Create Studio Quality Photos Using Natural Light
You don’t need a blockbuster budget to get high-quality light for your portraits. By coaxing the sun to help in your photographic endeavours, you can create stunning portraits on a tiny budget.
If you don’t have the indoor space for a studio or a budget to furnish it, you can combine a basic studio setup with the power of the sun. That’s precisely what photographer Alexis Godschalk did when he needed to shoot on a shoestring budget. She explains:
One day a friend of mine approached me about photographing his band. He had just gotten new management and wanted to make the band band look pro. He started by showing me some photography he liked and we started talking about what could and could not be done. One of the shots he like was a clean shot with dramatic lighting again a black background. I told him that would be tough but I’d try, and so we did.
Not having a studio or lighting I started getting creative and went into the garage to see what I had. I had a couple of ladders, string, clamps, 8′ pole, a black bed sheet and some tape. I decided to shoot outside in my front yard and use sun light. I knew that I wanted to reflect light so I bought a couple of sheets of 2″x4″ white foam-board from the local hardware store. After getting my things together I was ready to go try it out.
The combination of a dark background and foam-board to bounce the light where she wanted it yielded excellent studio-quality results at a fraction of the money she’d have spent on a single off-camera flash. For more information about her setup and technique, including a parts list, check out the guide below. Have a few budget-conscious photography tips of your own? Share them in the comments below.
Shooting Portraits like a Pro on a Budget [Digital Photography School]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
A cheapo large poster frame from Target with the backing removed and a large sheet of architectural tracing paper inserted instead turns the sun into a nice softbox for about 10 bucks.
Bluesk1d
A tip I learned from a local pro is to keep a list of spots around town that make for cool portrait backgrounds. Maybe it's a brick wall with a fading beer mural painted onto it. Maybe it's a decorative detail on a building... like a wall made from glass bricks or something. If you catch some good light, no lighting is necessary unless you want to use some reflectors, foam board, or a little fill flash from a flash gun. When you start looking for outdoor portrait locations, all kinds of things pop out at you.
sean000
1. I go out and buy black sheets.
2. I tell my girlfriend I got the sheets to enhance my photographic skills.
3. I try to let Lifehacker readers know whether there's an afterlife.
Counterglow
photography is one of several "someday" projects / hobbies for me. but my eyes went oOOoooo when I saw the wet-shirt photo. niiiiiice.
These look amazing, thanks!
jordan314
Wow. They look great!
I don't get how the white foam is used in conjunction with the black bedsheets though...
hardman.ethan
@robogobo:
I assumed (s)he was both based on this line:
"Alexis Godschalk did when he needed to shoot on a shoestring budget. She explains:"
That would be 2' x 4' sheets (not 2" x 4").
You might also need some white bed sheets to diffuse the sun if it's too bright.
GirafficPark
@Ash Jolliffe: That's why foam board is used, since it gives a softer, more subtle lighting effect to the image. Using anything more shiny would be uncomfortable and unnatural, like you said.
MePerson
btw, LH, Alexis is a "he", not a "she" and your other typos are embarrassing. Get on it.
robogobo
All annoying semi-pro photospeak aside, "studio quality" means absolutely nothing. It's well known that natural sunlight is best, but less controllable. So, in fact it's quite the opposite. 100 years ago someone was publishing tips like "how to acheive outdoor-quality photos in a small room with electric lights". As a photographer who makes a living making photos (aka "pro"), I hardly see the desire to make natural light look artificial.
robogobo
@Ajtai: Aluminum foil would be rather hard to control with its tendency to fold itself up with as many creases as possible. However, I could see that being useful for some creative macro shots.
MePerson
Heh, this is pretty much exactly what I said in my comment on the last lighting article. (Black velvet is even better than a black sheet, though.)
http://lifehacker.com/5313113/take-better-pictures-by-studying-studio-...#c14306626
pale_blue_eyes
You have to be REALLY careful with reflecting light. My Girlfriend and I had our pictures taken by a photographer that used excessive amounts of light reflectors. In half the pictures I was squinting from the light and in the rest we were strangely coloured from the reflective material.
Ash Jolliffe
@Ajtai: Tin foil likes to crinkle and make glare spots on your subject, though. It's far too thin to stay rigid and pristine to reflect the light evenly. You're better off with a plain white surface if you don't have a uniform reflective surface (like an aluminized bounce screen) or similar bounce apparatus.
FooSchnickens
That's pretty much how I do product shots when the weather's nice, otherwise I just use the light box in the back room.
FooSchnickens
The white foam boards are fantastic for reflecting light for a sort of softer effect. If you really want to bring out something with reflected light, then you can tape some aluminum foil wrap onto the board.
Wow these look interesting! God knows how many ladders weed whackers and other stuff that my father has in the garage that I can use for photography!