Learn How to Light and Photograph These Outdoor Portraits

Learning how to balance artificial light with ambient light is one of the most important and versatile skills for a portrait photographer to learn. If you are still working on that, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you a series of outdoor portraits shot using a combination of strobes and ambient light and how they were lit. 

Coming to you from FJH Photography, this excellent video tutorial will show you how he lit and shot a series of outdoor portraits using both strobes and the ambient light. The reason this is such an important skill for portrait photographers to learn is because it frees you from dependence on both the timing and direction of natural light, which can be a bit of a compositional and logistical hindrance. Even more, it is a powerful creative tool. You have probably seen portraits in which there is a dramatic sunset behind the subject. If it was not for the added artificial light, you would either have to expose for the sky and risk a very underexposed subject or expose for the subject and risk blowing out the sky. Adding the artificial light created a balanced exposure and the best image quality. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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23 Comments

Great content as always!! 👏

Thanks, Jason!

You did it again!!!! I love your videos! Full of knowledge!

Francisco’s work is outstanding, and he is a fantastic teacher! Great content for people who want to learn external lighting 👌🏽

One of most inspired and dedicated photographers out here! He knows his stuff. Always motivating and inspiring younger photographers like myself, to create better content and be great at what they do! GOOD STUFF ALWAYS FLOWS FROM FJH!🔥👌🏾

Until now I have done all natural light photoshoot. But watching FJH and Eli videos provodes inspiration on switching to flash strobes.

Thank you FJH

I’ve learned so much from Francisco and Eli over the years. Always great content and he nails it every single time. Great content as always.

I'm wondering if I also should post a fake but inspiring comment? :)

All real people which you can see for yourself by checking their profiles. Can't say the same about you though. Feel free to keep commenting as it pushes this article out even further.😊

SEO doesn't work like you think it works. I'm not adding a new visit to this page on each comment.
It's not hard to create a profile and become a "real" person if that's what you meant, but you keep pushing this fake stuff as long as you like it. It just looks stupid (but funny).

We are real people. I am a real person. Aspiring photographer who has been learning a lot from his videos.

We are very REAL sir! Check out our IG pages!👌🏾

Comments are legit as people see the worth of knowledge in the video. Can you show me your contribution Tammie and I will comment on it as well.

I will show my contribution as soon as I see yours :)

His work is readily available to see on his instagram. You on the other hand have no social media in your profile.

I'm not an attention wh%re, why would I need to be on social media?

Why bother to comment at all then? Jealousy is the only answer there.🤣

ROTFL "Jealousy" of how stupid you are? Chill, dude. Your bots should chill as well.

Amazing how you handled the outfit in the composition and the final images are amazing

Great content as always bro keep it up Can’t wait to have you on my IG Live soon.

Loved the video again.

I follow FJH on IG for a while now. Already pulled a lot of inspiration from his BTS shots. Mostly his easy lighting settings.

I'm usually more experienced in commercial lighting setups and through FJH I was able to step a bit into personal portraits.

Great content as usual! I’ve learned almost everything about off-camera flash from FJH 🔥

Nice video but it wasn't a tutorial.