Lighting Portraits in Midday Sun

Sometimes we don’t have the luxury of shade or diffused light when we do portraits midday. It can be horribly harsh and unflattering to the face to be in direct sun. One solution is to put the sun to the back, so it doesn’t hit the face, but often that means the hair is completely washed out and beyond rescuing color or texture in the image. And sometimes the background you need to use just isn’t in the right place!

If you have a scrim (translucent), or a 5-way reflector with the scrim panel in the center, and an assistant or light stand, you can redeem the light and actually make it perfectly lovely by holding it between the person’s face and the sun. The closer it is to them, the more diffused and soft the light becomes.

You can see here how the harsh sun was awful, and the diffused light is stellar. What a difference!

 

The key here is just using the scrim to diffuse the light. Here is a pull-back to see Jonny holding the scrim for our class to shoot.

Always get the biggest one you can handle so it will cover enough. you can see this one is barely big enough. (her arm and a bit of hair is still in sun)

We like the scrims that are independent because they are stiffer and handier and more options for diffusion strength. Plus the Tri-Grip by Lastolite is far easier to handle and not floppy. You can even hold it with one hand. You can also get slip covers for them to double as a regular reflector. We use soft silver most, silver next and white but not gold.

Next time you get a reflector or go out on location, make sure you have a scrim to do some gorgeous, flattering light in full sun– its a great look and a great ‘save’ if you find yourself in a hostile lighting condition!

#SuzetteSays #beprepared #puttheminbeautifullight #diffusionisdelightful

Photographed with a #LUMIXG9 and a Lastolight Trigrip reflector/scrim.

Prints by Bayphoto.com

 

Stay tuned for More Lighting Techniques on the Bubble Trailer Light Tour coming this fall! #MobileArtLife