Natural light portraits and how to shoot them

Natural light portraits. When it comes to portrait photography or headshot photography, I love to use strobe lights or constant light, however natural light can be really beautiful when it is used correctly.

When I first started in photography, I actually started doing headshots. I became really good at them and to this day thats how I make a good chunk of my money.

Of course when doing headshots I use 500 watt strove lights, however you can take some incredible photos using nothing but the sun. You can also see an example of these type of photos in my Fine Art Nude site.

As you can see, these portrait is being 100% by the sun, however it is best if you wait until the golden hour. The golden hour happens once the sun starts to go down. Thats when you get that beautiful golden light and the beautiful skin tones come to life. This is the best time to shoot natural light portraits.

Remember that if you want to get blur in the back you have to shoot at f 7.1 or below. If you want to get really nice blur or Bokeh, open up your lens to f 2.8 or the smallest number your lens will go to. This is the best way to get those beautiful natural light portraits.

I edited this photo with my Lightroom Presets. Download them and give them a shot.

Natural light portraits

Natural light portraits

About the model:

Mercedes, you can find her on her instagram.

If you need photography (event or headshot photography) or video coverage for your event, do not hesitate to contact me. We have crews on all 50 states to cover your event from start to finish. You can contact me directly here.

Portraits with Jorge

I love hanging out with awesome people, meet Jorge, he is as awesome as it gets. We had an awesome portrait session. Jorge tried to tell me he has never done this before, however, I think he has done this once or twice before.

He is an awesome photographer and an amazing model. We started off taking some headshots and we quickly moved to the stool. I think the stool worked out great.

It’s always great working with such amazing talent.

I shot these photos with my Nikon D800 and my Nikon 24-70mm.

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Talking to the Locals

As I walked the streets I met loads of people, but this lady was particularly special. I asked her if I could take her picture and she said “of-course”. She then asked me where I was from and what I was doing, sending me off with lots of great wishes thanking me for taking her photograph.

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Street Portraits

This is one of my favorite street portraits I have ever taken in my life. I shot this at Outside Lands a music festival in San Francisco California. Well I was sitting there waiting for a band to come onstage, I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of people, when I turned around this couple was hanging out and it happened so fast but he went in for a kiss, that’s when I picked up my camera and snapped this photo. It’s so in the moment and the timing could not be more perfect. I love the story the photo tells.

Camera settings:
1/800 sec F4.5 ISO 1000

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Looking into the future

I shot this photo a few weeks ago, this model was actually posting for another photographer that was at doing a shoot with her at the beach. I love how she looks so natural just looking into the water, I used the boat in the composition to add a point of interest as opposed just the beautiful model. I also love the color of the water and the contrast of the colors.

Camera settings: 1/125 f4.5 ISO 125

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