Tips to IMPROVE your Natural Light Portrait Photography

From the comments:

These tips were so helpful! Also Julia I'm switching over from Canon 5D to Sony😀. Wanted to ask your opinion on what body and a couple lenses to start with. I shoot portrait, family, children & newborn so I'm looking forward to that fast focusing!!  If you could only pick one Sony body and a couple inches to start with what would you buy? Thanks for all your videos Julia. I can't even tell you how much your videos on shooting and editing have changed my photography and vision. You are amazing- Beth Gibson

 Great video with some very helpful tips. Ive been shooting professionally for 17 years now and much of it is done natural light, love it. I prefer backlight as well but I would just add to watch out for too much sunlight hitting your lens. Many lenses don't play well with flaring, so I typically use a lens hood. Also, sometimes its best to switch to face detect or turn off eye AF and select your focus point as many mirrorless camera can struggle with eye AF in strong backlit situations. Im not usually a fan of diffused light, especially overcast. Yes, the lighting is mostly even, but its also flat and can be challenging unless you are really good adding pop in post. Would also recommend fast lenses in diffused lighting, at least f/2.8 or faster, as slower lenses won't be able to gather enough light in that situation. Just my two cents :) - Michael Bell