Fall in New England can be a beautiful
time of the year. The foliage begins to change color and the temperatures
become less oppressive. The vibrant colors of orange, yellow and red can be
seen everywhere. Over the last couple of years, it felt like fall has only
stuck around one weekend in October and winter instantly shows up. This year,
with the rain being non-existent this summer, it would appear that Fall has
come a little early.
One of the beauties of fall is how the colors
beam through the trees when the sun rays hit them just right. Every year around
this time, families, newly engaged couples, and high school seniors get dressed
up and head out for portraits. Vignetting Photography was certainly not alone
when we visited several sites this fall. I witness many photographers with
their clients running around snapping up photos on the days we went out.
Light, it is what makes us photographers go
out and take photos, at least for this photographer. Light can make or break
your photos. Too much light and everything in the photo can be a washout with
little chance of recovery. Too little light and your photo are potentially too
dark and possibly too noisy after you try to modify them. I have learned over
the years that taking photos in front of the sun can be fun and daunting within
the same breath. The basic rule that I try to follow is to not have a client
squint in their picture. I have made this mistake from time to time, but knowing
to avoid the squinting can help position your clients appropriately.
If you haven’t yet realized it, I want to
talk about lighting. But first the small print: The suggestion that I’m about
to present are not a catch-all for every situation. Each situation that you may
experience may be completely different and you may need to make instant adjustments
to make things work for your vision. Some of what I’m going to talk about can
help, but remember they are only suggestions and not guaranteed to work for
every situation.
With the legal stuff out of the way, we
can talk more about lighting. Shooting in harsh sunlight can be the biggest
issue for any photographer. With the sun right in front of the photographer,
the light meter on the camera would fluctuate off the charts. I see the major
concerns of shooting in sunlight include time of day, equipment, and client
position.
Time
of Day
Positions of the clients are important in
harsh light. But also important is the position of the sun. High noon is possibly
a good time for an old western gunfight, but I like to have clients photo shoot
around 2 to 4 pm. My portrait sessions are usually an hour long, thus lighting
after 5 pm can get dark. It can be a little harder if you are in the deep woods
trying to get the ray of light through the trees.
Equipment
Helpful equipment to shoot in harsh
lighting also includes a reflector and/or flash. Reflector helps bounce the sunlight
in the direction you want to influence. Personally, I have a 43-inch reflector
that has 5 different colors. I was able to purchase this reflector from Amazon
for about 15 dollars. But you can also use a light color blanket as a
reflector. Basically, let the clients lay on the blanket and let the reflecting
of the sun do the rest. For the reflector, I usually position about the same
position as the flash in the picture below.
Client
Position
I like to have the sunlight behind the
client. This allows them to have natural backlighting. This would give a nice
highlight around the subject. Sometimes the wind or not enough sunlight is
projecting on the clients back, and the reflector is not working, so I would
include a flash. When I use the flash, I would position the flash in front of
the subject usually off to the left or right of the subject. This allows a nice
fill light over the client.
Camera
Settings
Warning – Camera Technical discussion ahead.
I shoot in Manuel mode, thus this allows me to adjust the Shutter Speed,
Aperture, and ISO all at the same time. Because I’m not a big fan of noise in
my photos, I like to shoot at the lowest ISO when I can. The Aperture is
usually set from F/1.8 to F/6 depending on the situation and lens. This allows
me to get that nice blur action behind the subject, also known as Bokeh. But this would also mean that I would have to
adjust the Shutter speed to compensate for aperture size.
On location, I tend to use a flash with an
umbrella as a modifier. The approach allows me to walk around without being
tied to my flash, I use a transmitter on my camera and a receiver on my flash.
By using the transmitter/receiver, I am able to walk around to different angles
and locations to take photos. Plus, the transmitter/receiver are Hi-Sync so
that I can have shutter speeds above 1/250 a second, ideal for harsh sunlight
situation (sometimes). This is the end of technical stuff.
This is the basic sunlight/flash/reflecting
situation that I like to use when doing outside shooting. The key is to not
have your clients in harsh sunlight and squinting. Also, you want to minimize
the amount of shadows on your clients. Shooting outside in harsh light can be
fun and enjoyable. I know there was a lot of information here, but The best way
to understand lighting is to practice.
Until next time – have a beautiful day…
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