Dealing with High Contrast on a Sunny Day

Cinka · Mar 3, 2008

I had a shoot today that seemed like a photographer's worst nightmare. It was an African American model wearing a bright white shirt, black skirt, and a bright white hat, at high noon on a VERY sunny day.

I had a hard time finding a middle ground. I could get a good exposure for the model, but the background would be blown out or visa versa or the background would be fine, but the model too dark. Is this an impossible situation? How to do you deal with extreme contrast? I tried to convince the model that we needed to shoot in the shade, but she didn't believe me. This was a paid shoot, so even though I tried to impart my professional wisdom on her, I still allowed her to voice her opinion on location.

Help? I think maybe I should have used a fill flash.

Phranquey · Mar 3, 2008

Fill flash, reflectors, a shady background, or a combination thereof.

Oh, yeah. I also carry a roll of duct tape for the overly opinionated........

JerryPH · Mar 4, 2008

Phranquey said:
Fill flash, reflectors, a shady background, or a combination thereof.

Careful placement of the couple so that one isn't in the shade when the other is... and sometimes you just have to blow out the bride if you want to get the shot of the groom, and visa-versa. In north american weddings, its the bride that is the star, as long as most of your pictures focus on her, it doesn't matter terribly if the odd pic of the groom in the background doesn't come out.

But off camera fill-flash *IS* your friend... that and a nice small aperture!