Dealing with bright sunlight

Vertigo · 24 May 2014 at 22:43

We all know how nasty bright sunlight generally is and that, whenever possible, you should get the hell out of it.

But what if you can't? When shooting portraits or groups shots such as at a wedding, if you have no other choice but to shoot in bright sunlight, how would you ideally position the subjects relative to the sun to get the best results?

Personally I'm thinking having the sun to the side and using some fill flash to soften the harsher facial shadows would be best but I'm curious how others would deal with it.

Vertigo · 24 May 2014 at 23:22

Certainly one option and great pics. With the subjects' backs to the sun I'd always have assumed that, if you expose the subjects correctly, the entire background would be blown.

Vertigo · 25 May 2014 at 12:10

Columbo said:
Even if the background is blown, as long as you shoot RAW it's easy to use LR's ND grad tool to tone the blown background down.

If there's any detail left to recover then yes, but if the entire background is blown then all you'll end up with is a solid white/grey background.

Vertigo · 25 May 2014 at 12:13

Paul11 said:
i would use a flash, expose for the background and pop in some flash to light the subject.

I think the best bet would be somewhere inbetween tbh. If you do what you suggest then the flash becomes the primary, and almost exclusive, light source for the subjects which, in the absence of anything to bounce it off, risks very harsh lighting.

If you go the other way and expose purely for the subject with no fill flash then you risk blowing the background too much.

Vertigo · 25 May 2014 at 12:32

D.P. said:
Depending on how bright the sun is put your back to the sun, as long as people can open their eyes then you will get much better lighting.

Squinting issues aside though, wouldn't the light be a bit too "flat"?