Outdoor Lifestyle Photography
With outdoor lifestyle photography your job is to sell the experience to the viewer. You need to be able to work in all kinds of lighting situations and with a range of gear-from strobes to diffusion panels-to get the kind of killer shots that makes the viewer wish they were there. Erik takes you through a series of locations and situations demonstrating lighting, posing, and composition tips and techniques all along the way.
Release Date: 2012-07-02
Lessons
Introduction
<p>Join Erik for a quick overview of the class.</p>
Duration: 2 mins 58 seconds
Including a Landmark in the Shot
<p>Part of the process of telling the story of a location is including landmarks in your shots with your subjects. Erik demonstrates a few ways to deal with shooting people alongside of a large landmark.</p>
Duration: 3 mins 31 seconds
Searching for Shadows
<p>When shooting outdoors you can take advantage of natural shade to even out the exposure on your subjects. The trick from there is to move around to find the best composition that works for that location.</p>
Duration: 3 mins 37 seconds
Shooting into the Sun
<p>Shooting subjects against a bright sun is a popular look these days. Erik demonstrates a number of ways to deal with all that light.</p>
Duration: 6 mins 58 seconds
Controlling the Contrast
<p>Continuing with the Kayak shoot, Erik talks about adjusting camera settings to get the right mix of hilight and shadow.</p>
Duration: 7 mins 54 seconds
Find a Unique Vantage Point
<p>Shooting from a unique perspective can really make for dynamic and interesting shots of even the most mundane situations.</p>
Duration: 8 mins 6 seconds
Out on the Beach: Part 1
<p>Shooting out on the beach in the middle of sunny day is usually the worst time of the day to shoot outdoors, but Erik has a few tips and techniques on how create fantastic shots even in these harsh conditions.</p>
Duration: 5 mins 48 seconds
Out on the Beach: Part 2
<p>The sun never stops moving, so it is a great idea to change perspectives to get even more shots out of the same location.</p>
Duration: 5 mins 24 seconds
Over the Shoulder
<p>Another way to get a unique perspective is to shoot from over the person's shoulder and really bring the viewer right into subject's experience.</p>
Duration: 6 mins 8 seconds
Using the Octabank Outdoors
<p>Erik shares some great tips for using a 7 foot Octabank in an outdoor scene, which gives the subjects a lot of room to move.</p>
Duration: 5 mins 37 seconds
Two Suns
<p>Your life will be a lot simpler when you can work with the ambient light instead of working against it. In this lesson Erik brings in an 7 foot parabolic umbrella to act as a second sun to even out the light on the subjects.</p>
Duration: 8 mins 18 seconds
Use Gels to Mimic Daylight
<p>You can incorporate strobes into the mix with natural daylight by placing gels over your strobes to make their color temperature more closely match the light from the sun.</p>
Duration: 7 mins 49 seconds
Sunset Shot
<p>When shooting against the setting sun you can underexpose for the sky with a slower shutter speed, then bring in artificial light to fill in your subjects.</p>
Duration: 5 mins 19 seconds
On the Water's Edge
<p>The edge of the sea is not a great location for setting up a lot of gear, so Erik demonstrates how to take advantage of the high speed sync mode of your camera to use a speedlight to add a little fill light on your subjects.</p>
Duration: 6 mins 59 seconds