Tricky Lighting Situations

 

Sunflower fields are a wonderful place to photograph portraits in the late summer!

 

But this recent shoot in a sunflower field bombarded me

with all the difficult lighting situations that you may

encounter while shooting in bright sunshine.

 

So as I photographed this client session, I took some

extra photos to show you how to handle tricky lighting in the direct sun.

 

My client wanted me to photograph her three daughters in a sunflower field.

 

I drove around and finally found this beautiful sea of yellow!

I don't trespass on private property, so

 I stopped at the house next to the field to ask permission to shoot there.

 

 

85-year-old Helen was a total delight!

 

She not only said YES to the shoot, she even

 posed for me by her sunflowers.

 

I brought her a 5 X 7 print of this photo the day of the shoot

as a thank you.

 

 

On the morning of the shoot, I stopped by our Farmer's Market

to buy some cut sunflowers for the girls to hold.

 

I didn't want to pick Helen's sunflowers!

 

 

I knew before we arrived at the shoot that we would face big

sun issues.  I was hoping for a cloudy day which would have made

it much easier...but instead got BLAZING SUNLIGHT.

 

Sunflowers always face the sun...that, along with people

facing the sun creates terrible shadows.

 

 

Of course, I wanted to photograph with the sunflowers behind them,

but look at the harsh sun and shadows on her face and she's squinting.

 

 

So, I had the girls' mother hold up the black side of my reflector to block the direct

sun.  See her arm in the upper left corner holding up the reflector.

 

I was able to avoid awful shadows on the faces, but

blew out the sky.

 

 

That's okay, I usually prefer to add my own sky.

 

Watch my video tutorial to learn how to add a different sky:

CLICK HERE

 

 

Next, I tried shooting down which worked when

the mom used the reflector to block the sun again.

 

 

I tried shooting with the sun coming from the left,

and once again blocking it on the face with the black side of the reflector.

 

 

Side sun on a face creates horrible shadows.

I really love how this photo turned out and would not have

been possible without blocking the sun on her face.

 

 

Here's another side sun shot saved by

the reflector.

 

 

My favorite way to shoot is backlighting because

it ignites the hair from behind and eliminates face shadows.

 

I turned Melanie to backlight, but there were no sunflowers

in the shot.  So, I had her sisters hold up their

sunflowers in the background!

 

You can see sister Natalie in the upper right corner...ha ha!

 

 

I can actually see a bit of Natalie's hair behind some of those flowers.

but great way to improvise in a challenging light situation.

 

 

In the summer, we photographers face these difficult lighting

 issues all the time on a sunny day.

 

That doesn't mean you can't shoot!

I hope these tips and tricks help you to figure out difficult

sun situations and create dazzling summer portraits.