Jason The CreativeWhen it comes to natural light studio portraits, there is a great studio I use pretty often in Dallas. It’s called the Painted Lens photography studio and it has huge west facing windows and a great area for lifestyle photography.
Natural Light Studio Portraits
I had the opportunity to shoot with Yeritzah. She is a beautiful and talented Dallas area model looking to create more content for her portfolio.
The goal was to capture swimwear and casual fashion wardrobe in studio. It gets pretty hot outside in Texas for portrait shoots, so I switched it up and tried an indoor studio shoot for this concept.
Photography Gear For This Test Shoot
For this shoot, I used two cameras each paired with some of my favorite prime lenses. I was looking forward to using my 35mm and 55mm for this shoot.
Sony a7iii paired with Sony 55mm f1.8
For this shoot I used the Sony a7iii paired with the Sony 55mm f1.8. I like to shoot with prime lenses since I can get a wider aperture over many of the widest zoom lens options that I own.
 | Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Lens |
 | Sony a7iii Mirrorless Camera |
Many zoom lenses from Sony only open to f2.8 which is plenty, but I wanted to add that extra touch of bokeh that an f1.8 would offer.
Sony a7riii paired with Sony 35mm f1.8
The next camera I used was my Sony a7riii mirrorless camera. I paired this with my Sony 35mm f1.8 lens.
 | Sony 35mm f1.8 Lens |
 | Sony a7riii Mirrorless Camera |
I knew I might want to crop down some of the wide shots, so I put the 35mm on the larger sensor camera because I knew I would have more pixel information to use when cropping in post production.
The Painted Lens Studio
The Painted Lens Studio is in downtown Dallas and is great for natural light studio portraits. The booking process is done all online and its automated to make it easy to review open dates and availability.
The studio has different areas designed to give you different looks without having to change backgrounds.
Overall, I highly recommend checking out local studios in your area to give you a variety of shots for your test shoots or portrait shoots.
Direction and Posing
Yeritzah already has a background in posing and modeling so I just kept my direction simple and to the point. She knew how to move her body and showcase your best.
I click the shutter pretty quick so I kept her moving from time to time in different parts of the room.
We moved some of the furniture around to create a more bedroom or open loft style but overall we stayed close to the bed.
The bed was in the center of the room and was floating thanks to 4 large ropes mounted to the ceiling.
We had to be careful because this made the bed swing back and forth when Yeritzah was moving around to the next pose.
All natural light for this shoot
Before you ask, yes this was a full natural light shoot with nothing but my camera and a Bluetooth speaker for background music.
I didn’t have any reflectors or off camera flash with me. I wanted this test shoot to me simple and allow to be as flexible with positioning as possible.
Lights and other equipment tend to slow me down in certain scenarios. I know they are useful and can offer different results to your shots, but I choose to keep it simple.
55mm Natural Light Portraits – Gallery
35mm Natural Light Portraits – Gallery
What I learned from this shoot
You don’t really need crazy amounts of equipment for your portrait shoots. Yes I had 2 cameras, but I could have easily just used one and switched lenses as needed.
Time wasn’t a major factor, but I really wanted to maximize my time shooting and not messing with lenses.
I do wish I had a reflector with me since many of the shots were facing away from the sun. I only edited the ones that didn’t have the window to the models back.
This created a darker and more silhouetted look that I didn’t like as much. The shots still came out nice, but I just chose not to edit many of them.
Model Test Shoots
I do mode test shoots to stay fresh. These type of TFP shoots allow me to work with models without having to have a big budget. Much of my portfolio is built off TFP (trade for portfolio) shoots.
If you’re interested in learning more about TFP shoots, make sure to check out my article on TFP Shoots and how to get organized.
Final Thoughts
I feel like this was a successful portrait shoot. There were hundreds of shots and this was overkill for this type of simple shoot.
I always recommend taking on shoots that allow you to get creative and have some fun.
I understand that client work can be boring sometimes, so having an outlet to shoot and network with other people is a great thing for your work. Happy shooting.
Gear Mentioned In This Article
| | Sony 35mm f1.8 Lens |
| | Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Lens |
| | Sony a7riii Mirrorless Camera |
| | Sony a7iii Mirrorless Camera |
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