Do You Need A Flash For Outdoor Portrait Photography

This is two speedlights sitting on the ground behind the camera pointed straight up.

Do you need a flash for outdoor portrait photography. Lets start off with a simple one light portrait. Using a speedlight for an outdoor daytime portrait allows you to fill in some of the shadows that you get when shooting outdoors. If you have a subject that you can move try to get them to change their positioning so that the sun hits them from the side rather than from behind.

Using fill-in flash in bright sunlight produces a quick burst of light that fills in the dark shadow areas on someones face for instance when shooting an outdoor portrait. Flash isnt just an on-camera lighting source. And here are our recommendations for 8 Great Flash Brackets to buy.

When the setup involves positioning two speedlights opposite each other in a location point the flash head upwards and pull out the diffuser. Sometimes you dont need a modifier and can just bounce off the ceiling and walls. This is the follow up video to my Two-Light Flash Portrait tips.

In reply to zurih May 9 2018. Here is a rule to remember when shooting against a white background the farther your subject is from. The majority of the time shooting outdoors doesnt require firing a flash even in the shade as the sun does most of the hard work for you.

Using Flash Outdoors For most photographers flash is relegated to the studio and if used outside it is usually restricted to portraiture. The results look awesome and give a high-end feel to any outdoor portrait and the best thing is that its really not too difficult. Instead we are going to give you the outdoor portrait photography tips and tricks you need in order to find the best settings on your own.

Strong directional lighting like this can be very effective. But there is so much more potential for artificial light. Recommended flash setup for family outdoor portraits.