Rhiannon Hendricks
Wedding photography is challenging, especially in bright sunlight. Photographers have to manage the couple's photo session, bridal portraits, and first-look shots, leaving family portraits until noon when the sun is at its peak. To overcome harsh lighting, photographers can use shaded areas, natural reflectors, and adjust camera angles to avoid squinting and blown-out details. Turning the couple sideways or positioning them against direct sunlight creates artistic silhouettes. Underexposing images and using flash diffusers can also help manage bright sunlight. Photographers can also use manual settings and RAW workflows to adjust for bright light.
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What You'll Learn
Turn subjects away from the sun to avoid squinting and to evenly light faces
When photographing weddings in bright sunlight, it's important to consider the direction of the sun and how it will affect your subjects' faces. Turning subjects away from the sun is a simple yet effective technique to avoid squinting and create even lighting. Here are some detailed tips to help you master this technique:
Firstly, keep the sun behind your subjects. Position them so that their backs are towards the sun. This will prevent harsh light from falling on their faces, reducing squinting and preserving important details, such as the bride's dress. By metering for the skin, you can ensure the photo is exposed to your preference. This technique is especially useful when shooting in locations with limited shade, such as alongside a vineyard or on a beach.
Secondly, utilise natural reflectors. Look for elements in nature or the environment that can reflect warm light back onto your subjects' faces. For example, illuminated portions of red clay or dirt in front of the subjects can help push light back onto them when they are strongly backlit. This technique is essential on bright days to ensure your subjects are not underexposed.
Another tip is to angle your subjects towards shaded areas, such as the shaded side of a building, to match the background exposure with their skin tone. This is particularly useful when shooting in harsh sunlight during the afternoon. By doing so, you ensure that both the subjects and the background are evenly lit, resulting in consistent exposure and easier post-processing.
Additionally, consider the time of day and the availability of shade. If possible, save shaded areas for last, especially if they are limited. Give your subjects time to relax and then guide them to the shaded spot for more comfortable and evenly lit photos. This technique can create a nice glow from behind, producing pretty pictures even in tough lighting conditions.
Lastly, when shooting in open spaces with strong sunlight, turn your subjects sideways so that they are evenly lit. This simple technique can help you capture images in full sun without harsh shadows or overexposure. Remember to expose properly for the skin and use spot metering to ensure your light meter exposes for the small area in the centre of the frame, creating soft and pleasing skin tones.
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Use natural reflectors to push light back onto subjects when they're backlit
When taking wedding photos in bright sunlight, one of the challenges is harsh light and strong shadows on your subjects' skin. One way to address this is by using natural reflectors to push light back onto your subjects when they are backlit. This technique can help reduce shadows and create softer, more even lighting.
Natural reflectors are elements in nature or the environment that reflect light back onto your subject. For example, you can use illuminated portions of the ground in front of your subject to reflect warm light onto their face, as suggested by photographer Jasmine Star. In her work, she also mentions metering for the skin to ensure the photo is exposed to her preference when the sun is behind the subject.
Another example of using natural reflectors is to position your subjects with their backs to the sun to avoid squinting and then look for nearby surfaces that can bounce light back onto them. This could be light reflecting off a nearby wall, the pavement, or even an open newspaper. You can also use the shaded side of a building to match the background lighting with your subjects' skin exposure.
If you are shooting outdoors in full sunshine, a white reflector may be best to avoid reflecting too much light. You can experiment with different reflector colours and surfaces to find the optimal reflected light. For instance, a gold reflector can work well with Asian skin tones, filling in shadows and balancing with the ambient light.
Natural reflectors are a great tool to enhance your wedding photography in bright sunlight. By utilising the environment and paying attention to lighting angles, you can create softer and more flattering images.
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Use a diffuser to create soft fill light
Diffused light is one of the best lighting scenarios for wedding photography. It is flat and even, eliminating shadows, softening the face, and allowing the subject to relax without squinting.
Diffused light is also highly sought after for still life photography, and most indoor photoshoots use some form of diffusion. Soft light has scattered rays, as opposed to the direct rays of hard light, which create high-contrast scenes with harsh shadows.
