Window light is one of my favorite types of lighting for portraits. It's soft, diffused, directional, and complimentary to any subject. The key to using window light, though, is to have a dark background. If elements in the room behind the subject are visible, in most instances they will be distracting. And if the window itself isn't very attractive -- such as a modern window with an aluminum casing -- it's best to eliminate that from the equation, too. The settings for this picture were 1/160th, f/2.8, 250 ISO, and I used a 70-200mm lens.
2 Comments
Jun 24, 2016, 7:35:40 AM
Jim - Hi Linda, I've used black velvet with other window light portraits, but in this case the room behind the subjects was dark. In this case, it worked out perfectly without me having to do anything. If you want to see an example of where I used black velvet, go to this link: http://www.jimzuckerman.com/puppies
Scroll all the way down to the last photo -- the white dog, my great Pyrenees puppy -- was photographed in front of black velvet with window light.
Jun 24, 2016, 1:08:03 AM
Linda - Hi,
Love the light, the hat, the old time clothing and the gentleman who sat for this portrait. The black background does make all the difference. What did you use behind the sitter? Was it black felt and if so how did you hang it so it draped so nicely?