How To Shoot Weddings In Full Sun

*Hello there Pinterest People! Thanks so much for stopping by (-: The photos in this post are pretty old (2014!) but I find that beginner photographers really like to see my shitty hand drawn notes on them so I decided to not update them – plus, they get the point across!*

I used to be afraid, like many photographers are, to photograph in full sun because when I was teaching myself photography by staying up until 3am reading articles and watching YouTube videos, everyone kept repeating the same thing “never shoot in full sun, only shoot during the golden hour or in the shade”. Therefore, I always thought it was a huge no-no to shoot in full sun so I never took the time to learn how.

Don’t get me wrong, my absolute faaaaavorite light is the golden hour and I will pick that time over any other to photograph my couples because you just cant beat it. Nothing compares to that gorgeous light!

As wedding photographers though we will sometimes be put in the situation where a couple wants to get married outside. At high noon. With no shade anywhere in sight. Its just going to happen. Sorry to burst your fantasy bubble!

Last year I made it a goal to learn how to shoot in full sun in case I ever ran into this issue and many photographers have requested that I do a tutorial on it. Before I decided to conquer it, any previous attempt caused me great frustration. My subjects were always totally blown out, the photos looked awful.

Here is what I learned, and apply when I have to shoot in full sun.

1. Turn your camera to Manual Mode.

This is IMPERATIVE. You can’t shoot on auto for this, your camera is stupid, despite what you think. You are smarter than the camera, you need to tell it what to shoot at.

2. Keep your ISO low, like at 100-200.

I would rather change my aperture or shutter speed to let in less or more light, so I keep my ISO super low. 200 is pushing it. I keep it between 100-160 most of the time.

Here is Tamara, in full sun. She really wanted a photo of herself in front of this blue wall but the sun was literally high in the sky, right above her head. This was my first time really trying to photograph in full sun, so I’ll be honest, its not a fabulous photo, but its certainly not awful, technically speaking. Also, excuse my crappy handwriting, I want to use my tablet more…not sure if I should haha. Look at the highlights in her hair and on her shoulders/arms as well as her shadow on the ground. Thats how you can tell where the sun was sitting. The pavement acted as a reflector, but she was squinting hard so I had her turn her face down and her hair covered her face. She put on sunglasses for some shots too and that DOES help because then you cant see her squinting (-;  You have to get creative!

3. Keep your subjects back to the sun.

If its high noon with zero cloud coverage, this can still be done by circling your subject and finding the best light on them.

Stop worrying about the background. I dont care about backgrounds. I care about light and so should you. If the light is awful and the background is pretty, you’re going to have an awful photo no matter what. A great photographer can make a model in a garbage dump look high fashion with the right light. Lighting is EVERYTHING in photography. Photography literally means DRAWING WITH LIGHT.

There were not many clouds in the sky when I photographed Stephanie, at least none that were covering the sun. I think this was taken at 2:30 or 3:00. The sun was to MY right (do you like my sun drawing? I did that just for you!) and you can tell from the highlights in her hair and on her shoulders. I slightly turned her back to the sun so that her own body would create nice even shade on her face.

The sun was directly above Hillary, I think it was noon, or just past it, and if I had turned her the other way, it would have been straight in her face and she would have been squinting really bad. I walked around her until I found a sweet spot and made her turn that way, which is the photo below. So even though the sun was right above her, and she was in ZERO shade, I shot it at ISO 100, F 2.0 and 1/640 of a second. An experienced Queenstown Wedding Photographer can shoot good photos in any condition.

4. Slightly overexpose.

I usually keep my aperture at 2.0-2.8 and my shutter speed between 640-8000. It really depends on how bright it is, if there are any clouds, if light is reflecting off the pavement or a wall back into my subjects face, etc.

Shooting “wide open” (2.0, 2.2., 2.8 etc.) is part of my style. I absolutely hate photographing people at a closed aperture. Even 4.0 makes me gag (unless its my 85mm but its still pushing it for me). Some photographers might look at these photos and think that I ruined it because there are blown out highlights. To each his own I say, I like it that way and so do my clients. I would rather have even shadows and blown out highlights than a super dark face. I put these side by side so you could see that Hillary was in no shade at all. At this point, the sun was behind her, not on top of her. Look how her shadow stretches out, its not sitting under her. I could get away with a slower shutter speed because she wasnt standing on any pavement therefore no light was bouncing back up into her face. Had she been on the pavement, my shutter speed would have been at least 1/1000 to compensate for the extra light.

Here are some photos from Disney World when I went with my 2 photographer friends, Ashlee & Jessica! Gosh what a fun day!!! In the first photo, you can see tons of clouds but when this was taken, the sun, which is to my left, was exposed so it was pretty harsh. I shot it at F 1.8 (Im pretty sure I did that by accident haha) but look at how fast my shutter speed was: 1/5000 of a second! The pavement was really reflecting light back up on Ashlee so I had to let in as little light as possible. Had my aperture been at 2.8, I probably could have shot this with a shutter speed of 1/800-1000 or something and still kept a lot of the details.

In the second photo, the sun is still to the left. I bumped my ISO up to 160, my aperture to 2.8 and my shutter is at 1/800. Theres a little more cloud coverage at this point but not overcast enough to really be diffusing the light. You can still see harsh shadows on Jessica, Ashlee, and Ariel!

5. Create shade if you have to.

Put them in the shade of a tree or building. If there are none around, have them wear a hat. Have an assistant stand off to the side and hold a reflector or foam board above the subject to shade them (obviously dont get that material in the photo). For weddings, if you cant create any shade, well, you have to deal with it (-;

Here’s Tamara again. I put her in full shade for a few photos. In the first photo you can even see where the shade starts! I didn’t have much of it (-; She’s standing very close to the edge of the shade so the pavement that is IN the sun is reflecting light back into her face, creating nice even lighting! In the second shot, shes still in full shade, but I turned her back to the sun a bit and knocked my aperture AND shutter speed down to let in more light. You can even see catch lights in her eyes (-: We love that!

Here she is in full shade again, and once more I have her standing riiiiight on the edge of the shade and full sun pavement (cant see it in front of her though)

Well, there you have it. I hope this tutorial was helpful for at least one person!! I think Jay & I might do a video tutorial for it so I can show you how to walk around your subject and all that jazz.

Now…go out and PRACTICE!! Practice makes perfect after all (-;

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