021 - Secrets to Better Outdoor Portraits
Today we are going to get into a topic many people have been asking me about, especially while we are out exploring. They want to know how you take better photos of people while you are outdoors. We’ve all seen those photos, beautiful shots of people set in amazing locations like standing on cliff edges or out on a dock looking at the waves. These are some of my favourite images to shoot of people, so how do we create them?
While, today, I’m going to give you my secrets behind creating great images of people outdoors, regardless of the camera you have with you. It could be an SLR, mirrorless or your phone. These tips will help you create better portraits of people in amazing locations.
1 - Look for Natural Compositions
Most of the time when we are out exploring, you will come across areas that have a natural composition to them. Somewhere where nature has created leading lines that are perfect to put a person in the middle of. Think the edge of a ridge leading to an outcropping where a person can stand or dangle their feet out over the edge. Or where a valley comes together in a v-shape. That is a perfect place to put someone.
This involves you just being attuned to your surroundings and looking for places where mother nature has given us a composition.
2 - Simple Backgrounds
Keep an eye on those backgrounds. Too often I see people posed on a mountain top with a really messy background behind them when all the photographer had to do was get them to take one or two small steps and they would have had a nice clean backdrop. Of course you want the valley, and you want the scene around you (that’s kinda the purpose for the photo) but if you have the opportunity to put a simple background behind your subject that will make them pop in the frame. Simple backgrounds allow your viewer to separate the subject from the rest of the scene much quicker. By simple, I mean having the sky behind them or open valley. Or simply where two mountains intersect, creating that V-shape again. Look for places where your viewer will be able to see the subject quickly.
3 - Learn compositional techniques.
Go beyond just sticking your subject anywhere in the frame and learn how to compose an image. Composition can be a tricky subject to learn, as there are many many different ways to compose a scene (like rule of thirds and triangles and so much more). Too often, I find people are sticking their subject in the middle of the frame, and while that can work, what makes for a more interesting photograph is intentional composition. It is composition that primarily makes people love a photograph.
4 - Colours
The colours you choose in an outdoor photo make a huge difference. I don’t mean the colour of the sky or the mountains or anything else in nature, but the colour of your subject’s clothes. Dark colours (like greens and blues) tend to blend in a lot more than brighter colours do. It makes your subject look like they are a part of nature rather than popping against the backdrop.
So, if possible, get your subject to wear a brightly coloured jacket to pop out against the nature around them. But there are so many bright colours to choose from! Which one do we pick?
The short answer is if you have a choice, yellow. Yellow jackets tend to show up really well against almost any backdrop in nature. And they work particularly well when there are a lot of blues in the scene (like we tend to see in mountain photos or on cloudy days). Yellow is part of a pleasant colour scheme called a triad with the teal-blue we see in nature and reds. Yellow is also not a colour commonly seen in large chunks in nature (unless it is fall) so our eyes are more easily drawn to it.
So, look for colours that stand out (like reds, pinks, orange and yellows). And, after that, if you have a choice, go wit ha yellow jacket on your subject and they will really pop out.
5 - Watch for Distractions
When you are getting the person to pose, make sure that there is nothing distracting in your frame. This includes things like backpacks and water bottles. Have them take their backpack off as well and leave it behind where you are shooting. Backpacks don’t make for flattering images typically, so it’s better to have your subject take it off.
INcluded in distractions would be things like sweat stains on their clothing. If at all possible, have them put on a jacket or another shirt that isn’t super sweaty. This will make for much cleaner and better images. I’m sure most of us love getting our sweat on to get somewhere, but images of people in sweaty clothing just don’t tend to look as good in the end.
6 - Use Natural Reflectors
Sometimes mother nature just doesn’t provide us with the best lighting for our subject. We sometimes need a little extra light on their face or to highlight something. When you need this, look to place your subject in front of a natural reflector. Natural reflectors can really be anything that is bright and bounces light. You are looking for a brightly coloured flat surface that is fairly large and that the sun is reflecting off of. The sides of a mountain typically make for great natural reflectors. Put the mountainside to your back and your subject in front of you, that way the mountainside will act as a reflector.
Sand also makes for an amazing reflector. Sunlight catches sand and bounces it up, so having your subject crouching, kneeling or laying in the sand can help add some beautiful lighting back on their faces. The trick here is to look for places the sunlight is catching. Just be aware of the colour of the light that is bouncing off the surface. So sand will typically cause a yellow light, mountains tend to be a grey-blue light. This can really alter the feel or your difficulty editing.
7 - Shoot During the Golden Hour
This can be a tough one, because golden hour can be at a very inconvenient time in lots of parts of the world. Right now, in the Canadian Rockies, golden hour starts at about 8:30 pm. Taking photos on a mountain top at golden hour often means hiking back down in the dark and not getting home until the late hours or early morning. But, golden hour does often ofer the best light a photographer can ever ask for. If you are intentionally heading out to take photographs, aim for the golden hour and sunrise or sunset. This will lead to your best chances for great images. But don’t get to hung up on golden hour, if you are out in the middle of the day, you can still create great work.
8 - Try many Different Angles
Don’t just settle for one shot and saying you are done. Move around your area as much as you safely can. Look for different foreground elements that can make the shot more interesting or look for other ways to show off your subject. Often the first place you stop won’t be the best. You are going to have to keep looking sometimes.
9 - Watch your Settings
Shooting on auto on any device will typically cause some problems. So learn how to take your camera out of full auto and shoot in one of the other modes. When you are taking photos on auto, the tendency is for your camera to overexpose the bright spots in the photo to try and expose for the shadows or to do the total opposite and underexpose everything but the brightest part of the image. To avoid this learn how to control your camera or at least learn how to use exposure compensation mode.
10 - Shoot in RAW
We’ve talked about this alot. But shoot in RAW. It will give you the best options for editing and creating better images in the end.