How to shoot an epic portrait

It’s hard (especially during the day) to have both the subject and the sky exposed well in portraits taken outside. So while on my field trip I learned a new technique for shooting portraits. You expose the photo well so that the sky is exposed and the subject is dark, and then you add a speedlight and voila! Both the sky and the subject are exposed well. Here’s some images demonstrating this idea.

Image 1: Well Exposed Subject (bright sky)

CarissaBuys-EpicPortrait-1

Image 2: Underexposed Subject (nice sky)
CarissaBuys-EpicPortrait-3

Image 3: Add speedlight to light subjectCarissaBuys-EpicPortrait-2

 

Here‘s an article on fstoppers about a talented photographer named Sam Hurd who shoots awesome epic portraits. Here‘s a link to his actual website where he shows his epic portraits and explains how he got that shot. It’s super useful because he includes setup shots and talks about things that went well and things that didn’t. You should check it out!