Shooting Outdoors Can Be A Nightmare....

A common mistake I see a lot of people make that are new to photography is their technique when photographing people outside during the day...or lack of. If you do not thinking understanding and controlling light is essential to photography...stop, put your DSLR on craigslist and go find a nice point and shoot.

Photography is light.

When you look at a photo all you are seeing is how light is reacting to the subject you are shooting. This biggest improvement you can make to your photography is understanding it. If you do not understand anything else about photography except controlling the light source then you are already a head of the game. When you are using studio lighting or off camera flashes you can understand the source of light and evenmore so have all of the control of the source.


READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

But shooting outside? This is a different ballgame all together. Clouds never cover your flashes and your studio lighting (well good studio lighting I guess) doesn't randomly decide to get brighter or decide to completely shut off all together at the end of the day. The Sun? The Sun can be a huge asshole to photographers. Luckily, humans are smarter than that big stupid burning star and have figured a few ways around the Sun from ruining our photos.

PART ONE: Even Light

Even light is the key to better quality photography and less chances of having a heart attack. If you have clients booking sessions or some friends that want photo's done simply avoid even worrying about harsh light and request you shoot later in the day when the sun is on an almost even plane with the horizon. When is this special time of day? It really depends on where you live and what time of the year it is. Usually choosing the right time of day is a harder task than the actual shoot...especially if you live by the ocean and deal with the marine layer....

That being said, if you can, book your sessions around an hour to an hour and a half before sundown. (the same timing goes for mornings and the sunrise if you and your clients are morning people) To study light or understand how it works you can just pick up your camera and go outside and try shooting and looking at the results.

Check out the quick diagram I made showing how the mean Sun hits a subject at different parts of the day. The yellow represent harsh hard light vs the grey areas representing the shadows the Sun's light creates.

The shot below was a misfire from my cameras flash that shows how the Suns harsh light creates very unwanted shadows. This was shot close to the beach at around 5pm on a late summer day.

PART TWO: Unavoidable Harsh Sun

So a bride booked you for her wedding ceremony...at the beach...AT noon? what do you do? Obviously other photographers shoot at this time and did it very successfully so what is there to do? Bouncing available light and using fill-flash and bouncing techniques from an off-camera or hot-shoe mounted flash. Since books are written on the fill-flash technique, I will save that for another posting.

Below is a diagram of three shots that I photographed today of my daughter. No she isn't choking in the middle photo. She has just had 50,000 photos taken of her and she kind of gets bored of "cheese!"

The first diagram displays the overall area of the three photos. If I was on a session with a client and I was photographing this beautiful gorgeous princess at 11:30am in the morning, I would look at this overall scene and instantly decide to shoot into the more shadowy area allowing me to control the overall even light the area gives.

click on image to view larger!

Photo A. Again you can see how there are no shadows on the subject as well as no harsh shadows or uneven tones to the skin.

Photo B. I swear I am a good Father and she is not choking. In this photo you can see what the subject looks like in the late morning sunlight that was close to almost being overhead. You can see the unflattering differences in harsh hard light on the right side of the face vs the uneven and bad shadows created on the left side of the face.

Photo C. Bouncing the light! Using the poster board that is seen in the reference shot image, you can place the reflective material opposite of the Sun to bounce that light onto your subject to create a more even light. And I know it looks like she is squinting, but she does that with her face when she smiles. Excuses excuses huh? casualty of using two and four year olds as models...

Overview:

Like with anything in photography, learning to see light and how it is affecting your photography only takes time and practice. Just going outside with a friend or family member and moving them around and shooting in different locations at different parts of the day will greatly help you develop this skill.

You can use just about anything white or reflective to bounce light. In this posting I used a piece of poster board I had laying around the house that was left over from doing some lightbox photography. There are photography specific reflectors you can purchase and they are decently cheap. They are also made to travel, which is key in not having to pack poster board in your car every time you want to shoot.

Adorama.com offers just about every size you would need. To go on the super cheap, you can always pick up one of the front windshield shades from Walmart or Target. They usually cost around $5 and have a reflective panel on one side.

Have any questions? Comment below or shoot me an email at ryan@ryandaleyphotography.com