Portraits by Window Light

From the Best of Mark Toal

In the fall, the sun is lower in the sky. I love this time of year for creating natural light portraits. There is a warmth and softness to the light like no other time during year. Throw in a few clouds like we get here in the Northwest and you have a giant softbox.

Last Friday was one of those nights. Jasmine and I went out to dinner and sat at a table by the large front window of the restaurant. The lighting was what Kodak used to call “cloudy bright” on its film boxes.

As Jasmine looked out the window at the rain falling through the sunshine I picked up my Panasonic Lumix GX8 with the affordable ($267.99) Lumix G II 20mm f/1.7 lens and snapped a few photos. I set the camera to Aperture Priority mode so I could shoot wide open at f/1.7 to blur the background.

Back at the computer I adjusted the clarity in Lightroom to -12 to soften the image.