Initially, the plan for the photoshoot was to take natural light portraits indoors. However, on short notice, model Reeree Keeler and I decided to switch to an outdoor shoot at Trosley Country Park in Kent, England. Since I had never been to the park before, I looked it up online, viewed several photos, and was pleased with what I saw.

This situation required me to assess the location on the spot and adapt as a photographer without any prior preparation. I'm not particularly fond of shooting without being prepared; I usually prefer to visit locations beforehand to evaluate the lighting and consider factors such as potential crowding.

I took my Nikon D3400 camera, a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G lens, and an extra charged battery for the shoot. I also brought a Yongnuo YN560-IV Speedlite as a backup. Due to the darkness caused by the clouds and the tall trees in the park, my sensor wasn't receiving enough light, so I decided to try using the Speedlite. However, I found the Speedlite images unappealing due to their harsh directionality, so I abandoned that approach and opted for natural light instead.

Natural light posed a challenge due to the darkness. I raised my ISO to 800 to get a properly exposed image and slowed my shutter speed to 1/80s of a second. Unfortunately, this led to many blurry and grainy photos that were unusable. However, the ones included here turned out to be splendid.

A light modifier, a stand, and a wireless connection to my Speedlight could have saved the day. However, in my case, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop saved the day. Thank you, Adobe.

I was not anticipating that, but the light brown (camel brown) colour of the wardrobe worn by Reeree complemented the green background.

The Gear I Used

I hope you learned a lot from this blog. If you are interested in a one-on-one training session, drop me a direct message on my Instagram account.