Crazy Abundant Flare + some Philosophy + Weaponry :: Aliso Viejo Lifestyle Photography

This lighting in this place at this time of day (+ a secret ingredient I'll show you at the end) is pretty much my lighting love trifecta. My Littlest Dude with his "daggers" is just the cherry on top. Speaking of his weaponry ... Little Dude's school feeds him and his fellow students a regular diet of "truth, beauty & goodness" and regularly adds a dollop of "love your neighbor as yourself". But boys will be boys, and these are the "daggers" he fashioned from leftover lunch/pizza tins. Of course.

The secret ingredient? Check out that incredibly bright spot of sun reflecting off the back wall of our porch (as shown in the last image). That natural reflector threw light back onto Littlest Dude's face and illuminated him despite all that incredibly bright backlighting behind him. Because he was illuminated from front and back, I didn't have to "blow out" the surrounding details and flare like I usually have to in order to light his face adequately. Natural reflectors: I highly recommend them. :-)

And stats: to help with flare definition, I removed my lens protector, stopped down the aperature (some pics are f/11, some are f/16), and shot with a zoom lens (24-70), mostly at the 24mm end.