Portrait Photography In Full Sunny Day Vs Cloudy Day

[donny1963]

Cloudy Day Vs Full Sunlight Day Photography.

I asked this question with several people just to see what
their response is, and most of them say that sunny days are better, because they are thinking
well sunny days gives you more light, And they are right, but in most cases too much light.

Ok So here is where it's at, A Cloudy day Will make a much better situation for Portrait Photography, then if it was a Full Sunny Day, WHY?

#1 Reason is you will not be fighting Shadows From the harsh Sunlight.
#2 you will not have to worry about which direction your subject is facing
because they will not be squinting from the harsh sunlight in there eyes.

You see, Full Sunny Day, Brings Down Harsh Bright Sunlight.
This make doing portrait photography out doors more difficult.
And in some cases almost impossible..

During bright sunlight you have to worry about which direction your subject is facing, because if your subject is facing the sun, then they will be squinting,
and that would make a terrible picture,
So your limited to having what is in the background.

Then you have to constantly making sure your fill flash is filling in the shadows, and some times you need to use 2 flashes because once you use one flash some times 1 flash can create more shadows on other areas of your portrait.

I'm going to upload some images i shot on a cloudy day and the others,
in afternoon harsh sunlight, and i'm sure you will be able to see the difference.

A Cloudy day will allow a nice even ambient light equally spread out,
with out the harsh light, But giving enough light for a nice exposure.

The clouds are being one Giant light diffuser,
Making equal light spread out, and in alot of cases,
some times a fill flash is not even needed.. So take a look at the example
Pictures and you can see what a cloudy day does Vs Afternoon Harsh Sunlight With Portrait Photography.

You will notice in the pictures with a cloudy day, the light is flowing and even,
and makes perfect pictures.
but full sunny day, the sun is strong in some areas and weak in others
making shadows, and even in some cases where the hot spots
where the color is washed out.

By far, best portrait photography days are, cloudy days.
Ok if you have to guess the ones with the harsh sunlight is the last 3 pictures, one on the bridge facing the camera with white bikini, , also the shot with the white bikini on the beach sand neer the rock, the other model in black sheltered with trees where you can see the hot spots all over..

 

[table1349]

Golden Hour. Beautiful light, lack of harsh shadows.
Example

“The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it's here is up to us. Journey wisely.”
― Alexandra Elle

The golden hour is often lost due to inconvenience.

 

[tirediron]

The problem with using a high percentage of fill light on a heavily overcast day is that it can make your subject look like they are pasted into the scene when you don't balance ambient & flash optimally. 3039 and 3263 show this clearly. I would have opened up the background at least 1 to 1.5 stops for a more balanced exposure.

 

[Derrel]

The problem with using a high percentage of fill light on a heavily overcast day is that it can make your subject look like they are pasted into the scene when you don't balance ambient & flash optimally. 3039 and 3263 show this clearly. I would have opened up the background at least 1 to 1.5 stops for a more balanced exposure.

Yeah, but the flash has given a very generous exposure on the foreground model, and on those frames it would be like a ten-second adjustment in Lightroom to re-set the brightness and contrast of the background to create any number of different looks. Flash giving that generous exposure that's well above the background means digital fill-light will be super-easy to use to brighten the background, while keeping the flash-lighted foreground almost untouched. And in some ways, this bright, flash-lit foreground bikini model seen against nature--that in itself is a "look". So...

As far as sunny days versus cloudy days, I kind of prefer actually sunny days, but working on the edges of areas of what is called open shade; this gives the eyeballs a nice catchlight from the sky-lighted area above the person. Not sunlight, but the bright light from the sky. Cloudy days usually have duller backgrounds that are low in contrast, but which are easy to expose, and then we can tweak the images in post quite easily. On sunny days, you usually have a choice of a bright, back-lighted background, or a darker, shadowed background. But where you put the subject is what really matters.

I dunno...now that we've moved in to the 13.7 to 14.7 dynamic range era, it's never been easier to do post-shooting lighting corrections, adding digital fill lighting, removing fill lighting, brightening, tweaking, adjusting curves and hues and saturations and color temps selectively.

 

[donny1963]

The problem with using a high percentage of fill light on a heavily overcast day is that it can make your subject look like they are pasted into the scene when you don't balance ambient & flash optimally. 3039 and 3263 show this clearly. I would have opened up the background at least 1 to 1.5 stops for a more balanced exposure.

Yeah, but the flash has given a very generous exposure on the foreground model, and on those frames it would be like a ten-second adjustment in Lightroom to re-set the brightness and contrast of the background to create any number of different looks. Flash giving that generous exposure that's well above the background means digital fill-light will be super-easy to use to brighten the background, while keeping the flash-lighted foreground almost untouched. And in some ways, this bright, flash-lit foreground bikini model seen against nature--that in itself is a "look". So...

As far as sunny days versus cloudy days, I kind of prefer actually sunny days, but working on the edges of areas of what is called open shade; this gives the eyeballs a nice catchlight from the sky-lighted area above the person. Not sunlight, but the bright light from the sky. Cloudy days usually have duller backgrounds that are low in contrast, but which are easy to expose, and then we can tweak the images in post quite easily. On sunny days, you usually have a choice of a bright, back-lighted background, or a darker, shadowed background. But where you put the subject is what really matters.

I dunno...now that we've moved in to the 13.7 to 14.7 dynamic range era, it's never been easier to do post-shooting lighting corrections, adding digital fill lighting, removing fill lighting, brightening, tweaking, adjusting curves and hues and saturations and color temps selectively.

I like the cloudy days, and with sunny days you are limited to which direction you can face your model, because you can't face them into the sun, not unless you want them squinting, with a cloudy day, no problem there, i don't lose contast, you set the aperture right you should have a good contrast, if not lightroom can fix that easy. lol

harsh sunlight can be done but more difficult to work with, you got shadows to contend with and all kinds of other stuff..

you can still get catch light in the hair on a cloudy day, and if you really need it you can just add another speedlight aimed at her hair from above problem solved..
Donny

 

[donny1963]

Golden Hour. Beautiful light, lack of harsh shadows.
Example

“The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it's here is up to us. Journey wisely.”
― Alexandra Elle

The golden hour is often lost due to inconvenience.

Well i had to do was fix that in post i could have but i kept it that way, also can add another speedlight for the background if i wanted too, that would have taken care of that as well..

3263 is because the background is a bit darker because of the water, and the way the light is sheltered from the rocks like i said i could have fixed that in post but decided not too..

 

[tirediron]

...3263 is because the background is a bit darker because of the water, and the way the light is sheltered from the rocks like i said i could have fixed that in post but decided not too..

Why not shoot for a more balanced exposure to begin with?

 

[DanOstergren]

Simple solution to shooting on a sunny day with harsh light: find shade.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

You can shoot full sun and get beautiful portraits. Just have to know how to angle your subject and yourself

Comes down to personal preference and intent

 

[greybeard]

I prefer a cloudy day and use some fill flash or reflector.