We’ve got one or two good weekends of fall shooting left here in Northern Illinois, and I hope you do too where you are! To cap off the Fall Photography Tips for this year, let’s take a look at basic outdoor portrait photography.

Portrait photography can be difficult, especially when shooting outdoors. So many variables are out of our control – the direction of the sun, the wind, the people walking through the background of your picture…well, for the patient or well prepared photographer, there are plenty of opportunities and workarounds.

The first thing to always consider is the person you’re photographing. If you’re planning on taking someone outdoors, make sure they are prepared for the plan. If you tell your subject to dress cute and she wears three inch heels, she isn’t going to be comfortable hiking to the spot you scouted in the woods! Talk over beforehand what you’d like to do and what clothing you have in mind. Remember clothing can always be changed up and layers removed once you get there.

The second thing to think about is the weather. Plenty of times I’ve taken risks and been either soaked or rewarded – but I usually only do this on my own, because I don’t typically mind getting soaked. Your model might. Watch the weather beginning a few days beforehand and plan accordingly. Note that a day that is partly to mostly cloudy is actually better for outdoor portraits than a sunny day, as clouds diffuse the light making for great (and predictable) soft, even lighting.

So, your model is prepared and the weather held up – perfect. You’re probably out in the early to mid morning or mid to late afternoon, right? Hopefully! Direct overhead lighting whether indoors or out is never kind to portrait photography. Think about the contours of your face – a person’s eyebrows, cheekbones, nose and jaw have a higher relief, and overhead lighting will bring out all the imperfections of these in addition to over-lighting that can cause wash out, unintended accentuation or shininess, and cast the rest of the face into shadow (think under-eye bags). Ouch. Avoid! There’s a reason even stage lighting at plays and concerts tends to be highly angled.

No matter what time of day you’re shooting, you may want to consider using a reflector disk. Reflector disks are highly portable and come in a variety of sizes, typically oval or circular. By placing them close to your model and at angles to the sun you can bounce light onto your model to greatly reduce unflattering shadows. There are a few “colors” available, the most common being silver, white, and gold. In the fall I’m mostly using gold, because it gives very warm, even light that’s a great match up to the fall backgrounds. Of course, you don’t have to choose only one – most reflectors come with two sides, and there are also 5- or 6- in ones, that unzip to reveal the multiple surfaces. Adorama and Amazon are great places to pick one up.

Although you may have a reflector to help counterattack any unflattering shadows, still pay attention to the positioning of your model. In many cases, positioning the model in partial to full shade will even out tones and eliminate hard shadow and most cases of the squints. If that isn’t possible or likely, it is best to avoid having your subject with their back to the sun unless you have brought a studio of lights with you, or intend a very dramatic picture, because by having the subject’s back to the sun the subject’s face will be underexposed in relation to the rest of the picture. You may also incur unintended lens flare. Likewise, having your subject facing the sun will cause an overexposed face (probably also squinting) and an underexposed background. Shooting at 90 degree angles to the sun is a good rule of thumb, especially for beginners.

I’d love to see your shots if you’re willing to share! Just send me an e-mail at unwind_rewind (at) yahoo [dot] com. If there’s any interest, it’d be great to put up a slideshow of what everyone’s been shooting this fall.