“ My approach to natural light photography is always a strategic but simple one,” he said.“ The key is to find the optimal lighting in an environment with a background that will complement the subject while using a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field that will isolate the subject.”
“ Generally the ideal lighting for most of my subjects in my style of photography has been to utilize soft, even lighting with an overall lack of distracting or uneven shadows. Sunny days where the sun is directly overhead and there are no clouds are not ideal for capturing people because of the uneven and generally harsh shadows that appear under the eyes, faces and on the subject’ s frame. Finding better lighting in these situations can be accomplished by utilizing shaded spots or an area where there is some sort of diffusion like a building or a window.”
Feelings went on to explain that he strives to place the model in“ an ideal lighting situation” and then evaluate“ how the subject looks” in that environment.
He continued:“ In most cases I will be using an 85mm lens because of the perspective and of how nicely it blurs the background details while still preserving the overall idea of what is around the subject. Normally I will shoot between 1.4 and 2.0 for an individual model.”
While the average person – with an average camera-- wouldn’ t know an ideal situation from non-ideal, a photographer has a natural eye the way a musician would have a natural ear.
“ Ideal lighting is difficult to define but it is based on the taste of the photographer and has mostly to do with how the light falls flatteringly onto the subject and background,” he said.“ In my shoot with Jennifer I utilized these techniques for all of the photos also taking into consideration not only the quality of light but the direction of light. I try to remain conscious of how the light is falling onto a model’ s face.” photograph by @ justinPrice
He explained that photographing in the Lightbox studio meant that he knew that he would be utilizing the windows, and the window light was
“ diffused slightly, so there was a really soft light pouring into the room.”
Because he knew he would want to incorporate the actual windows in many of the pictures the issue of the direction of light became important.“ In many of the window shots, Jenifer was positioned beside the window and although that light was soft and flattering, the risk of the model being overexposed( too bright) on one side of her face was something I had to remain aware of and compensate for. This compensation would either be comprised of my adjusting the exposure settings in my camera or repositioning the subject for a better, more flattering angle. Often that meant moving her to the very edge of the window as opposed to standing directly in front of it. If the light was too harsh on her face I would adjust my exposure down in camera or ask her to move back slightly until I could see it normalize. If there wasn’ t enough light on her face I might ask her to turn her face or shift her entire body towards the window slightly.”
Feelings added that, for most of the window photos, he established the ideal settings in his camera and was able to get close to similar results for all of the window photos and,“ I could then focus on composition which was very simple because Jenifer was an excellent subject and very intuitive poser.”
A go-to technique for Feeling was to vary his angles to,“ give variety in the photos look, feel and overall impact.”
He added:“ This quite often means me photographing the subject from a low angle because this tends to make more of a dramatic photo of the subject. In this shoot I primarily photographed her from my knees.”
For the other photos in the room, Feelings took
This would be the place holder for the caption. photograph by @ justinPrice
SUMMER Fall 2016 coachandplayer. com
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