[Music]
now
the weather forecast promised
sunshine there's a bit of sun but it's
going to get brighter apparently which
is good because this video is all about
taking amazing portraits in full sun
hello i'm gavin hoey and you're watching
adoramatv brought to you by adorama the
camera store that's got everything for
us photographers and normally full sun
is not the ideal conditions to take
photos having said that sometimes you
don't have any choice and in this video
i've got five tips for taking great
portraits when the sun is fully out to
make this happen i'm going to need a few
bits i'm going to need a diffuser
probably a flash and just well a camera
would be a good start whilst i'm getting
those ready you should click on the
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okay one second let's get everything
ready then we'll go take some photos
so to help me out today i've got the
awesome jade jade's going to be the
model for this photo session and as you
can see it's a lovely sunny day perfect
day for getting out and taking some
photos but how are you gonna deal with
this sun well let's start with tip
number one which is
get out of the sun so jade we're in the
sun at the moment go and have a seat by
that tree in the shade
so asking jade to sit in the shade is
going to give me a couple of advantages
the first one is just nice even exposure
across her face that's really good and
the second one is just way more
comfortable for your model to be sat in
the shade
okay let's take a few photos see what we
get i'm going to be in aperture priority
mode for this i'm going to keep it nice
and simple i'm going to be
fairly wide open this is an f 1.2 lens
i'm going to go f 1.4
and my iso native iso 200 let's just
take a shot see how it looks okay jade
here we go
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now when i do that i can see there is
beautiful lighting on jade the
background is going to be a little bit
on the bright side and that's kind of
what you expect when you're
photographing in the shade with a sunny
background behind but as long as it's
not blown out you're good to go
and that's really all there is to this
one so jade if you're ready yeah let's
take a few shots like this here we go
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all of these tips rely on the same thing
getting the exposure right on your
subject's face so i'm looking at the
exposure on jade's face i'm getting it
right by eye but you could use something
like spot metering if that's your
preferred way of working
[Music]
[Applause]
as you can see we've moved around and
jade is now in a great location but in
full sun this is really not a nice place
to be both for jade and photographically
well let me show you how it looks with a
photo here we go jade quick little test
photo
and it is really contrasty light on jade
there is some weird lighting going on
all in all not great
one solution for this is to create your
own shade and that's what i'm going to
do with this this is a diffuser this is
the halo compact plus from manfrotto so
the idea with this is it goes between
the sun and your subject and creates
shade this is a two-stop diffuser 75 of
the light will be cut out but there's so
much light that that's plenty and of
course it means it's much more
comfortable for jade to be in the photos
but there is a downside to this i don't
know if you can spot what it is
yeah how do i take the pictures
and have the diffuser here well you
either need a light stand to clamp this
onto or you need a willing volunteer so
raj in you come i've got a job for you
okay let's take a test photo see how
that looks
okay here we go
and immediately that is a hundred times
better nice diffused lighting on jade
looks superb
okay so if everybody's ready we'll take
a few shots like this okay here we go
remember anything that's not covered by
the shade that's cast by the diffuser is
always going to be several stops
brighter than the exposure on your
subject's face now that can be a problem
if you have a small diffuser or a wide
angle lens but you can use it to your
advantage for example the grass in the
foreground is going to be several stops
brighter than the exposure on jade's
face which should give it a nice
ethereal look
[Music]
what if you find yourself in the
situation where you can't find any shade
where you didn't bring a diffuser you
have to take photos in the sun well you
can do it and if you have to do it
here's my advice expose for the
highlights don't lose the highlight
detail because that is where you're
going to lose image that you can't
recover in post-processing so what i'm
going to do is take a photograph just
let the camera do its own thing and see
where we go from there so jade i'm going
to come around here
jade has got some sunglasses on because
i'm not that mean
so if i let the camera do its own thing
it's trying to expose for the shadows
and the highlights and it's not doing a
bad job but really expose for the
highlights
i'm actually going to dial down my
exposure compensation one stop to
maintain the detail in the highlights
and that looks like this
yes this is my least favorite way of
working but it's better than nothing at
all
[Music]
well this is a great position for me to
photograph it because i've got the sun
on my back it's lovely
except for jade this isn't good because
she's going to be looking straight into
the sun and squinting i'm not going to
get good photos and it's important to
remember as a photographer you come
second to your model's requirements so
how do you deal with this well you come
around the other side and sacrifice your
convenience for your models so jade i'm
going to come around here and shoot into
the sun now as we all know shooting
directly into the sun is one of those
big no-nos in photography
except if you just do a few little steps
you'll be absolutely fine just make sure
that your lens is perfectly clean don't
want to get any weird lens flare and if
you have a lens hood that can sometimes
help too other than that that's all you
need to do jade let's take a few photos
like this
here we go
if you're lucky enough to have a dark
background this technique can work
really well because effectively jade is
creating her own shade and as a nice
little bonus the sun is acting as a hair
light which really becomes obvious with
a darker background
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and finally we get to
flash now flash can help you out in a
whole bunch of different ways but this
way is perhaps a combination of what
we've done so far because what i've got
is jade sat down in the shadow cast by
the softbox so without the softbox jade
is in the sunlight but if i turn this
around she's in the shade so i've made
my own shade and now i'm going to push
some light into there as well but before
i do that i'm going to work out the
exposure without the flash firing so i'm
still using a fairly wide open aperture
f 1.4 i'm at iso 64 quite low for this
shot and 4 000 of a second shutter speed
here we go jade quick test photo
this is telling me i'm underexposing by
around about two stops and that feels
pretty good because now i can add some
flash to fill in the shadows
how much flash well unfortunately my
flash meter can't help me with high
speed sync flash so i'm going to guess
maybe 1 8 power let's try that middle of
the road okay jade here we go quick
little test photo
and that looks a nice balance between
the ambient light and the flash and of
course the advantage of a flash i get
soft lighting on jade and a nice little
catch light in her eyes
and that's it everything is set so jade
are you ready
okay let's take some photos here we go
just because i'm using flash nothing's
really changed here right at the
beginning i said it's the exposure on
jade's face that matters and that's
exactly what i'm still looking at even
though i'm now using flash
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[Applause]
people often joke that it is always
raining in the uk that's not strictly
true but it does change weather quite
quickly and sure enough at the end of
the shoot now we have nothing but
overcast skies which is actually
quite nice now if you've enjoyed this
video or you've got any questions leave
me a comment down below click on the
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subscribe button i'm gavin hoey thanks
for watching