Best Portrait Photography: Indoors or Outdoors?
You’ve got a commission for a portrait perhaps? Or you need to take you daughter’s picture for a corporate magazine? Or you just want to capture your friends or family at a particular time in their life with a study of their most interesting feature… their face. But where should you take the portrait- inside, or out of doors?
The first thing to realise is that you don’t have to take the photo completely indoors without any natural light. Ever heard of windows, skylights, patio doors and the like? Similarly even though you are shooting outdoors, you can still use the flash, and other supplementary lighting equipment.
The other thing that you need to consider is the practicalities. Are you limited by your photographic equipment? Who is the subject of the portrait photograph? What are the environments indoors and out of doors on this day of the shoot?
Consider the equipment you have. You may be a camera buff with all the gizmos and all the gear, in which case you can skip this issue and move on to the other two. However, if you have a basic point and shoot camera, then you may find that the built-in flash is not sufficient to produce a good quality portrait photograph indoors. In that case use natural light outside. If you have a lot of sophisticated indoor equipment, like lighting, umbrellas, background paper etc., then you should use those in the more controlled indoor environment.
But there are other factors. While the great outdoors may seem to have a myriad of backgrounds, there can be just as many indoors. Interesting (but not busy) wallpapers, and perhaps one or two simple props behind the head of the portrait; perhaps an out of focus painting or mural? If the portrait can include more then just a face, then it may be that the subject can be shown doing something that will instantly tag them- a painter beside and easel, a teacher with some homework in hand to mark, a gardener in the greenhouse etc.
While many photographers will argue that there is no substitute for the striking quality of sunlight, in all its many hues, if it’s raining or dull outside, then you’re unlikely to get as good a picture as you would indoors. Yes you can get some striking portrait photographs when using the early morning or evening sun, plus a fill-in flash, but this is not a piece of artistry to show off the photographer’s compositional skill and clever play of lights on facial features- this is a portrait. The more complicated you are going to make it, the more likely is that it will look artificial and over-posed.
If you’re taking photographs of children or pets, then they are much more easily controlled in the studio environment. Outside, they are likely to run off, be distracted, or get the fidgets. There are also the age-old problems of something unwanted getting into the shot and necessitating a re-take. Cars on drives, jets in the sky, wasps and flies, and the next door neighbour clipping the hedge are just some examples. Beyond the outdoor distractions and irritations there’s a comfort factor in shooting someone in their own home or office. For the subject it’s a known and comfortable environment. That means that they will be relaxed, more natural and less wooden than they might be in a foreign environment. Put the subject at their ease and that makes you more at ease, and that’s over half way towards getting the portrait photographs you both want.
If you are taking a business portrait photo of someone, you are likely to be asked to shoot them in their Office at work. That can sometimes produce problems with windows reflecting the flash, unsuitable office illumination (turn the lights off!), and interruptions. Have you considered taking the subject outside for a portrait of them with the background provided by their Offices or their logo? Indoor natural light can be a great resource to play with- try a number of rooms and see how the light varies. A room with both north and south windows should provide good light all through the shoot. But a word of caution if you are mixing natural and artificial light. They could have quite different light temperatures and make white balancing difficult.
In conclusion, successful portraits can be taken both indoors and outdoors. If you are a professional photographer were time is money, then you’ll probably want the subject to come to your studios where you have everything set up, and can take the portrait shots in a lighting-controlled environment. If, like me, you like to bring some subtle natural light to illuminate your portrait, then the outside environment is great, depending on the weather, and you and your subject’s patience, because it will probably take longer, and there may be quite a lot of test shots that don’t make the final cut! Click here for more information on cameras.
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There is 1 comment on this post.
Trackback URL | Comments RSS FeedIt all depends on the situation and people’s desires. A lot of factors should be considered, so it’s wrong to compare inside and out of doors photography. But still, the article if good, thank you!
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