Portraits in direct sunlight - advice please

[sma200]

What advice can you give for taking portraits in direct sunlight?

What kind of extra equipment will I need (lenses etc...)?

Positioning? (looking into sun, sun at the side, sun at the back)?

camera settings? (ISO, ETC...)

[zona5101]

best advice? don't shoot in direct sun
But if can not get out of the direct sun into some shade or cover, see if you can use a scrim or other gobo to screen the light. If not that then probably want to have their back to the sun so they aren't squinting. You will most likely have to overexpose the image because the light on them will not be a strong as the background light. You can also add some fill light via an external flash. This works best when the light and shadows aren't too far apart in exposure value because you are adding light to both sides. On sun side, the flash will be overpowered by the sunlight, the shadow side will gain the additional light. When the difference is too great you have to add so much light to the shadow side that it washes out the sun side.

[Jim Bryant]

Try not to shoot when the sun's over head without a fill flash, otherwise you, get shadows underneath the eyes giving it that "raccoon" look.

[sma200]

thank you for taking the time - will a hood over the lense help?

[kencaleno]

You are not going to make a good image in direct sunlight.

[Chip]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

You are not going to make a good image in direct sunlight.

While I agree that an image taken in direct sunlight won't be as good as it would be in other situations, I do think it's possible to take at least a "good" image in direct sunlight. Others may disagree, of course, which is fine.

The photo below is a candid, taken at 11:15 a.m., right after a game ended. No shade in sight and I didn't want a posed shot. So, I took a chance, took this when the sun was behind her, spot metered off her face, didn't use flash, waited until the shadows weren't too noticeable, played with it a bit in post (not with the whites of her eyes, though - I don't know how they got so white) and ended up with this:



Could someone else do better, either in camera or in post? I'm sure. But to me it's worth taking a chance on a shot in difficult conditions. You might get something worthwhile and you might learn a thing or 2 in the process.

This subject's parents sure liked the shot, for whatever that might be worth.

Hoods tend to help more with light coming in from the side than they do if the lens is pointing directly at the sun. But I keep a hood on just about all the time. Hoods either help or are a neutral, from what I can tell.

My 2 cents.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by sma200

thank you for taking the time - will a hood over the lense help?

Depending the the lens and the angle of the sun, you may prevent some lens flare with the hood...but that's about it.

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by Chip

While I agree that an image taken in direct sunlight won't be as good as it would be in other situations, I do think it's possible to take at least a "good" image in direct sunlight. Others may disagree, of course, which is fine.

The photo below is a candid, taken at 11:15 a.m., right after a game ended. No shade in sight and I didn't want a posed shot. So, I took a chance, took this when the sun was behind her, spot metered off her face, didn't use flash, waited until the shadows weren't too noticeable, played with it a bit in post (not with the whites of her eyes, though - I don't know how they got so white) and ended up with this:



Could someone else do better, either in camera or in post? I'm sure. But to me it's worth taking a chance on a shot in difficult conditions. You might get something worthwhile and you might learn a thing or 2 in the process.

This subject's parents sure liked the shot, for whatever that might be worth.

Hoods tend to help more with light coming in from the side than they do if the lens is pointing directly at the sun. But I keep a hood on just about all the time. Hoods either help or are a neutral, from what I can tell.

My 2 cents.

That's not direct sun-her face is in the shade!-You have just used the sun as a backlight. So your image was made in diffused sunlight, not direct

[Chip]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

That's not direct sun-her face is in the shade!-You have just used the sun as a backlight. So your image was made in diffused sunlight, not direct

OK - I now understand what you were saying.

[Benji]

For the last 150 years or so, portraits have been taken inside a camera room or outdoors in the shade because the sun is such a hard, harsh, hot, and unforgiving source of light that attempting to shoot using it as a main light source is futile. Flash forward to 2010. Just because we now have digital cameras at our disposal the sun didn't change. It is still hard, harsh, hot and unforgiving, and by the way neither did Photoshop change the sun.

Yes professional photographers with years of experience, with lots of knowledge and with the help of ten or 12 assistants plus several hundred pounds of gobos, reflectors, diffusers, absorbers, flash units, light modifiers and flags can shoot in direct sunshine, but not amateurs.

Benji