Squinting

5 years 5 months ago - 5 years 5 months ago #610300 by Troponin
Dealing with an issue here that I am not sure how to fix. I am still learning portraiture and I am experimenting with different lighting outside. I am trying to use the advice of putting the sun to the back of the model, then using the open sky as a method of getting enough light on the front of the subject. It actually works REALLY well, except, my models are squinting even on a cloudy day. We were in the mountains and the sky was producing some amazing light, but my models were complaining that they couldn’t not squint. 

I am trying this method because lighting under shade trees isn’t always working for me. Heck, yesterday I took a photo of my mother under a shade tree with the open sky in front of her and I am really happy with the results, but again, she was complaining it was too bright again. These photos look like they would be amazing if they just didn’t have to squint! Please help! I only get to see my family about once every two years, we are headed back tomorrow, and I am not getting as many shots as I would like. :(

Thanks
Shea


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5 years 5 months ago #610316 by garyrhook
What time of day are you doing this?

You want to be working 1-2 hours after sunrise, or before sunset. You might need someone holding a diffuser over someone to provide softer light and shade. But not in the middle of the day.


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5 years 5 months ago #610334 by Troponin

garyrhook wrote: What time of day are you doing this?

You want to be working 1-2 hours after sunrise, or before sunset. You might need someone holding a diffuser over someone to provide softer light and shade. But not in the middle of the day.


thanks for replying.

These were situations that I couldn’t choose the time. We were on vacation with family and some events happened late morning and early afternoon. One day it was a heavily overcast day and the sun wasn’t even able to peak out at all. We were on the side of a mountain and this created a HUGE open sky to give a lot of light. 

This was a tip in the PhotographyTalk portraiture lesson and it really did create great lighting that was soft, but that big open sky, even with heavy cloud cover, was making my model squint. 

It seemed odd and I wasn’t sure if there was a trick to this to make it more comfortable for the model.

i am also trying to find other practical and relatively easy methods to getting softer light in situations where I don’t have a helper, or I can’t lug all my gear to the spot. 


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