Taking Photos of People After Sunset

two women sitting in a red car and laughing together

When the sun goes down, how do you light a photo?

Did you know that sometimes I see strangers and I really want to photograph them? Well I do – I probably would want to photograph you if I saw you just now. But only occasionally I get up the courage to ask someone if I could please photograph them. And that was the case when I saw K and A sitting on the grass having a rest from their job this week. I was trying to find a cafe someone had recommended to me, so I approached these ladies to ask if they knew where it was. As I got closer and could see their faces I knew that I wanted to make some photos with them. Of course, being busy women, they couldn’t meet me until after 5pm, but they knew a park that would be a good setting. But of course, me being bad with directions, I didn’t get there until late, and couldn’t find them. And me being bad with writing down numbers I rang a complete random stranger and she wanted to know why I had texted her about a photo shoot. So there I was ready to take photos but there was no-one to photograph, and I couldn’t contact them because I had the wrong phone number. But then my phone rang (thank goodness they had my number) and they wondered where I was – well I didn’t know there were two entrances to the park, and I was at the wrong entrance! Anyway, all that rambling was just to say that by the time the lovely ladies arrived, it was well and truly too dark to take the photos I had envisaged.

Photo of two women sitting in a red car and the driver is looking out the open window with her arm resting on the opening.

The first artificial light we tried was the light from the interior light in the car and the vanity mirror lights, which turned out to be quite yellow. But I loved a couple of the photos that had a bit of a “Thelma and Louise” feel to them.

A dark black and white image of two women sitting in a car with the driver's arm resting on the window ledge.

I tried making a black-and-white version of one of these photos, and I think it has quite a different feeling from the ones dominated by the red colour of the car.

photo of two women wearing pink hi-vis and white hard-hats looking at their phones and leaning on a yellow barrier.

I didn’t have a camera flash with me, as I was travelling light, and I didn’t even have a torch because I wasn’t in my own car; but we all carry a torch with us, don’t we? Although on the iPhone it is called a ‘flashlight’, I believe. I opened up a white screen on my iPhone, and gave it to K to hold, and A opened her phone too. We used that light to add interest to some photos shot near some plastic barriers near where some construction was happening. It seemed appropriate with the hi-vis and hard-hats.

For individual photos one of them would act as the ‘lighting assistant’ while pointing the iPhone torch at the other. Not an ideal method of lighting a subject, but at least it put some light on their faces.

Photo of a lady in her 50s wearing a hard-had and pink hi-vis vest. She has one hand on her hip and is looking at the camera, showing facial piercings.
One female worker wearing hi-vis and denim with a white hard-had. She is standing with one foot up on a yellow safety barrier.

In the end, what I thought was going to be a missed opportunity turned out to be a lot of fun, and I came away with a handful of photos that I think are pretty good!

Kids Sport Stock Photography – Aussie Rules Football

image with three pairs of legs wearing footy boots and long purple sock with one child behind handling AFL football

Australian Rules football is a game unique to Australia, so it’s important to include photos like these in the Austockphoto stock photography library. However branding has to be removed before the photos can be used for stock images, which takes considerable time in Photoshop. In this case the colour of the football jumpers/jerseys/guernseys (terminology depends on which part of Australia you live in apparently) also was very recognisable. I’m glad that I didn’t have to do all of that editing myself! Thank goodness for virtual assistants, and the ability to send images anywhere in the world via the internet… If you find the images on the Austockphoto stock photography library or on the Adobe Stock premium Australian gallery you will see that the branding and logos are gone, and colour of the uniforms has been shifted to appear as a more maroon colour.

Girls Football Training Stock Photo Shoot

three young women wearing football jerseys seen from behind

Girls playing footy! A recent inspiring photoshoot was with some girls from the Eaton Boomers women’s football team. Women’s football has become immensely popular, so I figured that there needs to be some stock photos of the sport in the Austockphoto stock photography library. Three of the girls from the team showed up early before training, and showed me how it is done!

Female teammates practise hand balling at Aussie Rules football training
Practising hand-balling at training.
view from behind showing legs of female football player with socks and boots on green grass of oval
green grass, short socks, slim legs.
two players jump to tap the football while a third player is mostly out of frame in foreground
Leaping for a tap.
Woman football player with arms crossed laughing as she looks at another player
Camaraderie
Two young women playing Aussie Rules football jump to tap the ball.
Another tapdown.