Outdoor Portraits

Ten tips for improving outdoor portrait shoots.

1. Bokeh

2. RAW

Using a low aperture (f4 or lower), you can focus on the subject and blur the background. This technique is called Bokeh and it draws your attention to the subject and slightly blurs the background to remove distractions.
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3. Lighting

Shooting with your camera set on raw (rather than jpeg) will make your photos very crisp. A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. 
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4. Background

When shooting outdoors, lighting becomes a huge challenge. If you are not paying attention, you could do the whole shoot in direct sunlight, causing harsh shadows on the subject. The best lighting outdoors is in the shade or when its cloudy (the clouds will diffuse the sunlight).
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5. Distractions

Continuing on the subject of backgrounds, distractions are very important to look for in the surroundings of the subject. Signs, cars, street lamps, telephone poles, trashcans, and other everyday items should be looked for before shooting. 

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7. Reflector

A white foam board can be used to reflect light onto the subject, brightening up the shadows on the subject's face without bringing up the exposure of the entire image or correcting the lighting using Lightroom or Photoshop.
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9. Controls Whites

Working outside during the day is especially difficult to work with your white balance because natural light is constantly changing. Outdoor portraits should probably be shot using white balances of sunny, cloudy, or shady. If necessary, you can correct any minor lighting issues later with editing.

During a shoot, you should pay attention to the surroundings of your subject. You want the background to be interesting, but not distracting. Examples of good outdoor portrait backgrounds are greenery such as trees, grass, leaves,  bushes, etc.
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6. Sunny f16 "rule"

The sunny ƒ16 "rule" states that on a sunny day, with your aperture value set to ƒ16, your shutter speed will be the inverse of the current ISO speed. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 100, and your aperture value is ƒ16, your shutter speed will be 1/100th of a second.
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8. eyes

ALWAYS set your camera's focus to the subject's eyes. Eyes are the sharpest element on the face, and they are also what we look at first when we see people. When you take a portrait, you want to mimic the effect that you're in the space with that person.
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10. Horizon

Shooting outside gives you a 98% chance of dealing with a horizon. The placement and accuracy of a horizon line is extremely important. The horizon line should be straight and should be in an appropriate position.