Cultural Photoshoot – Outdoor Photography Lighting Setup (with Light Diagram)

Compostela is a small town high up in the Sierra Madre mountains. It’s only a few hours from Puerto Vallarta, so Dan and I have had the opportunity to drive there a dozen times over the last two years. In that time, we’ve got to know the (very welcoming) traditional Charro/Charra community as well as the rugged countryside that surrounds the town. We’ve also got to photograph some amazing models! This article is a quick run through the outdoor photography lighting setup we used to get this photo!

Outdoor Photography Lighting Setup

We noticed this sugar cane field on the way into town. But when we asked about shooting there, we were told it was owned by some ‘mala gente’, bad people, so we wanted to make sure we had permission before we shot. Luckily, Compostella is a small town – everybody knows everybody else – and we got the OK a few hours before the photoshoot.

Because we had only briefly checked out this location, I hadn’t had the chance to do any test shots. That meant I wasn’t 100% sure exactly where to setup. So, as our model was getting ready, Dan and I ran around with a softbox, firing away until I found a composition I liked. Eventually settling for a little path that went into the sugar cane field.

Lighting was our first challenge on this shoot, as we couldn’t make any headway into the vegetation. The sugar cane was so dense, that Dan could barely walk through it, let alone get through with a strobe, light stand, and smoke machine! Eventually, with the help of a machete and Margarita’s father, we tamed enough of the vegetation to set up a c-stand (camera right) behind our subjects. I needed the light and smoke there to create separation between the subjects and the background. In particular, the dark horse was proving to be an issue and I needed to introduce some fill so I could get some detail in the shadows.

The key light is on a c-stand to the left of the camera. I used a large octobox and placed it high above the model to give the illusion of it being natural light, but providing more shape than the natural light would have done. I also placed it at enough of an angle to give us some nice texture on that dress.

With the lights in place, I set out refining my composition. I wanted to bring the environment into the frame so I used a wide-angle lens, wide open at f/2.8 to give me as much separation between model and vegetation as I could get in the cramped location. I then got down onto the floor so that the perspective would make Margarita⁠ appear more majestic and imposing in the photo.

We then got about 2 mins to shoot before the horse cottoned on to how tasty the sugar cane was and we had to call it a day!

Join us in Compostela for our Charro and Charra workshops and you could be taking photos like this!