Using Hard Sunlight in Your Photos

Saturday 28 April 2018, 14:41 by Elja Trum | 6,804 views | 3 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

If you ask a photographer what the worst light is for taking a portrait, they will often say that bright sunlight is very difficult. And it is, but of course you can still take beautiful images in it.

f/4.0, 1/2.000s, 100 ISO @ 57mm
Last Saturday, just after midday, I was outside with model Sarah in fiercely bright sunlight. Not a cloud in the deep blue sky, and a lovely corrugated metal wall.

Normally, this is a lighting situation I would avoid, but with Sarah's outfit and the right pose, the corrugated metal and the hard light worked well together.

The sunglasses also help here, as they prevent the hard shadows falling into the eye sockets from becoming a problem. They also contribute to the rock chick look of the photo.

I did very little post-processing on this photo, apart from converting it to black and white and adding even more contrast.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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3 comments

Robert Vogels wrote on Tuesday 1 May 2018 at 12:14 | reply
Nicccce!
Robert
Translated from Dutch.

Ab Welbergen wrote on Thursday 3 May 2018 at 14:36 | reply
In my opinion, it would have been more beautiful, but in any case calmer, to position the model just in front of those screws. A conscious choice not to do that?
Ab
Translated from Dutch.

Elja Trum wrote on Thursday 3 May 2018 at 17:14 | reply
@Ab; I did think the screws added something. Otherwise the lines would get a bit too boring. But I certainly also took photos where the screws aren't as visible.

They could also easily be photoshopped out if they bothered me.
Translated from Dutch.

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