Kid Hat photos

[Happy_Mummy]

Since I'm taking photos of my kids they are candids mostly, not set up, just a cute moment that I want to capture in time. One thing that I'm struggling with is getting the photos of them while they are wearing hats on a sunny day. Obviously their faces are in shadow so It is really hard to see their eyes. Adjusting their hat works, assuming they let me and assuming it stays! But mostly I wind up with their face nicely lit until half way up their noses, then it is really dark. I typically take their picture crouched down and realize that forcing the flash could help their face, but it affects the pic in so many other ways. Because this is sometimes at the park I'm looking more for technique to overcome this rather than gadgets to add. WOuld it be hard to post process? Because I mostly want the memory for a photobook, I will probably just lighten the photo so that you can see there are eyes there, and just take it as the memory, even if the pic isn't perfect... Just curious if there is something that I'm missing!

[Happy_Mummy]

Just thought I would add a photo for an example.



Just thought I would also add that I realize that photos turn out better on an overcast day, but kids don't always pose just on overcast days!

[NicoleScraps]

Have you ever read the Pioneer Woman's blog? Her husband wears a cowboy hat all of the time so every photo that she takes of him has a big shadow on his face. She said that she struggled with the shadow for years and realized that there was not a darn thing that she could do to make it go away, so now she embraces the shadow. Her pics are gorgeous, btw. Anyways, my point. There is NOTHING that you can do to keep this from happening. Harsh overhead son + hat with a rim =shadow on the face every single time. Maybe they might like to wear a different type of hat, or wear the hats backwards? If you can get them to sit and pose pretty then flash or a reflector might help. But not much you can do for candid photography. Sorry. That is not much help.

Edited:My husband had an idea for you. Get a reflective material and hot glue it to the underside of the brims of their hats. Not sure if that will help too much since the sun is UP and the reflector would be pointing down, but it might catch a little light...maybe enough to help you out a bit. I bet a shiny silver fabric would work...if this would in fact work at all. Not sure.

[candidrachel]

Here is an article from the main blog worth reading. As you can see the little girl is wearing a cowboy hat and her face is nicely lit! Fill-in flash was used.

3 Tips for Shooting Portraits in Bright Sunshine

[GreggObst]

The easiest thing you can do that doesn't involve any investment in more gear is to place the child in shade. If there is no direct sunlight hitting them, there is nothing to cause shadows.

If there are still soft shadows under the brim, you might try getting a cheap large white posterboard that you can use as a bounce card to reflect the ambient sunlight back up under the brim of the hat. Place the posterboard either on the floor in front of the child or have someone hold it just out of the frame of the camera below and in front of the child. You can get posterboard or foamboard from craft places like A.C. Moore and Micheal's.
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[Kit]

As GreggObst suggestes, move them to a shaded position. This photo was taken in part shade with the sun hitting behind the girl.