Using your garden as a portrait studio

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

A photo studio doesn't have to be large, luxurious or even indoors. In this video, photographer Gavin Hoey shows how he turns his garden into a fully equipped studio. And because he works outdoors, he gets opportunities that he hardly has in his actual studio.

The biggest advantage is, of course, the space. Gavin can place his model further away from the background and give himself more distance. This allows him to use longer focal lengths, creating a calmer background and attractive compression in the image. 

At the same time, he shows that you need to pay extra attention to safety outdoors: sturdy light stands and sandbags are certainly worthwhile.

It's also interesting to see how Gavin controls the ambient light. He initially shoots with a 4-stop ND filter, allowing him to work with a wide aperture without the daylight overpowering the photo. 

Using a flash meter, he then matches the flash exposure to his camera settings. This creates a portrait that looks as if it was taken in a dark studio.

But the most enjoyable part comes when Gavin starts making use of the fact that he is outdoors. He turns a second flash towards the model, adds an orange gel and then uses a simple plant mister to create a cloud of fine water droplets behind the model. 

The backlight makes every droplet light up and suddenly turns the garden into a spectacular background. Sometimes a garden, a few flashes and a simple plant mister can produce photos that would be much harder to create indoors.

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