DIY Network

Outdoor Portrait Photography: Flash and Zoom From "The Whole Picture" episode DTWP-101

Your camera's flash can be used to provide additional "fill" light even when you're shooting out of doors.

NOTE: Images on this page may be enlarged for enhanced viewing simply by clicking on them.

In this episode of DIY's The Whole Picture, professional photographer Erin Manning shows viewers how to achieve the best results in shooting outdoor portraits using a digital camera. In this third segment, Erin explains how to use the flash function on digital cameras to further illuminate a subject.

Materials used in this episode:

Digital camera
Tripod
Reflector boards
Wax paper

advertisement

	Too dark.
	Try using your camera's flash to brighten your subject.

Assisting Mother Nature's Light

To take beautiful outdoor portraits, it's crucial to find a location that's not only attractive, but also provides the right available light. Through practice and experience, you'll learn how to "work with" the light to bring out your subject's best features.

But what about situations where there's not enough direct sunlight to work with? In those circumstances, you can use a flash to augment the available light.

Though flashes are typically thought of mainly for indoor photography, they can actually be used outdoors as well to achieve some desirable effects.

Professional photographers often use flashes in daylight shooting to fill in shadows or balancing out light between background and foreground. The term for this technique is fill flash.

• Aside from using purely natural light, another way to light your subject is to combine natural light with artificial light.

• Use your camera's flash to help when taking portraits in heavily shaded areas.
  

• Whenever you have a contrast in light between the subject and the background, it's a good idea to use the fill-flash technique. For instance, if your subject is dark (figure A) and the background is light, the flash can add just enough light to even out the exposure levels (figure B).

• Where there's a lot of covered area, the flash can illuminate the subject and the immediate surroundings and create a nice balance of light.

  Figure A

  Figure B

  
  

• If, after taking a few pictures, you feel as if the flash is creating an unnatural or flat look to the picture, it's probably due to the power of the flash. When your camera is in the automatic mode (figure C), the amount of flash thrown is pre-calculated by the internal computer and determined by what's in focus and your distance to the subject.

• If want to reduce the amount of flash strength, there are a few different options. First, most every camera will have different manual settings. These include a portrait setting, usually identified by a head icon (figure D), and a macro or close-up setting, usually marked by a flower icon.

  Figure C

  Figure D

  
  

  Figure E

• The portrait setting will tell the camera that you are close to a person, and therefore will project less flash. The macro setting is used for extreme close-up photos, so the camera will adjust even more, and give off less flash.

• If those options still don't give you the look you're going for, professional photographers have another trick to help diffuse, or soften the flash. Take some wax paper and tear off a small piece, usually a one or two inch square. Then just temporarily tape it over the flash (figure E) for a nice extra bit of soft light. You can add more layers until you have just the right look.
  

  	Getting too close to your subject can cause them to appear distorted.
  	Try using your camera's zoom to increase the depth of field.

• Getting too close to a person you're photographing can make them appear distorted. So, by increasing the distance between you and the subject and using the zoom, you can decrease your depth of field and keep their image proportional and realistic.

• Depth of field is the space in front of, and behind, the subject that remains in sharp focus.

• A long or big depth of field has both the subject and the background in focus. This isn't a bad thing, but it's usually not desired for portraiture, because the background can often distract from the subject, which is your main focal point.

• A shallow or short depth of field keeps the subject in focus and everything behind them out of focus. This draws the eye directly to the subject and keeps everything else muted. The easiest way to achieve this look in outdoor portraiture is to increase the distance between you and the subject and use the zoom on your camera to get the proper framing.

RESOURCES :

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Digital Photography
Model: 002864235X
Author: Steven Greenberg
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Prentice Hall
Paramus, NJ 07652

Digital Photography For Dummies
Model: 0764506463
Author: Julie Adair King
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Hungry Minds, Inc.

Complete Digital Photography
Model: 1584500077
Author: Ben Long
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Charles River Media
Website: www.charlesriver.com/

50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques
Model: 0764535781
Author: Gregory Georges, Cris Rys
To order this title from Amazon, click here.
Hungry Minds, Inc.

PC Photo magazine
Website: www.pcphotomag.com
Online version of the magazine devoted to digital photography and related technologies.