The more you photograph the more you realize it's not easy. It's not easy to make "wow" pictures every time, it's not easy getting what you thought you should get, it's not easy dealing with light that sucks, but the most difficult thing is growing, growing in what you do, getting better at it.



So to grow sometimes you have to take a step back and try to look at things from a different angle and therefore I assigned myself a mission!



Mission #1 "Thy shall only use available light"



This Lady was very helpful and lend me some of her precious time to go out on a photo-shoot from which we did not know the outcome and I have to say that at first I was not pleased with the results but I've taking enough peace with it to share them with you and add my thoughts about this Mission.

Please keep in mind: we had no Makeup-artist and there is no retouch on the pictures, I only used the D700 with the 85mm f:1.4 lens.

The day started out sunny, then we got a little bit of rain and too end with some beautiful clouds in the sky ( I love looking at clouds)

The Sun as a light source: it's not too bad when the angle is low (less than 30°) and you can position your subject looking straight in the direction of the sun (to steep angles like 45 of 60 will result in ugly shadows and probably too much contrast for the sensor to deal with in an elegant way)


The Clouds as a light source: if the clouds are too equal, the light sucks, really, there's no contrast making everything evenly lit, it's boring and gray, so you have to look for natural elements that will force light to take a direction, an opening in a row of trees could be a perfect example, but still you have to look out that not too much light is coming in from right above because this will cast shadows in the eye sockets, under the nose and the chin, also you will probably have to much light in the bridge of the nose and the forehead.

Look, it's my shadow :-p

The trick is too look out for directional light and to place yourself and your subject accordingly, the directional light is the same as the light coming from a soft-box but far less consistent. If the quality of the light allows it I found that placing the light source at 5 to 15 degrees behind you works best (working with the direction of the light) everything behind your subject will normally be lit in the range of your sensor, some white clouds might be a bit overexposed nonetheless

I wonder what could be Mission #2...