THE MISSION
Shoot portraits at sunset with a flash
Time needed
One hour
Skill level
Intermediate
Kit needed
• Flash
• Wireless trigger
• Softbox
• Light stand
The magic hour has long been known as the perfect time of day to capture gorgeous landscape photos, but it’s being increasingly used by portrait photographers too. As the sun goes down the vibrant colours can create a stunning backdrop for your portraits. And even if the sky doesn’t erupt into colour, it’s still a great time to head out for dramatic clouds and portraits.
The key technical challenge that you have to overcome is the strong backlighting you get when shooting towards the setting sun. This makes it very tricky to get a balanced exposure, because the subject’s front will be in deep shade. If using the natural light alone we could expose for the shade, but this will blow out the sky; or we could expose for the bright sky, but then the subject will be in silhouette. Both options can lead to great portraits, but if we want to record detail in the sky and the subject at the same time we need to supplement the natural light with some of our own. An off-camera flash is ideal.
A pop of light at the right moment will let us balance out the bold clouds with the light on our subject for a stunning sunset portrait. When it comes to choosing the right light you could use a Speedlite for this, but a stand-alone flash unit gives you more control and power.
This story is from the June 2021 edition of PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2021 edition of PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Speed up editing with recipes
Edit a single photo and apply processing settings to pictures taken at the same time
PHOTOSTORIES
World Unseen - Canon’s incredible World Unseen campaign opens up the world of photography to the visually impaired
MATTHEW PERKS
Matthew Perks is a talented lifestyle photographer whose passion has evolved next to his career in engineering. He sees processing photos as a balance of inspiration and instinct…
Perfect your colours with HSL
James Paterson enhances colours in Affinity with HSL
Turn the noise down with Denoise AI
James Paterson shows you how to use Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw AI to fix noisy images and improve quality
Go vintage with a Wet Plate effect
Sean McCormack shows you how to give your images a unique look by emulating the historic wet plate effect
Playing with shadows
Dan Mold’s three easy one-light B&W portrait set-ups to follow at home
Hit the streets with your Canon camera
Next time you’re in a big city be sure to try out these fun techniques for creative cityscape shots
A place in the sun
Learn key Canon camera skills for stunning silhouette portraits, then stitch them together for a striking image that will turn heads
Vive Loire Valley rally
An unexpected change in the weather forces a race against the sun to shoot Chambord