How to Take Epic Outdoor Portraits

When taking portraits outside, it can be difficult to get good lighting that makes both the background and your model look great. A lot of times you end up with a photo where the model has enough light, but your background is overexposed, like below.

Epic Outdoor Portraits

Other times you get your background looking great, but then your model is underexposed.

Epic Outdoor Portraits

Now you could take a bracketed shot and merge them together, but when you are taking pictures of people, bracketing can be slightly off. The best way to get an epic outdoor shot is to add light with a speedlight and reflector. Your camera settings should be set to get a great background shot and then when you add light your model will be well lit as well, like below.

Epic Outdoor Portraits

Above is an unedited shot, as taken from my camera. Below is my final image where I brought out the colors and made minor adjustments to the lighting on his face.

Epic Outdoor Portraits

For more tips on epic outdoor portraits click here