Tips for Taking Great Portraits When the Sun is Blaring

A bright sunny day is beautiful, so instinctually we would think that it would be a great time to take a photo. Taking a portrait (photo of a person) on a bright sunny day can be challenging though. The biggest issue most people find with portraits taken on bright sunny days is the best place to position the person in the photo in relation to the sun.

If the person you are taking a picture of faces the sun, their face will be well-lit, but they most often end up squinting in the picture. If you have them face away from the sun the photo will turn out with shadows or a background that is so bright you are not able to see the person’s face at all.

Here are some best-used practices for shooting portrait photos on a sunny day, keep in mind using a phone camera may limit your options, but you can still use some of these tricks.

Make Sure the Sun is Behind the Subject

Shoot with the person’s back to the sun as much as possible. This will prevent the person from squinting in the photo which you can’t really fix in editing. You can limit the amount of shadow on the person’s face by checking to see that the camera is reading the light that is reflecting off the person in the photo rather than everything in the shot.

For a phone camera, this is usually done by touching the screen where the person or main focus is in the picture. For a digital camera, you should be able to adjust the exposure manually. On some cameras this can be a control labeled exp. or a picture of sunshine. Pushing this button or using this control should help. Of course, some editing can be done after the photo is taken, but the more you can do before taking the picture the better.

If the sun is just too bright and adjusting the exposure just does not help to bring out any face details, you can try your photo with the person’s side to the sun. This will mean that neither the camera or the person are facing the sun directly. Try not to have the sun at 90 degrees with the camera because this will create shadow on the face. Try putting the subject at 45 degrees or have them stand at 90 degrees and turn their head back slightly toward the sun to shorten any shadow from the nose. If the sun is hitting both of the cheeks and the nose makes a shadow that stops just under the eye this is a good spot. It is sometimes called Rembrandt lighting.

Fill Flash

It may seem like adding more light to the situation would only make things worse. If you are using a phone you can manually turn on the flash, but it may end up making little difference as the flash on a camera phone is not all that powerful. Flash can be helpful to balance things out, but is most often helpful when using a camera.

Bounce Card or Reflector

These are tools used by pros to help photos turn out well in areas with tough lighting. A bounce card bounces light around and a reflector reflects light. The bounce card will most often produce a softer effect and the reflector a harder or more defined one. If you have a clear sky and super bright sun the reflector will most often be the best choice.

A simple bounce card can be created by just using a white card, covering one side in aluminum foil with give you a reflector and a bounce card.

You can use your bounce card/reflector combo by leaning it against a leg of a tripod or on a bag or other object to bounce the sunlight back into the face and minimize the sharpness of shadows. If the sun is right over head try putting the white card at the person’s feet to bounce light straight up.

For more tips for photographers, visit Jane Goodrich - NY Photograher 

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