Let the Sun Shine In!

For many people, the thought of photographing during the brightest time of the day in the direct sun is a "no-no." You know, we've all heard about the golden hour, the time just before sunset being the optimal time to take pictures. While I would agree that the golden hour is a terrific time to photograph, I believe it is important, and yes, fun, to photograph throughout the day no matter what the time. We have the ability to capture a very interesting mood if we use a few tools, and yes, the bright, beautiful sunshine.  

All of the images pictured were taken either in the direct sunshine, or in a room with the sunshine streaming in. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1.  What is the subject and what mood do you want to convey?  

In the case of the two young girls, I choose to take a light meter reading from their faces and expose the image for the detail on their faces. I wanted to be able to see their expressions, but keep the mood light and airy. By the way, one of the things I love about the Nikon D4S is that the meter in the camera is very accurate. I can always count on it to give me great results.

2. Lens flare can be a good thing.

During my photo shoot of the bride and groom out in the country with the hay bales, the sun was flaring into the lens of my camera. I choose not to avoid it, but use it to create a bit of warm mood. Again, I metered on the subject and exposed for them.

Sometimes I will expose for the subject, but then open up about a stop more, overexposing the subject. The bride looking at her bouquet is a great example of selective overexposure. Overexposing the bride and the window a bit kept the blinds from drawing too much attention away from the subject.

3.  Use a backlit situation to separate the subject from the background.

When I photographed the bride and groom outdoors, I choose a camera angle that would allow the sunshine to illuminate the back of the subjects, thus separating them from the background. I again metered on the subjects and exposed for their faces.

4. Create strong silhouettes

To create the silhouette of the couple with the dogs, I focused my lens on the subjects, and exposed for the background, thus making the subjects go dark.