Picture taken at sunset
A short but quick tip on lighting your models. Have you ever been shooting outdoors late in the day and got tired of using your flash or portable lights? Why not use the light from the sunset? Sunsets not only good to shoot, but also a great source to light up your subject. The warm tones it provides, although only for a few minutes, is an excellent and free, way to give your pictures a unique look.
The photo on the left was taken about 15-20 minutes before the sun completely set behind me and facing the model. We were running out of time so I moved the model out in the open. We were shooting at a park and I wanted to use the green grass as a backdrop. I used a wide open aperture to blur out the background. I was using Nikon’s 80-200mm 2.8 AF-D lens, it allowed me to shoot at 2.8 and zoom in and out without changing my aperture setting.
In such a short window of time of about 20 minutes, it was enough time to get a few nice pictures. This was one of them. I really like the warm soft light the sun provided, overall I think the pictures turned out great. I’ll definitely use this method again at a future shoot.
