From the course: Portrait Photography: Ten Styles with One Light

Unlock this course with a free trial

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts.

Finding directional light

Finding directional light

- People always talk about how great window light is for making portraits, and that's because it's directional, it's coming from the sides, and it doesn't have light coming straight down from overhead. Some places I might find these improvised porches and windows are under a bridge, like at a park, there's often bridges, or a pavilion. We could look for a porch on an actual porch, at the side of somebody's house, or the eave of a building, or the awning at a storefront. We can use a tree, a tree overhanging and shading the area underneath is a terrific porch or window. So there's lots of opportunities out there to find covering overhead with directional light coming in from the sides. One thing to watch out for is at a park like this, you don't want to end up photographing towards the street where there are lots of cars parked on the street, because you'll end up with the sunlight shining off of those windshields and giving you these bright highlights in the background of your…

Contents