This is one of my favorite times of the year to take outdoor portraits.  The color from the leaves is so vibrant and can add so much to a picture.  I did a few portrait sessions over the past few days and below are some of my favorite shots to come out of them.

I much prefer outdoor on location shooting rather than being stuck inside with a plain backdrop.  The kids seem to enjoy it more too.

Working outdoors can be a bit tricky, especially when the sun is bright.  Working in shade is a must.  Even then, you have to be very careful about any stray shards of light streaming down through the foliage or reflecting off of water and windows.  Once you find a nice area though, setting up a light or two and manually dialing in power isn’t difficult.

Of course, when children are involved, getting their attention is often the most difficult part of the shoot.  The above shot is a composite of two pictures and Photoshopped together.  I normally do everything I can to get the shot framed and correct in camera, but sometimes there is no other way.

I’ve been trying to simplify my process when working with children, as their patience level isn’t very high.  This has lead me to use only a single light on a small lightstand with a small softbox on it.  The flash is fired with a radio trigger set (low cost Cactus v4 set) and output is set manually.  Once the flash is dialed in, just keep firing.

My new favorite combo for single subject shooting is my Olympus OMD E-M5 with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens on the front.  This kit is lightweight, easy to set up and shoots fast.  The face detect autofocus actually works wonders in situations like this since it’ll track the face first, and if it can’t find it (unusual) it defaults to a focus point of your choice.  It works great so you can compose and take a shot, then recompose for another without messing with focus points.

That’s all I have for now.