face-lighting question

[refreshinglyblue]

More curiosity than anything. As it is my first DSLR, I was playing with settings to learn what effect they'd have on pictures; found this a bit troublesome.

Photo was taken in direct sunlight, and his hat cast a heavy shadow on his face (quite worse without the flash). What could I do with the camera to minimize the shadow? Or rather, minimize the contrast between the lighted and shadowed parts of his face?



SOOC
Canon EOS 5D
1/200 sec.
f/11
70mm
ISO-100
580EX II Speedlite

[MrJones]

if you're talking about things the camera can do than you can shoot an on camera flash at his face to reduce the shadows like you did.
the camera can be the newest, most featured camera but shadows can't be fixed with it.
what you could have done to avoid that shadow is just to take the photo with his back to the sun (unless it's straight above) or just move him into the shade.

[refreshinglyblue]

Thank you for your suggestions -- shooting a flash at his face was the only thing I could figure out to work half-decently.

I am aware that shifting his position or relocating him could have nullified the problem, but I was (am) more interested in combating shadows directly instead of avoiding them. But if there's nothing to be done, then I am glad to learn a limit of the camera's abilities.