Simplest Portrait Lighting

The easiest portrait lighting is all natural

I’ve been wanting to photograph a portrait of Cindy and Jeff for a while. They are a unique looking couple because they are both bald. Cindy has alopecia, and she’s open to talk about it and have her photos taken.

I had this vision of how I wanted the photos to look. Simple composition. Black and white. Black background.

35 years ago I also photographed bald people. It was the age of Sinead O’Connor and many women and some younger men, were shaving their heads at the time. The stark look was an interesting graphic. I never had the guts to shave my own head. Not sure I would look that good. But some people wear it well.

One of my old photos

How to set up Available light portraits 

There’s a reason the painting masters wanted to use north light for portraits. It’s indirect, soft and even. And it doesn’t change fast, so as a portrait painter, you’d have more time to work. 

I used Cindy and Jeff’s garage as a studio. But in this case I also had a large reflective garage door behind me, and that really bounced the light in. Because the light bouncing in was so bright, it also spilled light into the garage. I wasn’t quite getting the look I wanted.

The light was too bright in the background. I wanted it darker.

So I hung up a sheet of black velvet behind them. And got this look. 

This is how it looks with black velvet behind them. Same lighting as above.

I’m so pleased with the results.

My favourite photo from the shoot

Another favourite

Graphic shapes

But, all that extra light spilling in, also gave me some opportunities for other photos.

So I removed the sheet of velvet and let the light from two sides come in. 

Jeff is in construction and has a wall of tools which I thought would make a great background for a portrait. The light coming in from both sides worked great. I added a reflector for some shots, just to get a bit more light bouncing into his face.

Jeff and his tool wall

Cindy enjoys painting rocks and has a group of rock painting friends. She wanted some shots of her creations and I thought it was also a perfect time to take a photo of her too. This photo works in black and white, but I thought colour was more appropriate since her work is very colourful. 

Cindy and her painted rocks.

I shot most of these portraits with the LUMIX S1 Mark 2 camera, the S 24-60mm lens and a few with the TTArtisan 75mm lens to get shallower depth of field - due to the longer focal length and bigger f/stop of that lens.

LUMIX S1ii and the 24-60mm lens

But really, you can use any camera for this type of portrait, especially with a black velvet backdrop. Check your local fabric store for velvet. 

Jeff’s glasses were the kind that darken in bright light, so I had to do a bit of lightening on his lenses in LR. But other than a few dust spots removed, and darkening the velvet a bit, these are not edited very much.

Here’s the before and after comparison:

Before and after image edit of the photos

Now it’s up to you to try out this simple lighting on your next portrait shoot. It’s fun and easy to do.

Thanks for reading this post.