To create diffused light, you can use a diffusion sheet to filter the harsh rays of the sun. This will produce a soft, even, complementary glow at any time of day. You can also use a softbox, which is a simple enclosure with a silver reflective interior and a white diffusion layer that goes over a light. Softboxes are adaptable and portable, and they direct and diffuse the light as it passes through the screen. They can be placed over spotlights or off-camera flashes to create flat and even lighting.
If you are shooting outdoors, you can use a large translucent diffuser between the bridal party and the sun to capture portraits that aren't blown out, with detail in the highlights, shadows, and everything in between. These diffusers can also be used to soften the blast of bare-tube electronic flashguns when used for fill-flash purposes.
If you are constricted with what equipment you have, you can also wait until early morning or evening to shoot, as the light is softer at these times.
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Find shade to avoid harsh light and shadows
When taking wedding photographs in bright sunlight, it is important to find shade to avoid harsh light and shadows. Bright sunlight can cause unflattering shadows on the skin, highlighting blemishes, wrinkles, and other imperfections. It can also cause the subjects to squint, which is not ideal for photographs.
One way to mitigate this is to seek out shaded areas to take photographs. If there are trees or buildings nearby, use them to your advantage to block the harsh sunlight. For example, you can position the couple so that their faces are in the shade, while still capturing a bright background. This will ensure that the important elements of the photograph are evenly lit, resulting in even colours and tones.
If there is limited shade available, save the shaded areas for last. Allow the couple to relax and be comfortable in other areas first, and then lead them to the shaded spot for the best-illuminated photos.
Additionally, you can use natural reflectors to your advantage. Look for elements in nature or the environment, such as illuminated portions of the ground, that can help reflect light back onto the subjects' faces. This will soften the light and reduce the appearance of harsh shadows.
Finally, if there is absolutely no shade to be found, you can put the sun behind the subjects. This will prevent them from squinting and ensure that their faces are not blown out by the bright light. Make sure their shadow is coming straight at you, and you can always fill in their faces with a reflector or fill flash if needed.
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Adjust camera settings to prevent overexposure
Wedding photographers often have to deal with harsh sunlight, especially at outdoor venues. This can be challenging as harsh sunlight creates hard shadows and highlights blemishes and imperfections on the skin. To prevent overexposure, photographers can try the following:
Firstly, it is important to understand how your camera handles bright light. Cameras tend to overcompensate for bright light by underexposing images. Therefore, you need to adjust your camera settings to prevent this from happening. One way to do this is by using the manual setting on your camera, which allows you to have more control over the exposure.
When shooting in harsh sunlight, it is recommended to use a lower ISO setting, such as ISO 100, to reduce the amount of light entering the camera sensor. A low ISO setting will help to avoid overexposure and maintain a higher image quality. In addition to a low ISO, a wider aperture (such as f/2.0) and faster shutter speed (such as 1/1600) can also help to prevent overexposure by reducing the amount of light entering the camera.
Another way to prevent overexposure is by using fill flash or off-camera flash with a diffuser. This will help to fill in any harsh shadows created by the bright sunlight and create softer, more even lighting on your subject's skin. Additionally, you can use natural reflectors, such as illuminated portions of the ground, to push light back onto your subject when they are backlit.
Finally, it is important to pay attention to the sun's position and use it to your advantage. Try to keep the sun behind your subjects so that they are not facing it directly. This will help to avoid squinting and blown-out details in your photos. By utilising the shadow areas created by the sun, you can evenly light your subjects and achieve more flattering images.
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Frequently asked questions
To avoid harsh shadows and blown-out highlights, you can make use of shadows by positioning your subjects with their backs to the sun. This will evenly light up their faces with diffused light, while their bodies and heads will be outlined by slightly blown-out highlights.
Your camera will likely underexpose your images in bright sunlight, so you need to override its automatic settings and shoot in manual mode. You can also use a flash or diffuser to create soft, even light.
You can create a silhouette of the couple by positioning them against the direct sunlight and finding an angle that works. Filters, such as a neutral density (ND) filter, can also help to enhance the scene by limiting the amount of light that hits your camera sensor.
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