A large window at midday is a great light source for portraits. During a staged wedding photo shoot at the Empress hotel last summer, I had a chance to combine window light with studio strobes. The colour matching between the natural and artificial light sources is not an issue, since “standard” studio light is daylight-balanced.
When the model is extremely close to the window, as in the photo above, the backlight provided by it is very intense, and it is easy to blend it with the strobe light. I shot this portrait at f/4.0 and 1/200 sec (ISO 200), which gave correct exposure for the window light. A single strobe fitted with a large softbox provided the light from the opposite direction. The resulting lighting arrangement is, essentially, equivalent to “cross-lighting”, when the model is located between two light sources of equal strength that are aimed at each other. The light distribution on the model is then controlled by her position relative to the imaginary line connecting the two light sources (if the model is located behind the lights, she is largely lit from the from the front; if she is mostly in front of the lights – she is backlit).
The difference between cross-lighting and the window-softbox arrangement is that in the latter case the light sources are, effectively, very large. This results in contrasty light (deep shadows, bright highlights) that, at the same time, has soft transitions between light and dark areas.
In contrast, the image below is shot with window light only. No additional strobes or reflectors were used to fill in the shadows. The dynamic range of this scene is quite high, but even when exposing for the highlights (so that they would not end up over-exposed), my Canon EOS-1D X
These two relatively easy lighting setups give completely different feels to portraits. Personally, I like the subtleness of natural light, and not having a strobe makes the shooting process more flexible and intuitive. However, without a flash to balance the window light, the range of poses that can be explored is fairly limited. Basically, the model has to be facing the window, or at least be partially turned towards it. With a flash, variety of poses is possible, including portraits with the window as a background.
