Makin’ It Work ~ Using Window Light

Quick, where do you think these shots were taken?

A.  A fancy downtown studio with dreamy floor-to-ceiling windows bathing the model in lucious natural sunlight

B.  A fancy uptown studio filled with the coolest backdrops and high tech lighting equipment

C.  A swanky outdoor set-up styled by a designer on a perfect spring day with a professional model and tons of assistants to hold the reflectors and Evian water

Well, if you answered A, B or C to that question then you’re so very wrong~

But, if you answered “A tiny little playroom in a dark basement with no lights on a dreary winter day” then you’re absolutely correct!!

Here’s the deal…as much as we like to dream about the perfect photography set-ups, we often find ourselves in less-than-ideal shooting situations.

If we’re shooting inside then the lights are bad, the backgrounds are cluttered or there’s just no space.  If we’re shooting outside then either the sun is too harsh or there’s no sun at all.  These issues conveniently bring me to my point; sometimes, we just gotta Make It Work.

I’m pretty certain that I’m not the only photographer that has gotten discouraged and thought “Well I could get incredible shots like {insert fabulous photographers name here} if I could shoot in that location. And had that model.  And bought that new lens.  And set up some super cool backdrops.“  But until that perfect day happens, I’ve got to make sure that I create the absolute best images that I can for the lovely people that have willingly given me their money & their time.  So I’d love to share with you some of my could-have-been-better shooting situations and how I tried my darndest to work with what I had.  Take a look…

I recently shot a small wedding for a bride that was the calmest, most relaxed bride I’ve ever seen. {and I’ve been in gobs of weddings!}  The bride, her mother and every person involved in the wedding was so incredible but the rooms I had to shoot in were pretty awful.  The bride was getting ready in a tiny room in the basement of an older church.  The room was used as the nursery and was overflowing with big, bright toys, highchairs and playpens.  We barely had room to walk around! There were a few windows that were covered with thick blue blinds and if I opened them the view was of an ugly parking lot.  Yikes!  This shows a few tidbits of the room…

I had hoped to get some outdoor shots but it was a very bleak January day and super cold and I only had about 25 minutes with the bride before the wedding.  No pressure huh???

Here’s what I did…

I placed the bride with her back to the window and the other window to my right…so my model was now getting side lighting & back lighting.  But I could only shoot from the waist up because there was a playpen in front of her and scarecrow wallpaper at her waist height.  {not exactly a good combo for sophisticated bridal portraits!}  And here’s my awesome rendition of the scene…

I shot these at a low aperture of f2.5 hoping to blow out the background and get just a nice, clean white backdrop.

Here’s an original SOOC…

The entire backdrop was almost entirely blown out with just a little bit of the blinds showing at the top.  I just erased those out when I edited my images in Photoshop Elements.  This series was so easy to edit!

I loved how the backlight highlighted the contours of her body so I just applied some skin softening and added a little bit of a glow.

Here’s a few more final shots from this series…

So there ya have it ~ beautiful images can be created ANYWHERE!  Don’t be discouraged the next time you find yourself in a “difficult” shooting situation.  Just take a look around, evaluate your lighting, and Make It Work!

Stay tuned….you’re never gonna believe what I made this pregnant momma do to get some *fab* portraits!

my name is wayoutnumbered.  i’m a wanna-be photographer who desperately craves more knowledge and shiny new cmaera equipment.  by day, i’m a wife to 1 and mom to 4.  by night, i’m a slave to my photography passion and mac computer.  i let it all out at way-outnumbered.blogspot.com.  come journey with me.

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