Then we head into a residential street to find a tunnel of light under that most commonplace of environmental objects – the humble tree. You’ll see how placing your subject between two open areas in the tree canopy above gives beautiful catchlights in their eyes and soft light on their hair, as well as highlighting some subtle textures in the background, too.

Lastly, we’ll show you how you can work with the last wisps of winter sun for a backlit portrait, too.

We’re using a minimum of kit, so there’s no excuse not to put these ideas into practice. You just need one model, one camera, one reflector… oh, and a string of fairy lights!