Tips for Bright and Sunny Conditions...

[afliegs]

I went out and shot a portrait session last weekend. The first half of the photos were shot in overcast conditions and they turned out great. The sun came out for the second half of the photo shoot and the photos did not turn out as well. I did get some good shots with the sun coming from behind the models, but overall the photos were very inconsistent and a lot of them seemed contrasty. I have a 5 in 1 reflector that I tried some of the techniques that I read about, but nothing was working that well. When I used spot or center-weighted metering, the backgrounds were blown out. When I used evaluative metering, the subjects were too dark. I know one technique is to try and find shade, but that's not always possible.

What are some good resources about shooting in bright and sunny conditions? Does anybody have some good tips?

I have another photo shoot this weekend and the weather is calling for nothing buy sunny conditions.

 

[Buckster]

Use a diffuser between the sun and model. Even a white sheet will work in a pinch, though you'll need to figure a way to hold it up (tied to trees, two volunteers holding it, etc.)

Think about finding places to shoot that are near you where you'll have a way to duck your subject into some shade if you need to, then "finding shade" will be a lot more possible on the fly.

 

[MLeeK]

When the sun is in full force you need to have a fill flash or you will get raccoon eyes among other headaches. Open shade is best which is why your overcast images are great. overcast is the best light to be had!!!

 

[Robin Usagani]

Off camera flash.

My favorite is putting dappled sun (sun behind a tree) behind the subject with no flash or with flash. So you can still see sun hitting the subject from the back BUT not intense.

 

[KmH]

Overcast light pretty much sucks all by itself.

Lighting your subject with modified strobed light fixes most of the issues overcast light presents.

 

[Derrel]

Bright and sunny light can be used like a "hard" studio flash light, with sharp-edged shadows, and lots of bright light that can reveal details,textures, and skin definition. If you look at some types of fashion photography, where a single "hard" source of light is used, you will see that a beauty dish or umbrella that casts a strong light, with a hard shadow, can make a face stand out well when there is a good,strong under-chin shadow. The key is to make sure that subjects are not squinting too much. Squinty eyes do not typically look good unless people are actively laughing and giggling.

Bright sun can also be used as side-lighting or back-lighting (creating rim-lighting effects). What you do is to set the subjects up so they are looking AWAY from the sun, with the sun coming in over their shoulder, and then use either reflected light (from light-colored sand, a light-colored car, or a building, or even a bedsheet or large reflector panel). With the ISO value relatively low, like 100 to 200, you set the exposure for the BRIGHT rim lighting and then shoot with the subjects in the slightly dimmer back light. You can also use flash-fill many times. Then, in post-production, you "Lift" the shadows "up" and brighten them. In the winter time months in many places in the US, the "sunlight" is so,so weak that this is exceptionally easy to do. IN fact, in many places this time of year, one single electronic flash unit placed on a stand can imitate the "sun". There are a number of good portrait photographers who use this method qwuite a bit, and get beautiful side-lighting from one flash unit, and then use natural, weak winter light as the main source of light.

I would urge you to do this: get some fashion magazines, and look thru them to find a few examples of HARD, outdoor lighting with SHARP shadows. Look at those images, and see that, YES, there is a way to position people so that bright,outdoor sunlight can look good. Most of the time we read that bright sunlight is absolutely no good whatsoever. That is untrue.

 

[DiskoJoe]

just wait until later in the day. Pictures also help with discussions of this nature.

 

[cgarland69]

Do anyone have advice on the best lens for shooting a wedding with 200 people in a small to medium size Church? The wedding party is 10 people. I am new at this and just purchased a Canon Rebel 2i 550D with a 18-55 lens, f/3.5. The lighting is not the best in the facility.