I take a lot of children’s portraits outside and I used to have a hard time finding good places.
I want to offer something unique for all of my customers so I try not to use the same place too often. Soon I started feeling like I’ve used all the good backgrounds and there’s nothing left anymore. Of course that’s not true – I just had to learn to see things differently.
1. What lens are you going to use?
This is important because, broadly speaking, there are two different ways to take portraits. Both involve the use of different types of lenses.
The first is to to use a wide-angle lens to take an environmental portrait. This may be documentary in approach, or it may be more fashion or beauty orientated. Either way, the idea is that you use a wide-angle lens to take a portrait, and that the setting is as important as the model.
The second is to use a longer focal length, and shoot with a wide aperture to throw the background out of focus. In this situation the requirements for the background are different, because you are looking for something that looks good out of focus. Also, because longer lenses have a narrower angle of view, you are using less of the setting in your portrait.
Of course, it is more than likely that you can find opportunities to take both types of portraits, in the same setting. You may also make up your mind, once you have scouted a location and assessed its potential. But it helps immensely if you know what your approach to the shoot will be, while searching for a spot to shoot.
2. Where does the light fall?
Some photographers tend to shoot portraits entirely in natural light; others use flash to supplement it. Whichever approach you take, it is still important to assess the quality of the light in your given location.
Take into account the time of day you plan to do the shoot. To take full advantage of natural light you should aim to shoot in late afternoon or evening, during the golden hour, when the sun is close to the horizon. For this reason it helps if you do your scouting at the same time of day, so you can see how the location looks in this beautiful light.
Another option is to take photos on a bright sunny day, but in the shade. The light bounces off nearby surfaces, which acts as a giant reflector. This is another type of natural light with beautiful qualities.
Alternatively, you might like to shoot on a cloudy day. This means that time of day is not so important, but it does mean that the light is most likely to come from above, and may create shadows under your model’s eyes and chin. In this situation you can use a reflector or fill-flash to minimize shadows. So think about whether there is room to set up a light-stand (if using flash) or for somebody to stand and hold a reflector (if using natural light).
3. Use a smartphone to take photos
You can use a smartphone to take photos of locations to help you remember what they look like. Of course, you can do this with any camera, but the advantage of a smartphone is that most of them have GPS, and this helps you remember, and find, the exact location again later. This could be important if you are out in the countryside somewhere. There is nothing more frustrating than finding a great place to take some portraits, then not being able to remember where it is.
You could also import the photos into a specific Collection in Lightroom, and go to the Maps module to see the locations displayed on a map.
Read the full article by Andrew S. Gibson over at Digital Photography School
Source: Digital Photography School
