Studio Anywhere: A Photographer’s Guide to Shooting in Unconventional Locations

21. Get on Up

What do you do when you’re photographing a subject outdoors in a particularly uninteresting part of town? You stand her on the roof of your car and use the sky as a backdrop, of course! If the clouds are as epic as they were the day of my test shoot with Michaela, I promise the shots will be well worth the climb.

Up on the Roof

For this session, I met Michaela behind a nearby shopping center. These are great shoot locations, because the backsides of the buildings are large, blank, and typically white or light-colored, as well as also typically empty. Not to mention, they are surrounded by parking lots, so the horizon line is often relatively clear of trees, houses, and tall buildings, making it perfect for shooting the sky.