 Hey everybody it's Craig back to here and in this video I'm going to share five tips with you to instantly improve your outdoor portrait photography. All right let's get started. All right so tip number one is time. So the time of day that you shoot is a huge factor. So I suggest shooting either early in the morning or a couple of hours before sunset. Couple hours before sunset is my preferred time which brings us to two lighting. Now although you're outside and there's natural lighting I like to bring strobes on location and the reason for that is number one so I can control the quality of the light and number two I can control the direction of the light. So what I'll do is I try to place the sun behind my subject so that provides a second light source so I can have a hair light and then I'll bring in a strobe that I can control the quality of the light and the direction. So that way I can have the light 45 and down and I can place it wherever I want. So for example let's say the subject's good side is this side. If I'm shooting women for example I'll do a short lighting pattern so I'll place the light over to this side versus this side. So if I were to shoot this side of their face and their face was this way that would be broad lighting. I place the light here that's called short lighting. So bringing strobes allows me to control the direction and the quality which brings us to number three the angle. Now the angle is very important. Now often I shoot with people that are taller than I am I'm five foot eight and sometimes I'll shoot with models that are five ten and they have heels or maybe I'm shooting on uneven ground. So I'll bring a step ladder so that I can shoot even with them so I'm not in a position where I'm shooting up at them so I bring a step ladder. Also when it comes to angles I always try to shoot someone's good side so what you can say to someone is do you know if you have a good side if they say well I'm not sure to say if you were to take a selfie would you take it from this side or would you take it from this side and then they'll think about it and they'll go oh I usually take them from this side so that'll be a good indication that this is their good side. Also if they have a part in their hair if their hair is parted here and they're showing more of their face here that might be a good indication and if you're really not sure then I suggest shooting from each angle so this side of their face that side of their face and straight on just make sure that you have all your base is covered so that when you get home you say wow they looked a lot better from this angle so that's another thing to think about so let's recap one time of day two the lighting three the angle now that brings us to number four the background a couple things to think about when it comes to the background now make sure your background isn't distracting but also that the colors in your background or complementary so if you think about skin tones they're more of an orange kind of color you want something the opposite that so like a blue so a blue sky or blue water try to think of a complementary color palette for your subject which brings us to number five because if your background's too distracting you can use focus so number five is focus so putting that background out of focus shooting at f14 or f2 depending on the lens you use at 85 mil or 135 in that range it's pretty easy to put the background out of focus if you're shooting at f14 or f2 so think about putting that background out of focus now also when it comes to focus I use one single focus point and I place that on the closest eye to me so if someone's head is tilted that way I focus on the closest eye to the camera with one single focus point okay I'm going to recap those five tips to improve your outdoor portrait photography all right so I'll show up on location and I'll take a shot of the background now a couple of things to consider make sure that your lcd screen is set to maybe four or five so if it's set to auto it's always going to change so set it to manual set it to maybe four or five get used to how that looks then number two make sure if you have a highlight indicator warning on your camera that you have that on and then what that will do is it'll flash white if you've got blown out highlights so another way to just look at that quickly and go oh it's it's too bright number three if you have a histogram enable that and then look at that as well if it's too far to the right if it's hard up against the right then you're probably blowing out your highlights you want to make sure you're somewhere in the middle so those three things to think about your lcd brightness your highlight indicator warning and your histogram so take that shot and then also what you can do too is maybe before you go on the shoot is go outside and shoot the sky and let's say you're looking at your in-camera meter so the metering mode I use is just for the whole screen the name of that mode will change depending on the brand of your camera and then I'll take a shot and then I'll go left of center so there's a little meter at the bottom if you look down hopefully on your camera you have one just go left of center maybe two bars that will underexpose a little bit and then maybe take another shot at four or maybe six put it on your computer and say which you know looks best to me maybe four bars left to center I love the way the sky looks think about that make a mental note then when you're on location take a shot move four four bars down look at that check the lcd check the highlight indicator and then check your histogram once you're confident of that then you can bring in your light source so what I'll do is I'll bring in my light source and then I'll set it to half power I'll take a shot if it's too dark then I'll make it a little brighter if it's too bright then I'll bring it down so you can easily do that by eye and once you've done it a few times it'll become a lot easier so one time a day that's important two bring your own lighting three the angle then the tip about asking someone about their good side also bringing a step ladder so you can adjust your height and then that brings us to four at the background pick a pleasing background complementary colors not too distracting five putting that background out of focus f14 f2 anyway I hope you enjoyed this video if you found these tips helpful give me a thumbs up for this video also you can click share and share this video on the web with your fellow photographers and if you have any tips of your own that you'd like to share with us put them in the comments section below any tips that you think about that are helpful for your outdoor portraits anyway thanks again for watching this video I look forward to hearing your tips and give me a thumbs up and one last thing if you're not already a subscriber hit that subscribe button all right thanks for watching this video and I'll see you in the next one