Natural Light Portrait Photography Inspiration

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Are you looking for natural light portrait photography inspiration for your next photoshoot session?

I am so excited to share my recent session. It was an unplanned DIY at-home photoshoot session. It all took place by the window in my bedroom. If you are looking for inspiration on a DIY mobile phone photoshoot, check out this post.

Let’s be real; when it comes to using natural light for your photography, it can be a bit of a challenge. If you have struggled with handling the amount of light that comes into your photo, I feel your pain.

Tips for Working With Natural Light

To have a bit of control, I play with the settings on the camera, like the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. It is not one-size-fits-all. I love to experiment with different positions and angles to make full use of the lighting situation. Here is a helpful tip, turn off all other lights that are not needed in the photo. I personally use this tip. It is for the best. Only add extra light if you need a fill light or ambient light. You will thank me later.

The Gears and Settings

For this natural light DIY portrait photoshoot session, I used a Canon M50 with its kit lens. For the location, I used a black backdrop and placed it approximately six feet away from the window.

Before I started taking the pictures, I set the camera ISO to 200, the aperture to 3.5 f-stop, and the shutter speed to 1/350. I also set the camera exposure. I usually leave it at the optimal exposure setting, which is 0.

For editing, I used Photoshop for retouching and Lightroom for color grading. I like my pictures to have normal quality on both desktop and mobile phones, so I normally use Hypic to edit for mobile phone enhancement.