BEHIND THE SCENES: Balancing Light Ratios While Battling Nature

Behind the Scenes: Balancing Light Ratios While Battling Nature

Shot in a botanical garden with a thunderstorm rolling in, this behind-the-scenes look covers a quick but effective lighting setup: using a single off-camera flash to fight the flat, uninteresting quality of open shade, and letting a nearby tree block part of that light to carve out shape and dimension on the subject’s face.

Setting Up an Off-Camera Light to Fight Flat Open Shade

Open shade on a cloudy day is soft and even, but that evenness is exactly what makes it look flat and uninteresting as the sole light source for a portrait.

1. Position an Off-Camera Light Above the Subject

   Place a light stand with a flash roughly 8 feet in the air, fitted with a 7-inch reflector, positioned to imitate the effect of direct sunlight coming from above and to the side rather than the flat ambient light already present in the shade.

Why Open Shade Alone Looks Flat

Because open shade lights a subject evenly from all directions, it produces very little shadow or contrast on the face, which reads as soft but ultimately unremarkable. Adding a single, more directional light source reintroduces the shadow and highlight contrast that ambient shade removes.

Using a Tree as a Natural Gobo

Rather than shining the added light directly and evenly across the subject, the setup uses a nearby tree to partially block it, the same way a gobo would in a studio.

2. Let the Tree Partially Block the Light

   Position the light so a tree between it and the subject blocks part of the beam, breaking up the light before it reaches the subject’s face rather than letting it fall evenly across the whole frame.

Why a Reflector’s Size Shapes the Quality of Light

A 7-inch reflector produces a harder, more directional beam than a larger modifier would, which is part of what allows the tree to cast a more defined, broken pattern of light and shadow rather than a soft, evenly diffused wash.

Carving Out Dimension on the Subject’s Face

The combination of the elevated light and the tree’s partial blocking is what creates the actual visual interest in the final portrait.

3. Let the Broken Light Fall Across the Face

   Direct the light so it hits the side of the subject’s face while the tree blocks other parts of the beam, carving out light and shadow areas that make the portrait considerably more dynamic than flat, even open-shade lighting alone.

Choosing Complementary Colors for Light and Background

Color choice plays as much of a role in this setup’s visual interest as the lighting pattern itself.

4. Pair an Orange Light With a Green Background

   Choose complementary colors between the added light and the background — in this case, an orange-toned light against a green background — so the two colors contrast with and reinforce each other rather than blending together.

Why Complementary Colors Read as More Dynamic

Orange and green sit opposite each other on the color wheel, so pairing them creates a natural visual contrast that makes both colors read as more vivid than either would appear against a neutral or similarly toned background.

Adjusting Color Later in Photoshop If Needed

Even with a deliberate color choice made on location, there’s always room to shift things further after the shoot.

5. Change Colors in Post if the Look Needs Adjusting

   If a color choice made in-camera, such as the orange light, needs to shift toward a different tone like red, that adjustment can be made afterward in Photoshop rather than needing to be perfect on location.

Why This Approach Works

This setup solves the open-shade problem with the simplest tool available on location: a single off-camera light, elevated and partially blocked by whatever happens to be nearby. Rather than fighting the tree as an obstacle, the shoot uses it as an improvised gobo, which is a technique that scales down easily to almost any outdoor location where a natural object — a fence, a plant, a doorway — can break up a light source the same way. Pairing that lighting decision with a deliberate complementary color choice between the light and the background does the rest of the work, giving the image contrast and vividness that a single evenly lit, neutrally colored frame wouldn’t have, all without requiring a fully controlled studio environment.

Final Thoughts

Shooting outdoors, especially with weather closing in, rarely allows for a fully controlled lighting setup, but this shoot is a good example of working with what’s available rather than against it. An elevated light, a tree used as a gobo, and a complementary color pairing between light and background are all decisions that can be made quickly on location, with any final color tweaks left for Photoshop afterward rather than needing to be perfect in the moment.

Quick Reference: Settings and Tips

• Spot the problemOpen shade on a cloudy day: soft, even and flat on the face
• Add one lightOff-camera flash on a light stand, about 8 feet up, imitating sunlight
• Modifier7-inch reflector for a harder, directional beam
• Natural goboShine the light through a tree so it blocks part of the beam
• Light directionHit the side of the face to carve out light and shadow
• Color pairingOrange against a green background; adjust colors later in Photoshop if needed