For a year I photographed every sitter in the same room, by the same window. It taught me more than any lighting kit.
In the winter of 2023 I rented a bare room in Vesterbro with one north-facing window and made a rule for myself: every portrait for the next year would be made there, by that window, with nothing else.
Why north light
In the northern hemisphere a north-facing window never receives direct sun. The light that comes through it is reflected from the sky, soft and directional, and it changes slowly over the day rather than jumping from bright to dark when a cloud passes. Painters have chosen north light for centuries for the same reason.
Distance is your dimmer switch
With one window you cannot turn the light up or down, but you can move the sitter. One step closer and the light gets brighter and the falloff across the face becomes dramatic. Two steps back and it flattens and evens out. Most of my sessions are a slow dance between those two positions.
One window gave me fewer choices, and fewer choices gave me better pictures.
The angle of the face
Facing the window, the light is flat and flattering, almost like beauty light. Turned forty-five degrees away, you get the classic loop of shadow under the nose. Turned side on, half the face falls into shadow and the portrait becomes about shape rather than detail.
What it changed
When I went back to commissions with a full lighting kit, I found I was using less of it. Usually one light, large and close, with a dark wall behind the sitter. The window had taught me what I actually needed, and it was much less than I had been carrying.
