So we are pushing through the senior season here in the south and getting ready for the heat. Shooting outside here is terrible in the summer so for the most part we are confined indoors through the dog days. I want to live vicariously through you all so tell me about some great places you like to shoot in your town in the summer or about any new places you look forward to trying out this year.

Funny story: My cousin wanted me to shoot her senior portraits so she decided to come to Louisiana to have me do them. Being from Ohio she was unaware of the weather here and planned her trip in AUGUST! I tried to explain to her that in order to do any shooting outside we would have to get started early and she said "yeah yeah thats fine". So after dragging her out of bed at 6:00am to start shooting buy 7:00am she didn't understand what the rush was. By 9am when it was 90 degrees with 90% humidity she understood very well......


Hope everyone is busy and making money!
~Wes

Hey Wes,

Been a while... was sick for about a month in March with three back-to-back colds/infections... sigh. Much better now.

Have another senior session coming up in early May, my second one ever. My last one was in the backyard of the subject, in the shade of the house during late afternoon. I had trouble getting directional light so it was kinda flat. Do you have any tips on modifying the light to get more directionality outdoors?

For the next shoot, I plan to go to the Japanese Garden in Portland. It's one of the best Japanese gardens outside Japan but I've not done any shoots there.

Larry

Sorry to here you haven't been feeling well. Good to hear your feeling better.

Funny that you ask about lighting. I happened to win a California Sunbounce while I was at the WPPI show. I have always used reflectors and I think this would solve all of your problems. If you put your subjects in the shade and use a reflector to create your light source it will feel a lot like a large softbox does in studio and you won't have to worry about lugging your flash equipment around outside. I used a mini last weekend on a family of 6 and it worked great. The reflector can actually bounce light up to 20 feet I would say. I use my reflector for all sorts of things and situation but the reflector is a MUST if you are shooting outside. Another thing to try is to get your high school senior facing away from the sun completely back lit then hit them with a reflector from the front. You have to really coach them as to not get squinting but the shots are always very surreal and very cool.

Experiment with a reflector you wont regret it!

Hey PD! Wow man! A whole month of sick??!! BUMMER!! Glad you're better now!

I guess you know I'm a proponent of using flash outdoors. I always use 2 of 'em. One as a key and one as a fill. This gives you directionality and allows for getting rich saturated beautiful blue skys! And either always backlight with the sun or put 'em in open shade.

Wes, I've been on this particular rock for 13 years now, and I've been everywhere here scouting locations...At least I thought I had! I was hired to photograph a big family reunion portrait of 40 people on January 1. They wanted to use either the old plantation where the patriarch used to work, or the West Loch park...which I had never heard of before, in spite of the fact that it is situated only a block from the golf course I used to haunt every Monday...

So I researched this park I'd never heard of, and found it. Wow! What a location! It's on the West Loch of Pearl Harbor and has little docks, some with gazebo like structures over them. Lots of palm and kiawe trees. That's where we made the reunion portraits, and I've been looking to use it again ever since. So yesterday I took a senior out there for his portrait session. It was great! And they'll be in tomorrow to preview the session. Can't wait!

Thats great that location sounds beautiful Stan.

I too love to use my strobes outside. I love mixing daylight and flash. Always seems very illustrative to me. However, when I am shooting a high school senior I avoid dragging lights around at all cost. The pace that I need these shoots to move (to have my session fee seem reasonable) lights seem to drag them out. If I am shooting a family portrait or shots where I am trying to capture the scene around the subject which makes it difficult to get a reflector close enough I will shoot with strobe. But for a senior where I need to multiple location quickly or a child that wants to run around I can have an assistant sit back and trail a child with a reflector for fill without moving much for the most part. I feel like certain shoots call for certain equipment and this is all based on time restraints, expectations of the client, and the physical speed of the shoot. You have to "pick your weapons" according to what you are up against and for me a lot of times it is a reflector so that I can change up quickly.

~Wes

Be it off-camera strobes or reflectors outdoors, I've done neither. Closest I've come to was using a scrim to block direct sun for head shots. I have this unknown fear of using strobes outdoors, mostly because I haven't done it. I like the "choose your weapon" idea. Sounds like I need to try it out and see what works for me. Even strobes outdoors there are many different approaches. Steve likes to bring studio strobes and softboxes on location, while Stan does it with a couple of SB800s. I'll have to start with SB800 and reflectors since I have no means of powering my other strobes outdoors.

I looked at the price of them california sunbounces--not cheap. But neither are strobes...

Last month I did a head shot session for a 14-year old actor. I asked the Mom to be my assistant and that worked pretty well. "I'm going to put you to work..." and I asked her to hold the scrim. Turned out to be a fun session for all involved.

Question for Wes: when you use the reflector outdoors, how do you go about metering?

Thanks!!

PD