My go-to outdoor lighting for beauty/fashion awesomeness -
This is one of favorite shots from my earlier editorials from Cake Mag with model Laine Jennings. And literally, I pretty much did nothing except told the model where to stand and moved the sun to where I wanted it. No seriously though, this is the easiest lighting ever and quite a bit of photographers light this way.
I shot this almost at “Magic Hour” aka almost Sunset (whoo!) when the sun was just setting towards the horizon but not quite below yet. I positioned the model to stand directly in line of the sun with her back facing the sun. My camera is positioned directly in front of Laine handheld at a slightly lower angle facing her. Because I’m in direct line with her while she is in direct line with the sun, the light is blocked and therefore her face is in shadow but her hair is blown out. Then I had my photo assistant hold a large reflector on the side of Laine and angle the reflector where the light bounced into Laine’s face and created a soft diffused light while creating eye light. The trick is to stand and position the camera where the model blocks off the flare of the sun. See, wasn’t that easy?
Check out the rest of the shoot with the Laine Jennings in Cake Mag here.
Camera: Canon 5D MKII with 85mm lens. Shot at 1/400 at f/4, 100 ISO
©2012 Diana King
