Kristina

A backlit, window light portrait can be challenging to meter, but the photographic possibilities are definitely worth it.

Kristina is standing in front of a large, south facing window on a sunny day. The light is diffused by a translucent, white accordion blind. We gave very careful attention to this pose. The angle of her face is critical for catching the light just right, and the slightest movement in any direction dramatically changes the light. So do some experimentation.

If you are doing a portrait like this for a person with light skin tones, meter the side of the face that is toward the window and add one stop of plus exposure compensation (+1). (For a person with medium or dark skin tones you would add less exposure compensation or even subtract light from the meter reading).  In the ideal situation, if side of her face that is closest to the window has plus one exposure compensation, the window itself would be plus three (+3) or higher. That would give her face the right tonality and totally blow out (wash out) the window to a featureless white. In actuality, when the metering was right for her face, the window wasn’t quite light enough. I could have moved her farther from the window to increase the contrast (her face would be darker due to light fall-off and the window lighter in comparison) and then re-meter for her face, but that would have changed the beautiful lighting. She needed to be very close to the window to get this look. So I lightened the window in post processing using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Photoshop.

A 90 mm focal length gave me a pleasing perspective for this head and shoulders portrait. Filling the frame with a wider focal length distorts the face so it looks less attractive. It is better to back up and zoom in with a longer focal length to fill the frame.

I picked an aperture of f/9 to give me enough depth of field for her face. The camera recommended a shutter speed of 1/60 second for the brightest side of her face. With +1 exposure compensation, that gave me a shutter speed of 1/30 second.

Photo Info: Canon 5D Mark III. Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at 90mm. 1/30 sec,  f/9,  ISO 400.

Links

To learn more about exposure compensation, read Using Reflected Light Meters, Part One.

For more detailed information on metering, exposure compensation, depth of field, backlight, light fall-off, contrast, and portrait photography, read Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies which has a five star rating at Amazon.com. Learn more here and order it here.

For the best books on portrait photography, read “How To” Book Recommendations: People Photography.

For more information on processing RAW files with ACR, read Mastering Photoshop & Lightroom: Adobe Camera Raw (ACR).