A Simple Outdoor Portrait with LiteDiscs

Taking good portraits outdoors can be easy if you have some basic light modifiers on hand. A bright sunny day can render beautiful, vibrant colors but can also present a high degree of contrast: a primary concern when shooting portraits.

We show how to use a couple of inexpensive, yet effective, light modifiers to get great results when shooting outdoor portraits. One translucent screen was used to soften direct sunlight and one reflector was used to brighten and soften shadows.

(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.)

Topics Covered:

Using LiteDiscs to control sunlight
Using LiteDiscs to control contrast

Equipment Used:
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Lighting Equipment

To illustrate how problematic a simple outdoor portrait can become, we set up a typical backyard portrait set-up with our model (figure 1). As the model faced the camera, she had to squint as she was also facing the afternoon sun. We zoomed all the way in on her face and took a shot (figure 2).

Figure 1

Here's that contrast we talked about. In addition to the model's squint, notice how bright her forehead is compared to the shadows cast from her nose and chin in this result shot (figure 2).

Using a LiteDisc to Control Sunlight

To reduce the contrast, our assistant held a Photoflex 12" Translucent LiteDisc up to diffuse the sunlight falling on the model's head and shoulders. This will eliminate the harsh shadows, but will also darken our results by about 1/2 a stop because the light is passing through the diffusion material of the LiteDisc (figure 3).

If you are shooting in the Manual shooting mode, you will need to compensate for the LiteDisc by opening up the exposure a half a stop by adjusting either the shutter speed or the aperture. Since we had the camera set to Program or Auto mode, we simply composed the shot and pressed the shutter all the way down and the camera's program makes the adjustment according to the setting.

Notice in the comparison below how much more we can see the model's eyes, and that the shadows have diminished drastically (figures 4 and 5).


Figure 2	Figure 3

Using LiteDiscs to control contrast

For a final touch, we had our model hold a 22" White LiteDisc just under her face to bounce sunlight up into the shadow areas of her face. This will help us to control the ratio of light from the brightest to the darkest parts in the image (figure 6).

Figure 4

We took another shot and finally got the shot we were looking for. The shadows under the eyes and nose have been eliminated, and the bottom LiteDisc has created a nice “sparkle” in the model's eyes (Figure 7).

The comparisons below show the shot progression from no LiteDisc, then the addition of the 12" Translucent LiteDisc, and finally the use of the 12" LiteDisc and the 22" White LiteDisc together.

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Figure 5

For a 3/4 length or a full body shot using this technique, you would simply use larger LiteDiscs or OvalDiscs and get the same great results.

Topics Covered:

Lighting Equipment

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