One of the questions I get asked the most when it comes to lighting is “What is the best lighting for outdoor portraits?” Today I thought I’d share a little insight into this!

But first, I’ll preface this by stating the obvious – every photographer has his or her own style and way of choosing light. Some photographers like backlighting (like me!) and some photographers like to place their subjects in harsh light for more contrast (something I try to avoid whenever possible). The important thing, if you want to have a consistent style, is that once you figure out your style, you are consistent with the type of light you shoot in. This will help you improve quicker and give your images a beautifully cohesive look.

If you follow my main blog over at Idalia Photography, you may have seen this Skylands Manor engagement session that I posted recently. This session took place on one of the prettiest days of the summer and we had some of the prettiest light, too – including my favorite type of light! I’ll tell you all about when and how to find this light.

Timing

Timing is everything when choosing light for outdoor portraits. For outdoor sessions I like to shoot in the morning and then in the afternoon once the sun is no longer directly overhead. My absolute favorite time to shoot is a half hour to an hour after sunrise and about two hours before sunset. It all depends on the weather that day! For cloudy days, we may meet a little later in the morning or a little earlier in the afternoon.

Of course, I can’t always choose my favorite times of day to shoot due to having to plan portrait sessions around client’s schedules, children’s naps, and other factors, but something I always do is avoid harsh midday light.

On this particular day, we met three and a half hours before sunset due to the park’s closing time. I knew this location had a lot of shade, so I wasn’t worried about harsh light at that time, and the session turned out beautifully!

How to find good light

Before I tell you how I find the light I want to shoot in, let me tell you the type of light I *don’t* want to shoot in – harsh light with the subject’s face in the sun. The only time I’ll shoot in harsh light is if the backdrop we want to use is worth it! In this case, I’ll typically have my clients face each other for a more candid look rather them having smile at the camera with the sun on their faces, forcing them to squint.

So what is the best lighting for outdoor portraits? Personally, I love to backlight my couples with diffused light. I realize that’s pretty specific so let me show you what I mean! Check out this photo below:

Not to toot my own horn, but isn’t the light in this image gorgeous?? I just love how there’s a bit of a rim light around their heads, separating them from the background and making them pop. Here is a pull-back so you can see what the location looked like:

Ok, so if you like that kind of lighting in your outdoor portraits, here’s how you find it!

1. Look for the sun =)
2. Face the sun.
3. Look for a spot between you and the sun that has trees behind it, and place yourself in a spot where the sun/source of light is peeking through the trees.
4. Place your subject between you and the sun, with their backs to the sun.

The photo below shows the sun peeking through the trees with my couple’s back to the sun:

Why do I love this light so much? For two main reasons:

1. Most importantly, my couple’s faces have beautiful and soft even light on their faces.
2. They have soft pretty rim light around their heads, making them just pop off of the background and creating depth.

Now, sometimes you may not be able to find something to diffuse the light completely so you’ll have stronger backlighting, but if you shoot when the sun is lower in the sky, you can still achieve a similar look. Like I did for this photo:

As the sun gets lower and lower, that strong backlighting will get softer and softer. Like it did for this photo:

I hope this post was helpful to you in learning how to choose lighting for outdoor portraits. Now that you went over these tips, be sure to get out there and practice. The best way to learn to work with light is to shoot as much as possible.

To see more images from this session be sure to click here and to read more of the posts I’ve written for hobbyist photographers click here.