Lately friends and moms have been asking me how I shoot photos during the day? Well, evening hours (right before sunset) is the best time for pics! But we aren’t always out at that time. So to get good images during the day between 11 and 3 with natural light - you have to learn to see what the sun is doing and move your kids/you in the best light. I see lots of newbie’s finding the beautiful location with their kids decked out in the perfect outfit but they still produce a bad photo. It doesn’t matter how perfect the location is or how cute your children are….. if the light is bad, the image will be too. So learning to see the light is a big key to success! - my success as well (;
So here are my tips - when you have your kids in the open sun, the sun is high in the sky creating harsh shadows on the face, eyes in the shadows, they are squinting and it’s just not flattering light at all. Now if you change your position so that the sun is somewhat behind your subject with them between you and the sun, (the key here is to not have sun on the face). Here is a photo with the sun behind the kids, a levels adjustment to add contrast, dodging on the faces using Photoshop (even the best of photographs need a little post processing help)…..
Here I have is a piece of white foam board I got from the craft store, and bounce light onto my subject, with a levels/curves adjustment in Photoshop to brighten up and add contrast….
But, if you can find open shade…..FABULOUS! Plop them in the shade and spin in a circle (both of you together) until you see the prettiest catch lights in their eyes…
Here is a quick and easy way to correct exposure in Photoshop.
1) Open your image that needs to be corrected.
2) Image > Adjustments > Levels
3) Slide the little marker on the right under the histogram towards the left so that it meets up under the right side of the black histogram.
4) DONE!!
2. Fill the Frame: Think about the Third’s Principle and Make Sure Your Background has Purpose - nothing distracting. Here is another image with a white foamboard bouncing the light onto her face, shot at fstop 1.4, added contrast using the Levels Adjustment, Curves to add more punch and brighten the image, light dodging on face….
4. How Blurry Do You Want Your Background? The lower your aperture/fstop, the more blur in your background. Check your lens to see how low your fstop will go. To enjoy the blur effect, you are going to want a lens that drops down to 2.8 or even lower. Portrait Mode (the lady’s head icon) is essentially giving you a lower aperture automatically. But you can have fun and take control by switching to Aperture Priority Mode. This means you pick the degree of blur (by picking your fstop) and the camera decides the shutter speed for you.
Keep shooting! and I am here to help if you have anymore questions (:
Also you women who have a passion for photography need to checkout this site! It features great and easy to understand tutorials, lessons and challenges. Also a great bunch of women that enjoy hanging out with people that have a common passion - photography! XO
