Week 5 — Open shade and backgrounds

26 October–1 November 2026 · issued Friday 30 October · eight-hour ceiling

Completion of earlier work is unreported. This delivery is late in the week: use the three-hour fallback if needed, rather than compressing eight hours into the weekend. No purchase required.

Objective

Make five adult portraits and two matched comparison pairs showing how light or background choices improve the photograph. Explain the decision behind your preferred setup. Pairs may overlap the five portraits.

Study — two hours maximum

  • 50 minutes: owned Ghionis library, Art of Wedding Photography → The Light, Part 3 → Open Shade.
  • 25 minutes: Reflectors from the same section. A reflector is optional; study what fill changes rather than buying equipment.
  • 25 minutes: selected open-shade teaching in Scott Robert Lim's available-light seminar. Substitute this for owned study if access fails; do not add extra viewing.
  • 20 minutes: inspect earlier photographs and plan two comparisons. Record actual study and resume points; these allocations are not lesson runtimes.

Prepare and photograph — three hours

  1. Prepare/scout, 45 minutes: choose one nearby open-shade location with two possible backgrounds and a window-light fallback. Ask a willing adult about comfort and preferred portrayal; seated work is fine. Use familiar equipment and a simple head-and-shoulders framing.
  2. Setup/tests, 30 minutes: identify the brighter open sky, position the face towards it and check eye focus, bright skin detail and shutter speed for movement. Avoid patches of sunlight across the face. No fixed settings or new flash setup are required.
  3. Photograph, up to 60 minutes with breaks: make pair A with the same subject, similar framing and a consistent pose against two backgrounds. Move camera/subject only as needed, keeping light direction similar; note anything else that changes. Compare distracting branches/bright patches with a cleaner view. Make pair B using similar framing in window light and open shade, adjusting exposure for comparable face brightness. If moving between locations is impractical, use two face orientations in the same shade and label the change accurately. Finish with your preferred setup and a relaxed expression. Give one instruction at a time. If repeating Week 4's exercise, address its recorded weakness rather than repeating it unchanged.
  4. Import/backup/notes, 45 minutes: preserve originals, make a separate backup, verify representative files open and record camera/subject/light positions. Shorten the session if your subject tires; use spare time for notes.

Cull and edit — two hours

Choose five portraits including two comparison pairs, allowing overlap. Apply basic exposure, white balance and crop; keep paired edits comparable so heavy processing does not hide the capture differences. Export and check files open. If autumn photographs remain unedited, shorten the new exercise and transfer time to finishing their 8–12-image gallery within this weekly budget. A 25 October shoot's seven-day editing deadline is 1 November.

Review — one hour

Score five images 0–2 for technical quality, light, posing/expression, composition and editing, with a visible reason for each score. For each pair, state what changed, which image you prefer and why: eye sharpness, face shadows, separation from the background, distracting shapes and believable skin colour. Ask the subject which portrait feels most like them. Compare one frame to Week 1 if available and choose one priority for next week's camera-shy adult session.

Deliver by Sunday 1 November

  • Five edited portraits including two labelled comparison pairs.
  • A short explanation of your preferred light/background and one next priority.
  • Verified original, backup and export locations; actual study and practice recorded in Progress.
  • Autumn gallery status recorded honestly; no earlier completion assumed.

Adaptations and three-hour fallback

Bad weather: do both comparisons by a window, changing background/viewpoint for one and face orientation for the other. No adult available: use self-portraits and mark interpersonal direction unpractised. Missing Week 1 baseline: establish one now with its actual date; do not invent a historical comparison. The planned autumn shoot window has ended; record missed work or a substitution rather than expecting foliage to remain. Any family catch-up replaces this practice, not an additional full session; keep toddler participation short and use the seasonal brief.

Three hours: 30 minutes selected study, 75 minutes preparation/short photography, 45 minutes backup/basic editing and 30 minutes review. Deliver three images and one labelled comparison pair, allowing overlap. Mark the full assignment partial. If an existing autumn gallery is the outstanding priority, use the practical block for its selection and compare one original/basic-edit pair; record new light/background practice as deferred.