Even shade and natural light

[naeno]

I love to take family portraits under large trees. However, I'm finding that when I'm only trying to photograph one person, I can find a patch of shade large enough to cover them, but when additional people are added, I get very mottled lighting. It makes it difficult to even out the lighting. Do any of you have any suggestions for how to even out the lighting?

I'm going to be getting an off camera flash shortly. However, I'm a bit worried that it's going to end up blowing out the areas that have brighter light. Thoughts?

[zona5101]

The flash won't eliminate the mottled sunlight spots. It will help make the difference between them and the shade-lit areas less. It will help fill in shadows but it won't be able to tame the bright spots....otherwise you might as well shoot in open sun, eh? I believe the best tool for smoothing out the bright spots will be a difusion panel. Big ones are unweildy but the concept lends itself to DIY pretty easy.

[candidrachel]

According to Scott Kelby he recommends moving your subjects to an an area that doesn't have this "dappled light" effect shining through.

[pacheco78]

In order to avoid blowing out areas with a hot shoe flash, whether on or off camera, you can dial down the power on the flash about a third to a full stop.