Capture stunning portraits in natural light

Great portraits needn’t mean expensive studio kit. Jeremy Flint explains how to achieve impressive results with just natural light and a prime lens

- Jeremy Flint

With the cost of living rising all the time, photography can become an expensive pastime for the enthusiast. For professionals, whose margins are being squeezed by rising costs, any savings could prove vital to running a successful business. The good news is that there are cost savings to be made in some aspects of our work. For example, there is no need to break the bank by purchasing lots of lenses for portraiture when one prime lens can do the trick.

Capturing engaging portraits with a prime lens is a creative technique that not only allows you to work with less equipment but also challenges you to be creative in your approach. Rather than using a zoom or telephoto lens, a fixed focal length prime lens can be used to create great portraits where you can move around your subject rather than staying in one place and zooming in with a variable zoom lens.

Besides eliminating the need to adjust the focal length, shooting with a single prime lens makes capturing portraits both easier and more rewarding as it eliminates the need to pack a large camera bag full of lenses. Whilst great portraits can be achieved using a flash, natural light or a combination of the two, shooting with natural illumination challenges you to work with the available light to create even more dynamic results.

What you’ll need

+DSLR or mirrorless camera

+Prime lens – whichever is your favourite for portraits

+Tripod for stability

+Adobe Lightroom or similar editing software

Shooting steps

1 Choose your location