Numerous times here on Photocamel I see photographers using direct sunshine as the main light in portraiture. This can be done in the early morning or late evening with a white reflector or flash to fill in the shadows, but in between those times sunshine is very difficult to control unless you have a staff of five or six to hold the required diffusers, reflectors or scrims. Also fumbling with a light stand and clamps to hold an too small diffuser in even a light breeze will result in more time spend trying to set it up than you will shooting.
If you are like me I like to travel light. A camera, meter, reflector, a zebra card and maybe an off camera flash is about all I want to lug around even with my ever present assistant along to help.
When you arrive at the scene of the shoot all one needs to do is LOOK at what the lighting is doing to the face of the subject and then determine if the lighting that is there is sufficient, or does it need a reflector or an off camera flash to supplement it. The off camera flash can be used as a main light, or a fill light. If the off camera flash is used as a
main light it should be placed where the shadows cast by it will render a pleasing light pattern. You will set the aperture based on the output of the flash, and the shutter speed will regulate the ambient light which is now the background/hair/fill lights. If you are using the off camera flash as a
fill light, it should be about 2/3rds of a stop LESS than the highlight side and held above the camera.
In the example images below
all were lit by sunshine that was bounced off of a nearby building. No additional lighting was used, although if needed I did have the above items along "just in case."
Benji
P.S. Watch for another upcoming tutorial on using off camera flash as both a fill light and a main light, but not at the same time
