Beautiful Sunny Days- are terrible for portraits
One irony of enjoying time in the sun with family and friends, is that it's often not good for people pics. But you can get great results- if you choose the right spot.
With the end of the year just around the corner, the best gift I can pass on to you is one of the most valuable tips on taking good portraits.
When family/friends gather for the holidays, people are relaxed and it is natural to take the opportunity to snap some pics, and maybe even some group shots too. Here in the Southern Hemisphere its summer and that often means sunny skies.
“oh, what a beautiful day…” - Yes, correct.
“ … a perfect opportunity for some photos of the the family ” - unfortunately, No.
It’s also not the ideal opportunity for updating your professional or social media profile headshot.
Here’s why…
Direct sunlight is not good for flattering portraits.
A sunny day means high contrast and hard shadows. If you look at the ground you will notice that all the shadows have a sharply defined edge. That is not good light for faces.
It is unforgiving on wrinkles and other skin imperfections.1
Creates deep shadows in eye sockets (panda eyes).
Can cause squinting (if facing towards sun)
Is a challenge for correct exposure as one side of the face is lit very brightly, whilst the other is in shadow.
An OVERCAST day is ideal for portraits.
The real “Perfect opportunity” for portraits is if the sky is cloudy.
All the challenges of direct sun will melt away if you are lucky enough to have an overcast day. Cloud cover diffuses the harsh direct rays into soft flattering light.
Professional studios invest in “softboxes”, and other light modifiers, to get a similar diffuse illumination. Big soft light means no hard shadows, and that makes for flattering portraits.
You do want to be outdoors, because that’s where all the light is. But you don’t want to be in direct sun.
In case you missed it, here’s a previous article about the benefits of shooting outdoors whenever you can…
What to do if it is a “beautiful”, cloudless, sunny day?
The simplest and most effective approach is to locate some shade. Ideally full shade (as opposed to dappled shade). Luckily, we already tend to find a shady spot for the kids to play in, or for Grandma to sit.
If it’s a group photo - Don’t have half the people in shade, and half in the sun. Your camera is going to make a mess of that exposure.
The essential point I am trying to make here is: discard the notion that “a big sunny lawn, on a nice sunny day, is a great spot for a family photo”. It is not.
What if there is no shade?
You might find yourself in a situation where there is simply no avoiding direct sun.
For example: if you are on the beach, and there is zero shade, and everyone is likely wearing hats and sunglasses. Well, that’s OK. So be it. Take a shot. It could well be a fun snapshot and be a nice memento.. even if its not particularly flattering for everyone.
But if you really want a good portrait, here is something you can do: You could wait until later in the day, when the sun dips below the horizon. Now, your source of light is no longer that bright sharp dot of the sun, and so the harsh shadows have now gone. Your light source is now all blue sky. And that is a big soft light source that will make for much more flattering photos (and no hats and sunglasses or squinting).
This is known as “the blue hour”, and its a very popular tool for photographers of all stripes. (We will surely encounter it again in future topics!) Note that it isn’t really an hour… its usually only 20-30 minutes of use-able light.
To illustrate, here are 3 examples:
Here some comparisons of portraits taken on a sunny day. These are all taken on an iphone, handheld, with no added professional gear.2 Simple snapshots, much as you might do with your phone camera.
1. Direct sunlight: facing towards sun.
You can see here a typical result from taking a portrait in direct sun. You can see how deep the shadows are under the eyes and around the face. This model has good skin, yet you can see shiny areas on cheeks and forehead. Another thing to note is that there is no highlights visible in the eyes. Not the worst head shot you’ll ever see. But not ideal.
2. Direct Sunlight - same spot, sun at 90 degrees:
This attempt is better. The model is standing on the exact same spot, but turned 90 degrees so that the sun is now more or less on her right.
The face has less deep shadows, and there is less squinting because she isn’t facing so much into the sun. And there are some nice highlights now visible in her eyes. It’s an improvement, but still too much contrast.
3. Soft Indirect light - a few feet from original location.
This last shot is taken in shade, with no direct sunlight. All we did was move a few feet over towards a nearby wall, which was in shade because the sun was not directly overhead. All 3 pics were taken in the space of a couple of minutes, so nothing changed about the sun or sky. We just slightly varied our position.
You can see immediately how much better the light is in this pic. The skin is smooth, there are no deep shadows under or around the eyes and face.
It is also worth noting that this last pic took the least amount of adjustments after it was taken. With nice lighting, there’s not much to fix or adjust.
What about Contrasty Portraits - Art and professional portraiture.
There are, of course, times when you do want to have hard light, to throw shadows, and exaggerate features. Maybe for something like capturing craggy features on granddad. But that is a challenge usually best left to practiced professionals. That’s a different conversation.
To summarize :
For most people, and in most situations, capturing a good portrait comes down to soft, even lighting.
Avoid the trap of taking people pics in direct sunlight- even on what seems like a “beautiful”sunny day. Sunny is beautiful: for a BBQ, or throwing a frisbee. Just not for portraiture.
Sunny days : Find shade, or wait for the sun to go away.
Overcast days: The easiest time to shoot portraits.
A final note:
If you scroll back to the very top of this article, you will see a photo taken across a table beside a canal in Venice. It shows a sunny day, but if you look at the background, you can see that this table is in fact in shade, which provides that nice soft portrait lighting for the person in view. If I was intending to photograph the food, I’d have chosen to sit at a table in direct sunlight3. But for a portrait: shade.
When we say direct sun is unforgiving , we are mostly talking about us adults. Little kids don’t have wrinkles and bags under their eyes, so you can, sometimes, get some good pics even in harsh light. But for the most part, it’s much easier to get nice photos of anyone if the light is soft and indirect.
There are a variety of technical solutions to shooting portraits in direct sunlight - but that’s for professional photographers or dedicated enthusiasts. Eg: reflectors, or using fill flash, (usually with the sun behind the subject), or devices such as scrims - which are big semi-transparent shade material, held aloft above the subject to soften the sunlight.
Food is one of those interesting photography subjects that has unique quirks and challenges. I look forward to sharing more thoughts about that in upcoming articles.