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Control windowlight

The simplest form of indoor lighting is windowlight, but don’t think that it is therefore not versatile. The introduction of reflectors and diffusers mean you can control the quality of the light and bounce it back in from different angles. On sunny days you have hard directional light which, if required, can be diffused with tracing paper, a gauze or net curtain. Reflectors allow you to bounce light that has travelled through the window and past your subject back again to fill in shadows on the offside of the subject. A white reflector is the best choice, although a silver reflector is good if light intensity is low, and a gold reflector is useful when you want to add a little warmth to skin tones.

FAITH

Because the light was quite strong on the day this portrait of Faith was taken, a few layers of netting were placed across the window to soften the light and lower the light levels. Faith was placed close to the window as the light being reflected back on to her left side needed to be bright enough to fill in her features. A silver reflector provided the necessary fill-in and a fast speed rating of ISO 800 purposely increased the noise level in the image to soften the result and add atmosphere.

Canon EOS-1DS, 28–70mm f/2.8 lens, 1/125 sec at f/4, ISO 800.