I spend most of my working life in a controlled environment. Every light in my studio has a strip of masking tape on it with a label: key, fill, hair, kicker. I know exactly what each one is doing at any given moment. That control is the whole point. So when a recent editorial brief pushed me outside for a “candid, documentary-style” series in downtown Los Angeles, I felt the specific discomfort of a person who has forgotten that light exists before you plug anything in.

That discomfort sent me back to a video I had bookmarked months earlier and never properly sat with.

In this Sean Tucker tutorial, Tucker joins street photographer Joshua K. Jackson for a session that doubles as a masterclass in reading ambient light under pressure. What struck me watching it again with fresh eyes was how much of what Jackson does intuitively maps onto decisions I make deliberately in the studio. The difference is that he has maybe three seconds to make them.

Why Transparent Materials Are Your First Light Modifier

Jackson’s first location choice involves shooting near glass and translucent surfaces, and Tucker spends real time on why this works. Glass diffuses and softens direct sunlight in a way that flatters subjects, functioning essentially as a giant natural scrim. The light that passes through a shop window or a frosted partition loses its hard edge. The result is directional but without the harsh falloff you get from raw sun.

In the studio, I replicate this constantly with a large diffusion panel between a strobe and my subject. The geometry is identical. What Jackson is doing on the street is recognizing that the city has already built that modifier for him. He just needs to position his subject on the right side of it and adjust his angle so the diffused source is working as a key light, not fighting him from behind.

The practical takeaway: when you are scouting locations outdoors, stop looking for shade and start looking for translucency. A canopy, a curtain, a window. Anything that interrupts direct light before it hits your subject’s face is a tool you did not have to carry.

Using Reflective Surfaces as a Free Fill Card

Tucker and Jackson move on to shooting near reflective surfaces, specifically the way glass storefronts and polished building facades bounce light back into shadow areas. This is fill light. Not metaphorically. It is doing the exact job a V-flat does in my studio at a ratio I can control.

On the street you cannot control the ratio, but Jackson shows that you can choose it. By adjusting how far the subject stands from the reflective surface, and at what angle, you shift how much light bounces back into the shadow side of the face. Step closer to the glass, more fill, flatter lighting. Step away, the shadows deepen, the image gets more dramatic.

I would add one thing here that the video does not cover directly. Reflective surfaces also pick up color. A polished copper facade gives you a warm fill. A glass office tower on a cloudy day gives you a cool, slightly blue fill. In the studio I would correct this with a gel. On the street you either lean into it or you move. Knowing it is happening means you are making a choice rather than discovering a problem in Lightroom at midnight.

Backlighting as a Compositional Decision, Not a Problem to Solve

The backlighting section is where Tucker’s explanation gets most useful for anyone coming from a studio background. Jackson actively seeks situations where the primary light source is behind his subject. This runs counter to every instinct I had when I first started shooting, which was to put the light on the face and call it done.

Backlight does two things that frontal light cannot. It separates the subject from the background by creating a rim or halo effect around the hair and shoulders, and it adds depth by revealing the three-dimensional shape of the subject rather than flattening them against the scene. Jackson exposes for the face and lets the background blow. The subject is isolated. The image has atmosphere.

In the studio I use a hair light and a background light to manufacture this separation deliberately. What Jackson is doing is hunting for the moments when the city provides it for free, then reacting fast enough to capture it before the moment is gone. That spontaneity is the skill. The lighting principle underneath it is exactly the same one I have sketched in my lighting journal dozens of times.

The Part of This I Would Do Differently

My one genuine reservation with the street approach as shown is the reliance on available reflectors and diffusers that you cannot adjust. In the studio, if my fill ratio is wrong, I move a light or drop the power half a stop. On the street, if the reflective building is throwing too much fill and the image looks flat, your options are limited to repositioning, changing the angle of the camera, or finding a different location entirely.

For the documentary-style editorial I was shooting downtown, I started carrying a single compact reflector in my bag as a way to supplement what the environment was offering. It added maybe two minutes to each setup, which felt like an eternity compared to studio pace, but it gave me one controllable variable when everything else was fixed. Not a solution Jackson would need or want for the kind of fluid, reactive work he does. But for a slower, more deliberate editorial approach, it bridged the gap between pure street instinct and the controlled logic I rely on inside.

The Principle That Transfers Back Into the Studio

The real value of watching Jackson work is not learning to shoot on the street. It is being reminded that light has consistent behavior regardless of whether you generated it or found it. Transparent surfaces diffuse, reflective surfaces fill, and backlight separates. Those three facts do not change when you walk indoors and start plugging things in.

Watch the full video to see Jackson and Tucker demonstrate these principles in real time, across multiple locations, in a way that no diagram or written description fully replaces.