Sujata Setia
Who says never work with children and animals? Family photographer Sujata Setia teaches our Apprentice to take stunning natural-light portraits
Sujata shows our Apprentice the secrets of getting great naturallight shots of family and their four-legged friends.
sujata and Jessica met one spring afternoon at Lainey’s Farm (www.laineysfarm.co.uk) in the Kent countryside, near the village of Staplehurst. The farm is a registered charity that works with adults with learning difficulties, and is a location that Sujata often uses, both for shooting portraits for clients or teaching her regular workshops. The subjects were newborn baby Frankie, just 11 days old, proud mum Lucy, and Frankie’s 11-year-old cousin Amelie. The plan was to start the shoot inside the characterful oak-beamed farmhouse, using natural window light, and then move outside towards sunset for the light of the golden hour. But first there was the small matter of getting the baby to sleep. After a change of nappy, a feed, and dressing Frankie in the cute romper suit that Sujata had provided, she worked her magic to get him to nod off…
Eyes wide shut
After a few cuddles and soothing words of encouragement, Frankie was soon fast asleep in Sujata’s expert hands, and it was time to set up the first shot. Sujata positioned Amelie in an armchair next to the window with Frankie on her shoulder, so they were lit by the streaming sunlight, which formed a wonderful rim light. But Sujata was careful that the window wasn’t directly behind her subjects. “I pulled the curtain behind Amelie as if the window were behind her head, the sun would create a funny halo around her, and I don’t want that,” she explained.
It was then that Stanley wandered into the room. “I need this cat in the shot!” exclaimed Sujata, whose images are characterized by often including animals. Stanley, unfortunately, had other ideas. “He’s quite unsociable,” apologized his owner (and Amelie’s mother) Elaine. But a couple of tasty treats on the arm of the sofa persuaded him to cooperate, and with that they were ready to shoot. Sujata checked over Jessica’s setting and suggested some final adjustments: “Instead of shooting wide open at f/1.4, keep it at f/2. And if there are animals, you’ll need a quick shutter speed of around 1/400 sec – your subjects might be sitting nice and still, but the animal may not be so cooperative…”
Jessica dialled in her settings, then set a matching ISO accordingly. “Is ISO500 okay?” she asked.
“Yes, but I don’t go beyond ISO2000 because I know, no matter how much I try, I’ll get grain,” cautioned Sujata. “There has to be decent lighting in nature. If it’s too late in the evening, and the sun has gone down, and I’m not getting enough light in my camera, I’ll stop shooting.”
After checking her initial attempts, Sujata suggested a few compositional tweaks, ensuring the window frames were perfectly vertical and that the subjects were positioned towards the bottom-left of the frame. She also advised Jessica to underexpose the shot so that the light in the window wasn’t blown out, as the subject can be brightened in post-processing, but overblown highlights are unsalvageable.
KEEP your options open With the initial portrait shot in the bag, Sujata then proposed Jessica take a landscape variant, again keeping the subjects towards the bottom left of the frame. “You never know whether your client will prefer a portrait or landscape orientation shot,” explains Sujata, “so you may as well give them both options.”
The long-suffering Stanley was resigned to his fate by this point, enabling Jessica to
capture him in the right place in her composition. “I often have to move animals into the right position in Photoshop,” laughed Sujata, “but he’s actually been very well behaved.”
the light Fantastic
As afternoon turned to evening, it was time to head outside and make the most of the golden hour. Sujata looked for a composition where she could use natural objects to diffuse the strong sunlight.
“I’m actually selecting this spot for four main reasons,” she explained after choosing a location in a quiet corner of the farm. “First, the gnarled trees in the background give a beautiful threedimensional perspective that I know will give a dreamy feel to the shot. Second, the light is filtering through the branches so it’s going to give a beautiful warm rim light around the subject. Third, I’m getting great leading lines from the fence, and fourth there’s a reasonable depth of field, so a wide aperture will give the image the creamy effect I look for.”
create A narrative Background selected, Sujata directed Lucy and Frankie into position. She explained that she wanted to use farmyard animals in the portrait, but to do this Jessica would need to take two shots with the same background, which she would then composite together in post-production: “Trying to get the mother and baby and the lamb in the same shot never happens!” Sujata explained her thinking behind the
setup. “My subject is most important because it provides the narrative, which is the relationship between a mother and her child. Then having a creature gazing at them gives the feeling of a nativity scene. The next most important thing is to look for warm, golden light that will bathe the subject.”
Jessica used Sujata’s 135mm lens, wide open at f/2. As the resulting depth of field was very shallow, Sujata carefully positioned the mother and baby so they were in the same line of horizontal focus.
“We’ll take the shot of the mother and baby first, then I’ll get a helper to stand in exactly the same position, using animal feed to attract the lamb. All you need is one animal looking up and you’ve got the shots you need, ready to composite together.”
With both shots successfully in the bag, the baby was getting cold, and it was time to move on to the final shot or the day.
late Blossom The sun would be setting soon, but there was still time for a portrait shot of Amelie, and this time Sujata wanted to use a tree in full blossom as the background. It was in the pigpen, and this was of great interest to its porcine inhabitants as the trio entered their enclosure. Sujata posed Amelie, and asked her to close her eyes, opening them an instant before Jessica took each shot.
“It keeps the eyes looking fresh and gives them a sparkle,” she explained.
After trying a number of compositions, Jessica asked Amelie to try holding a twig of blossoms from the tree in her hand, which really made the shot, bringing a great day out at the farm to a close.
sujata’s verdict
I’m very much a self-taught photographer, so I encouraged Jessica not to get too bogged down with the technical side of things that she was learning at university. I wanted her to concentrate on capturing the relationships of the subjects in front of her. She was a fantastic and attentive student, with a great eye for composition and understanding of light. It was great to see her growing in confidence throughout the duration of our shoot at the farm. While she was initially content to listen and learn through the earlier part of the afternoon, by the end of the day she was happily directing Amelie to pose the way she wanted, and has produced a wonderfully warm final portrait that any parent would be delighted to hang pride of place in their living room. Well done, Jessica!
jessica’s comment While I’ve had plenty of time in the studio at uni learning the science behind portraiture, lighting setups and power ratios, this was a totally different way to shoot portraits than I’m used to – using only natural light. It was wonderful to see how Sujata directed her subjects, be they 11 days or 11 years old, or perhaps a little older! She has a wonderful manner that put them at ease while getting them to do precisely as she wanted – and that includes the animals we included in the images, as well as people. It was brilliant, too, to learn a few tricks of the trade, and I can’t wait to put them into practice on my own projects. I learnt how prime lenses have a completely different feel to zooms when shooting wide open and into the light, for a lovely dreamy quality that brings portraits to life.