Simon Ridgway Photography

I was commissioned to shoot some portraits of a lady who is training to be a priest and was the subject of a magazine feature. The shoot had been scheduled for midday on one of the hottest, sunniest days of the year so far. As most photographers will tell you, midday sun does not make for ideal conditions for photography.

So my first instinct was to find an indoor location. Fortunately the chapel was free and when I walked in and saw the amazing windows, I knew I had my first location. These shots were done using one hotshoe flash in a brolly as the key light with a second flash balanced on the pew behind her, providing a rim light to simulate the light coming from the windows. Keeping that second light coming from roughly the same direction as the natural light makes it look real and doesn’t call attention to the lighting.

I shot plenty of variations using these windows as a backdrop and, although I was happy with these, I needed to offer my editor an alternative so we moved outside into the harsh sunlight to find a possible shot.

With the sun so high in the sky, there was very little shade around but we managed to find a spot right up against the chapel wall, under a tree. By putting the subject in the shade I was able to expose for the background ambient and then add my own light to the subject. This was again just a hotshoe flash at full power, fired into a medium size brolly and moved in as  close as possible to make the most of the power available from the small flash.

This lady was not at all keen on having her picture taken. I can understand that, as I really don’t like it myself. Hopefully though you can’t tell from the photos that she wasn’t enjoying it!