Outdoor Urban Model Photography Session Tutorial

Photography Tips

Natural light is one of the best light sources to work with for portrait photography—and it’s free! However, you need to understand how to work with it. Otherwise, you’ll be just complaining about how harsh it is and how difficult it is to have the subjects’ eyes open. If you’ve had some similar complaints when photographing outdoors, we have the right resource for you today. In this video, professional portrait photographer Jessica Kobeissi takes us behind the scenes of an outdoor portrait photography session. Let’s join her and see what tips and tricks she’s got to share:

For the purpose of this video, Kobeissi works with her Canon 5D Mark IV camera and a 50mm f/1.4 lens.

If you’re just getting started with outdoor portrait photography, we highly recommend you look for areas with ample shade. Another alternative is to go out on cloudy days. In either case, the soft light will make your life a whole lot easier. You won’t have to deal with extreme contrast, harsh shadows and squinty eyes.

You can also see in the video that Kobeissi often works close to interesting walls. The idea is to use those walls with interesting patterns and colors as your background. Keep your eyes out for backgrounds that can make your images pop without being too distracting. Remember, your backgrounds are equally as important as your subjects.

Backlighting is something that many photographers are afraid to try. It is a great idea to photograph a subject with the sun behind them. You’ll need to adjust the exposure for their face and you can instantly see how interesting the image appears. If you are comfortable, you can also benefit from using a simple reflector when the sun is behind your subject.

Kobeissi also shares some interesting tips on how to pose your subjects. These tips will definitely help you make the images appear more lively and dynamic. Be sure to check out the complete video.

And if you have any other useful tips, do share them with us in the comments.