10 days ago or so, I taught outdoor portrait lighting techniques at the Cascade Center of Photography in Bend, Oregon. I demonstrated multiple techniques including reflectors, diffusion panels, and wireless flash.

We went to a location where there was a field of wildflowers that we could use as a background, or in this case, our entire scene. Our model here is Justine and she was gracious enough to kneel in the flowers on a small trail that goes through the field.

We shot about an hour before sunset and the sun was out and it was harsh. I positioned her to face the sun so the light would hit her face straight on, adding highlights and shadows. But as you can see the lighting contrast is harsh in the early test image.

So I asked someone to hold a large light panel with translucent material to essentially diffuse the light that is hitting her and this next image shows the effect on her face.

If you look at the above image you can see a slight shadow behind her. The light panel created a shadow in front of her and behind her, but the part in front is hard to see due to my angle being down low. While she is in the shadow cast by the panel the foreground and background flowers are in the bright sun.

So I processed the image to bring down highlights and white to darken them some and bring their brightness closer to the her brightness. Then I darkened (burned) the bright flowers a bit more, cloned in some bad areas with distracting detail, then finished off by using Topaz Texture Effects and used the preset Crisp Morning Run. 

So this is the final image.

See more outdoor portrait lighting techniques with wireless flash.

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