Currently I'm trying to perfect my portrait photography, which I'm usually doing outdoors in soft light (either sunrise or sunset). My subjects are sometimes posing in front of a bright background which makes it challenging to take a picture where everything is properly exposed:
One of the solutions is to use a flash, but watching a video about various types of flashes it seems that for perfect outdoor light I would need either:
- Someone to hold a reflector, which requires an assistant
- A setup of one or two umbrella-mounted flashes, which would also be challenging alone
- To ignore flash altogether and shoot bracketed HDR images
Is there a setup that would allow me to take pictures without an assistant and still get well-lit shots without harsh shadows? I've tried using the built-in flash with a diffuser but the results weren't good. I can buy a powerful external flash, but I need to be sure it would useful for my goals.