Picture of the Day: Portrait in the Park

Photo by: Hyuni.

I was browsing through the “Portrait” tag on Flickr, hoping to find some nice strobist work that showed off a skillful use of light. Then I saw this picture, and I was really drawn by the pose. Stopping the action of the model flicking her hair is pretty cool, but at first glance I thought this was just a natural light shot… cause it’s got a nice muted look to the lighting.

Then, I looked a little closer and saw the flash on the light stand in the background, rather out of focus. Hmm… My guess is there’s a light to camera right (you can see a bright spot on the back of her left sleeve, as well as a shadow behind the railing). There’s also a light coming down from the left a bit – notice how the collar of the shirt is highlighted, but the rest of it drops into a gentle shadow (maybe that’s the sun coming down through the trees?). One way or the other, it’s a nice, gentle lighting scheme that fits the scene well.