Natural light question... (high sun)

[Reyna]

Ok, so I was taking some photos of my kiddos the other day around 11am and it was pretty sunny. Some of them came out fine and I am pretty sure it all depended on which way one of the kids were facing.

So, just to be sure, I want the subject facing away from the sun and my camera facing the sun? That way there is no glare on the subjects face and nothing is blown? I hope this makes sense!!

 

[camz]

In these conditions you will definetly need a reflector. If you want to shoot in natural light under the high sun your reflector will most likely be lower then your subject's face in order to bounce the light back up and avoid the shadow casts. I use the lastolite trigrip diffuser and have this cover the subject if it is too harsh and the lastolite trigrip reflector to brighten the subject back up. They work as if your sandwiching the subject with the diffuser on top(covering the subject) and the reflector on the bottom. You can do without the diffuser and just use a reflector..don't listen to the poeple who says you can't do it during high noon...I think it's BS b/c they never did it right. I've shot natural light in the harshest conditions many many many times and lived with just a reflector..a good reflector that is.

With the reflector you can pretty much have the sun anywhere when you're shooting. Just make sure it's not directly infront of them to where your subject ends up squinting. Having the sun behind your subject at certain angles results in some creative hair light as well.