Some thoughts on Portrait photography using natural light. There’s something truly magical about capturing the essence of a person with the light that nature provides. It’s authentic and adds a better atmosphere for portraits in most cases than using flash. I try to avoid any artificial light setups when possible for more reasons which I will talk more about in an upcoming YouTube video.

Why I Love Natural Light

Natural light has the ability to bring out the best in the subjects. Whether it’s the soft glow of the golden hour or the diffused light on a cloudy day, each scenario offers a unique opportunity to create stunning portraits. Plus, there’s a certain spontaneity to working with natural light that add a natural ood and some challenges of course.

Jim Lyngvild and Morten Paulsen.
Leica M9, Summilux 50mm ASPH.

Both soft and hard light can be source for a good portrait, depending on the mood you want and what’s available. Often soft light is the best to bring out the skin tones and avoiding burned out areas on a person, but also bouncing light from a reflector or a wall can do the magic.

The portraits here are part of TV-series I am shooting these days, and will be part of the video as well as for articles.

Love stories

The TV-stories for TV2Fyn in Denmark (a regional broadcaster) will be aired and published during Christmas. It is stories about love and relationships. I use natural light to be less disturbing and to add that natural feeling to my portraits. Looking for light is essential and something I bring in from my experience as a street photographer.

My street photography this way blends in with my professional work, bringing the experience into another type of work.

Stay tuned for my next YouTube video, where I’ll be diving deeper into these techniques and showing you how to make the most of natural light in your portraits. There’s always something new to learn and experiment with.

Happy shooting, and see you soon on the channel! 📸✨