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Managing harsh sunlight on a bright day.

 Keeping the sun in check during an outdoor shoot is one of the hardest things to do when just starting out. Many of your frames will inevitably be either overexposed, underexposed, or unevenly lit, causing some features in your subject to go into deep shadow, or blow out. This is good if you're aiming for such an effect, not so good if you're intending a more evenly lit rendition.

Here are a few specific things you can do to get attractive modeling on your subjects when it's bright outdoors:

1) Place yourself and your subject such that the sun is behind the subject as you photograph. As your subject moves, you move so that you can maintain this sun/subject/photographer arrangement. This keeps direct sunlight off of the subject's face, AND, keeps you from needing to re-meter constantly.

2) Use a lower contrast film so that highlights in your images will not "blow out" as much. Low contrast films include, but are not limited to: B+W: Kodak TriX; KodakTCN; Ilford XP2, Ilford HP5plus; Ilford FP4plus. Color: Kodak PortraNC; FujiNHG; Fuji Reala; Konica160professional; There are many others, but you should be able to find most of the films listed here at a good camera store.

3) Try to use reflecting surfaces to your advantage. Anything that reflects light back toward the subject is good, because it will lessen any harsh contrast that is created by the bright sun. Especially with backlighting, try to arrange subjects so that a patch of open sky is located in front of them. Or, use a white reflector to direct light back into the face. Bright buildings, or even the sand at a beach will act as an adequate reflector.

4) Finally, possibly the best tip for dealing with harsh sunlight is to avoid it! That is, put some effort into finding a spot within your shooting area where there is an overhang of a building, a thickly leaved tree, or even an elevated hill--anything that will cast a shadow. I happen to be quite fond of photographing in the shade, so I will look for just about any object that will enable me to get my subject out of the sun. Even a dock post or tree trunk can cast a wide enough shadow to put a small child, for example, into pleasing shade. Improvise!

In combination, the above points will lend the following to your images: Backlighting will highlight the hair and shoulders of your subject, creating a more appealing look than direct frontal lighting (in my opinion). The low contrast film will allow your subject's face to appear attractively exposed, while the sunny surroundings will be a little over-exposed, but lots better than if a higher contrast film was used. By putting your subject into "open shade" (a shady spot with sunny surroundings), you'll get a very pleasing soft light exposing your subject, which will lessen distracting shadows. I tend to favor indirect lighting a lot; try it out!

Now, before you go out and shoot up some rolls of film with the above tips in mind, remember: Be sure that when you are "shooting against the sun" (as I call it), that your camera's meter is not being fooled by the bright background. How to do this? Easy: With your subject placed in the desired location, move in close (real close) on your subject's face so that it fills your viewfinder. Now take note of the aperture and shutter speed the camera is indicating, and set your camera to those settings. Then, open up one stop to compensate for the subject's face being lighter then 18% grey (for Caucasian subjects), which most meters are calibrated for. These are the settings you want to use when you back up and start shooting away. This means you will need to use your camera on "manual" mode. By metering for the subject's face only, you assure yourself of a correctly exposed face, even if your background includes high light levels, which otherwise would fool your camera's light meter.

Please feel free to post any questions you may have on using your camera on manual mode, or using a hand-held meter, at the PhotogForum message board.

Till next time!