We use the Sun as our Key-Light during our Cape San Blas Beach Portrait Sessions.
Also called a main light, the key light is usually placed to one side of the subject’s face, between 30 and 60 degrees off center and a bit higher than eye level. The purpose of the Key-Light is to give shape to a subject, typically a face for better depth of field during our beach portrait sessions. This relies on the first principle of lighting, white comes out of a plane and black goes back into a plane. The depth of shadow created by the Main-Light can be controlled with a Fill-Light.
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Our Fill Light is our Camera Flash. We use a Canon 600EX SpeedLite for maximum effect and results at all ranges.
In modern photography, the fill-in light is used to control the contrast in the scene and is nearly always placed above the lens axis and is a large light source. As the amount of light is less than the key-light, the fill acts by lifting the shadows only to keep harsh shadows minimized. It is true to say that light bounces around a room and fills in the shadows but this does not mean that a fill-light should be placed opposite a key-light and it does not soften shadows, it lifts them especial outside on a beach during a beach portrait session. The relative intensity of the Key-light to the fill-light is most easily discussed in terms of “Stops” difference. A 2 Stop reduction in intensity for the Fill-Light would be a typical start point to maintain dimensionality in a portrait shot.

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There are many different techniques for Cape San Blas portrait photography. Often it is desirable to capture the subject’s eyes and face in sharp focus while allowing other less important elements to be rendered in a soft focus. At other times, Cape San Blas Beach portraits of individual features might be the focus of a composition such as the hands, eyes or part of the subject’s torso.

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Cape San Blas FL, 32456

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