Which set-up has the best light??

[April Phillips]

I'm doing some sample portraits of my kids to establish a style of painting that I can offer to clients. I shot the photos in three different scenarios, 2 outdoors and one indoors. Please evaluate these in terms of lighting and color as I will reshoot for better expressions.

My one big hesitation about offering outdoor shots is that we live in Seattle, and to try to coordinate a shoot when the sun was out would almost be impossible during the winter months. Would it work to shoot indoors and paint outdoor greenery for the background??

Photo #1 --shot indoors near a window
Photo #2 --shot outdoors with evening sun
Photo #3 --shot outdoors with strong morning sun. Why did this shot turn out so flat in the shadows and blown out in the highlights?? Did I have the camera set wrong?

Any experience on this is deeply appreciated.

[April Phillips]

I think I may have answered my own question. The indoor lighting seems softer and the best at creating form. The color of the light seems to change by the minute no matter if we are inside or not. To shoot these next samples I attached a sheer white sheet to the window to diffuse the light, taken 15 minutes apart.

So here are some shots of my 7 y/o twins, Mikey in blue and Tommy in yellow. I'm thinking I like the expression on #2 of Tommy even though it leans toward serious. I think I will try reshooting Mikey. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks.


PS Can I believably add greenery in the bkg and make it look like it was taken outside??

[Mike McCarty]

April,

I'm a little short of time right now but I would offer the following post as a bit of a primer on the out-of-doors light:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=6874

Also, there are a few others in this same section:

"Lighting and Photographing for Portraiture."

I will say this - you can drive yourself crazy with this out of doors photography. There is some good advice on the subject in the above post and section.

[April Phillips]

Thanks Mike for the info. I looked up the links that you gave me and learned a lot. Somehow I had felt I was missing out on something by only shooting indoors. Now I think I will just forgo the outdoor shots for now.

[Allan Rahbek]

April,
I believe that the indoor light is better because it's softer.

It's important to spot meassure at the light side of the face to be sure that it is not washed out.

If the shadow side of the face turns out to be too dark you will have to bounce some light into that area by the help of a large white sheed of cardboard or a white canvas, not a lamp or flashlight.
Check the photo once you have taken the shot to see how much light you need. If you can get a person to hold the reflecting cardboard, then you can direct the person while you check for the best light. Once you have gotten the best light, then you can consentrate on the models expression.

When you choose background try to get the lightest lights and the darkest darks in the figure, and keep the background less contrasty.

[Alexandra Tyng]

April, you set up your experiment and got so much information in the process. Thanks for posting your photos. They are great examples of different lighting conditions and should be helpful to other artists.