71
Votes

I don't shoot very often with only natural light. I love my strobes and will always find something to light up with them… However, lately I have had situations, like this picture, where I loved the light I had and didn't feel like using any artificial light.
Sure, the lighting is not perfect (left side of her head is over-exposed, her face could use a bit of fill…) but sometimes imperfection is what makes perfection. Using only natural light from times to times is great because it lets me focus more on the subject, the framing and my ideas rather than the technical aspect of photography.

Canon-1D X
85mm · f/1.2 · 1/200s · ISO 2000
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13 Comments

lovely picture but don't like the artificial noise, matter of taste off course...

I'm playing around with AlienSkin Exposure, trying to find something that comes close to real grain. Not there just yet I guess ;)

I do like the grain, it fits the mood and look of the image. It might be a tad too much, but I don't care, it's imperfectly perfect :) Why AS instead of PS?

I find PS grain very computerized looking. AS offers more options to tweak the grain to your liking. Still trying to find a good place with the options, but still think it looks tad better than PS grain :)

There are at least two ways how to do real/realistic grain in pure PS. First, you can use scanned textures, there are several on web, most of them for money. I tried many of them and then went back to my combo: two noise layers with big and small noise and blend-if options combined with dust&scratches filter. Just explore it more and experiment with settings.

I'll take an image with emotion over technical perfection any day.

Quentin it's lovely. I just uploaded a photo to my profile a few days ago where I made a conscious effort to use only natural light for the first half of my model test into a portfolio full of strobe work.

I think the more you use strobes and understand what you're trying to achieve with them, the sooner you start seeing that light quality in the real world without them.

I dont shoot very often with only natural light... but when i do... :P

Love the pic. I think the noise is one of the things I like about it. Focus is where it should be.

The light is great, its realy natural, i dont think he neads mire light.
Is perfct this way

I love it, its really good :-) keep up the great work

Thanks Daniel :)

Her looking is very complex . Specially her eye .