirt, and stand with his back to the groom, just out of shot. Perfect amount of fill, and a funny moment (that got everyone more relaxed = better portraits :-)
The little redhead with the long curls is such a doll. Great that she's so cooperative!
Nice video and a good reminder to try this with my boys. But they're 5 and 2 so any kind of nice light next to a window is inherently transitory as they don't stop moving!
Bert Stephani did this video 11 years ago https://youtu.be/bbKa38Vv9cY Anytime I see the words Available-Light, I think of this little masterpiece.
Hey Jordan, why not shoot these lockdown videos with something that almost everybody has at home—a phone camera. Oscar winner Gregg Toland didn't need creamy bokeh, so why not try some deep focus for a change.
There has to be something interesting in the background or foreground to warrant deep depth of field, otherwise it's just a distraction. We're shooting Chris talking to camera in his house, not having a discussion about his child's future while the kid plays in the background.
We do plenty of deep DOF shots when we're establishing a location or moving through a scene. When Chris is talking to camera, I want the focus on him, hence the choice of (reasonably) shallow DOF.
I might shoot an episode on a phone again sometime, but it'll have to be something more dynamic than a talking head piece.
Use those reflectors and never try to use a different source of light to lighten one side of a face or subject. Difference sources need different white balances and you'll end up with a strange color cast on part of the face if the sources are too different.
Stick with WHITE rubbermade lids. Don't use cream colored or light blue or yellow that will add a color cast. Same goes with windows, hopefully no one has a translucent green curtain over part of a window. yuck.
I have some really weird colors in my house, namely blood red carpet in the basement from the previous owners, and I cheat and use monochrome frequently when I photograph my kids playing. But that's ONE weird color and a consistent weird cast. I'll have to play with lamps and a window when I get home.
@FuhTeng, that's a good question to ask: if you take out the colour (go B&W), then you _can_ use coloured reflecting surfaces with no problems. In that case, it's only how much light they're reflecting that is relevant, what colour they are won't matter to the final exposure.
Good stuff! I once asked a waitress in a restaurant to hold up a white napkin next to my window lit subject. Worked pretty well. Placing a white napkin (if available) or a white sheet of paper on the table also helps to lighten up that chinline...
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