Lugging heavy light stands and gear bags around, I spent half the day bustling about in the park. This location shoot was pure physical labor. For this session, I brought two lights: a Godox AD200Pro II with a 90cm octabox softbox placed at the front side as key light, and a Godox ML100Bi continuous light at the rear side for rim lighting. Honestly, shooting with natural light in the past was much easier. Running around the park with lighting equipment, swapping batteries, and shifting light stands kept me frantically busy. Add in the hot weather, and my clothes were completely soaked through. The most unbearable part was the vicious park mosquitoes; my legs were covered in itchy bites that I had to endure. But seeing the final shots made all that suffering worthwhile.
I had previously studied the out-of-camera colors of the Panasonic S5M2, which, paired with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 lens, produces an incredibly creamy bokeh that neatly smoothed away the cluttered park background. To capture a great rim light, adjusting the angle of the continuous light took quite some time—too bright and it blew out, too dim and the hair lost texture. In the end, the light caught the delicate halo along the hair strands just right. The Lolita dress I wore was paired with twin tails, a flower wreath, and daisies in hand. This kind of dress demands precise posing; lifting the skirt must look effortless, blending with the woodland backdrop to evoke an enchanting forest atmosphere with a vivid 2D vibe. The afternoon natural light combined with the side-front softbox softened facial shadows, avoiding the harshness of direct sunlight. We experimented with several angles, including sitting beside exposed tree roots and swishing the skirt in the meadow, and all the candid captures turned out great.
Adjustments throughout the session turned into an endurance test. The 90cm octabox truly rendered skin with delicate clarity, and I kept shifting positions to ensure even facial exposure. The model, Haiyan, also worked exceptionally hard—getting bitten by mosquitoes while sitting on the lawn yet remaining fully cooperative with every pose. Before the shoot, I worried that an 85mm focal length might be too long, but inside the woods, it delivered the perfect sense of depth and layering. The lighting environment was tricky, with sharp contrasts under tree shade and blown-out highlights under direct sun. The dual-light setup solved the lighting distribution problem seamlessly. Using continuous light for rim lighting allowed us to see brightness and shadows directly on screen, which offered comfortable, intuitive control. Lugging all that heavy equipment between spots, however, was thoroughly exhausting.
By wrap-up, dusk had nearly fallen. Carrying two lights and a camera bag left my shoulders aching in protest. Although it was an exhausting afternoon of feeding mosquitoes, looking at the final portraits proves that the lighting quality is far more refined than relying purely on natural light. For me, this location shoot with off-camera lighting was a valuable learning experience; next time, I will definitely plan my route ahead of time to avoid wasting energy moving around. That said, the overall portrait photography results were completely worthy of the sweat.