Natural Light can be a little intimidating to the budding portrait photographer. In a studio one has complete control over the lighting, it's strength and direction. When you work with only natural light, you're at the mercy of what mother nature decides to throw your way.

On this beautiful Sunday in October, mother nature decided to give us bright harsh sun. Bright sun is the most challenging, These challenging conditions are best for teaching, as the students learn what to do in the worst case scenario. Fellow portrait photographer Ajay Fay and myself were on hand this lovely Sunday to teach two groups of excited and eager photographers.

After we got to know one another and Ajay and I learned the motivation for each student to attend our Natural Light Portrait Workshop. We do our best to cover the wide spectrum of portrait photography, from the exposure triangle, to the compositional basics, such as, rule of thirds. We cover these and other topics in a power point presentation. A solid foundation is the key to any successful practice.After our classroom portion, Ajay and I head outside with our 10 students and 2 models.

Outside, we break into 2 groups of 5, in order to keep the student ratio low and allow ample space to photograph our models. As we choose the location and start to place our model, we explain what we are looking for with the lighting situation. Talking about where to light source is coming from and what our camera setting should be, in order to capture that compelling image. Learning to read the light and position your model and/or yourself accordingly, will take an image from good to great.

Working several spots within the shopping center, Ajay and I point out the nooks and crannies that might easily be overlooked. Our hope is to get the students to start seeing the ordinary shopping center in a new light, with a plethora of portrait background options.

The three hour class seems to always fly by, but you know what they say... time flies when you're having fun. In that case we sure had a lot of fun. After a quick group shot to commemorate the end of an amazing class, Ajay and I said our farewells. Hopefully the students and as much fun learning as we had teaching.

If you'd like to join us at one of our workshops, you can find the schedule/sign up here.

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