Location Portraits Made Easy

Location portraits can be both fun and challenging.  Whether or not one of those outweighs the other can depend on a many things, but attitude is key.  If you head to a location shoot focusing on how hard things are going to be, you will face seemingly insurmountable odds.  If you relax, let things flow, and concentrate on doing what you do best (making pictures) then your time will be much more enjoyable and a lot less stressful.

While in San Diego last week, I did a couple of location shoots.  I shared some of the pictures from my first shoot with you last week.  My second shoot was a little spur of the moment, but I made it work.  They wanted to do the shoot in the living room, but didn’t want the typical “family on the couch” look.  I took a quick look around and noticed that had long blue curtains covering their sliding glass door.  Perfect impromptu backdrop that’s at least a little bit interesting and isn’t just a plain white wall.  I set up one SB800 on a stand with my trusty Westscott umbrella and started firing away.  Here’s one of the shots:

To shoot their daughter, I took off the umbrella and put on my homemade 8″ snoot that I made from one of my kids cereal boxes and I got this shot:

So when you’re shooting on location, keep an open mind and be flexible and you’re sure to get great results.