Shooting In Bright Sunshine

Last week, I had a last minute shoot with my friend Jen, who wanted some fresh images for her country music profile. We have worked together many times, including her wedding a few years ago. Never a dull moment with this girl around, and my stressful morning was forgotten within a few minutes, and replaced with laughter. Mostly inappropriate.

So, on the day, it was scorching. Add to that, we were shooting right in the middle of the day, with the sun high overhead and not a cloud in the sky. Now, the obvious approach to this situation, and the one I would normally use, is to fire up a powerful strobe, and overpower the sun. It’s a technique I use a lot in my work, and again, it was my first thought. It gives a more edgy, fashion look to images, and on this occasion, I didn’t feel it was the right look.

We wanted something softer, more girly. Plan B was initiated, and we headed to the woods. It wasn’t in the shade, but it meant I could use the sun as a backlight, and shoot at a very shallow depth of field instead, with a reflector to brighten the eyes. This allowed me to shoot on the 70-200mm lens, wide open at f2.8, and get exactly the style we wanted.

It worked a treat, and we got a oad of great images in our very short window.

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