Window Light Portraits

Using a the natural light form a window can give you some great portrait shots.



Place your model near the window and turn off the lights inside. This should give you a rather dramatic look. You can add a reflector to light up some of the other side of the model if needed. Just move the reflector closer or further away to adjust the amount of light being reflected.


The way I meter from the camera is to change to the metering to either spot or centre weighted and meter from the models face. You shouldn't trust what the photo looks like from what it is your LCD since they really aren't that accurate. Check your histogram and "blinkies" to see what the exposure looks like.












If the face is blinking as over exposed, then reduce you exposure. Make sure you focus on the eyes, unless you're trying to do something creative. But be careful here, it can be very unbalanced if the eyes are blurred.

Asking your model to simply tilt their head slightly will bring more/less of their face into the light. You can also move your camera around the scene to find a suitable position to shoot from. Try sitting your model 45 degrees to the window.

If you've got a lot of light, you could also trying shooting silhouettes.