Natural Light Adventures 04: Location Scouting.

Location scouting can sometimes can be easy and sometimes very, very difficult. From looking for appealing or decent light and then finding an nice composition. And sometimes with lack of time you may need to accept a less appealing composition and make it work with what you have.

If you've just jumped into this part of the blog series I highly recommend you read the past parts as this part is spoke with the assumption you've read the past parts, as well you've learned the important part of timing which can be figured out with what gear you have and location you're shooting at. Check the index.

Locations vary on your needs of your vision, and how strict you're with your vision. I know for my journey in natural light adventures from May 2015 to today, I was not picky. Every shoot I did was purely casual lifestyle or/and fashion style shoot. No mood boards. Just meet up at a location, me and a model can shoot at during the times I think is best for the shoot, as well help with some wardrobe decisions. 

Natural Light Adventures 03: Finding The Light.

This part can be difficult in some cases or it can be easy. Depends how are you with seeing light, and then even when you find great interesting light you'd need to ensure it falls onto the subject(s) properly, as well have an appealing composition. 

If you've just jumped into this part of the blog series I highly recommend you read the past parts as this part is spoke with the assumption you've read the past parts, as well you've learned the important part of timing which can be figured out with what gear you have and location you're shooting at. Check the index.

This post is why I shoot the way I shoot on natural light and recommend anyone in my situation, such as lack funding for assistants, don't have friends/family willing to help consistently on a bunch of natural light portrait shoots, and don't feel comfortable with any lighting equipment/modifiers in the field by themselves while you shoot. I know most others teach to have a fill, reflector, or something but this isn't doable alone (just you and a model/person), especially in a big city where tons of people pass by, or even small cities if you're paranoid like me. So the following will help you in this same situation to still create unique and amazing natural light portrait shots.

Cloudy Shooting

When I say easy, it can be very easy if the sky is very consistent in cloud coverage (large cloud coverage) so you have constant and consistent giant softbox type of light during your time shooting outside. Such as for example on my day shooting outdoors on Halloween 2015.

Detailed First Impressions: Sigma 85mm 1.4 for Canon

Here's the video version, and the written version underneath it.

Some information may or may not pertain to you. I'll label as much as I can and you can skip to the parts you are interested in.

Reasons why I rented

I rented the Sigma 85mm 1.4 for general environmental portraiture with portrait and modeling type photography. Reasons I wanted to rent it is for

1. One being the obvious, exploring new focal length with the wide open aperture being available. I've shot with a similar focal and aperture, the Canon 50mm 1.4, but I felt it wasn't giving the very much more appealing look I liked in the 85mm focal lengths. 
2. This summer I was primarily focused on shooting and mastering the natural lighting for portrait and modeling photography in an environmental portraiture style.
3. Another reason was being inspired by portrait photographer Dani Diamond. Which he stated he uses an 85mm 1.4 lens on his nikon setup. Since I loved his work a lot why not try the similar style, and a bit more towards fashion with my own twist.
4. I was also advised by colleagues to try the current Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens over waiting for the ART version which everyone was crying over and over for, including myself. 

Posing Project 01 - Heather G.

More information about the Posing Project here.

Follow Chris Adval's board The Posing Project on Pinterest.

Sample Photos of Lastolite EZY Box Large Softbox (30x30)

*The following sample photos are Straight out of Camera, totally untouched/edited, these are purely sample photos to show how the softbox looks with and without. LEFT is without flash, the RIGHT is with the flash on.

Shutter: 1/160th
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 200
Lens: Canon 24-70 2.8L
Camera Body: Canon 6D

Lastolite Hot Shoe EZYBOX Softbox Kit-30 x 30"

Side note of my experience with using hotshoe softboxes in the field, its ok, as long as you got someone holding the lightstand(s) or good weights to hold them down. I don't have weights right now other than normal sandbags I may start using since assitants are so hard to come by in my area. Other than that I would have loved more power but the only option for more power is studio strobe or investing into a $500+ speedlight (600EX) as I was using YN560 here at 90% power. I may invest into more studio strobes and battery packs to shoot more environmentals instead of speedlights, primarily cost savings is a big difference. Once I could afford into more speedlights then I'll go into a heavy speedlight setups for obvious reasons.