When shooting outdoors the Sun can be your best friend or your worst enemy. The Sun as you know is selective on when it is friendly. Usually the Sun is most kind in the wee hours of the morning and an hour before the Sun goes down, commonly referred to as the “Golden Hours”.
Unfortunately, we all can’t take pictures at the times where the Sun is most friendly to our images. So what do you do? Well, the example illustrated in the image posted with this tip was taken at an engagement session I photographed for a very cool couple. In this example, I used the sun’s bad position to create a cool effect to match the couple’s personality. Again, only use this technique if it makes sense for your subjects. In this case, I used the Sun’s poor position of almost above us to my advantage. If you’ve read a lot of photography books, then you will know that high noon is what you need to avoid because of the unflattering light it produces and the ugly shadow it creates in the eye area commonly called raccoon eyes.
So, what did i do exactly? I simply bent down so that I am shooting up at the couple and made sure to use the subjects head to slightly cover the Sun’s powerful light. This is key as you don’t want the Sun to fully shine at the camera which will prevent you from seeing the subjects. If you cover the Sun ever so slightly using the subjects head, then as you can see the subjects faces are slightly visible.
Make sure to drop by next week for another photography tip.
You may also like -
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER INTERVIEW: JEN MAY PASTORES
Photography FAQ: What type of lens filter should i purchase?
How a Filter can be a lens best friend Photography Tip
About the Author
