Here at Your Photo Tips we strive to make your photography experiences easier and better. While this isn’t a comprehensive and detailed list of all outdoor lighting possibilities with photography, it will certainly help you get started thinking about outdoor light in your photographs.

Make the sun your best friend, not your enemy.

When photographing outdoors here are a few important things to think about.

• On a clear day, the sun can be your enemy. With the sun directly over head with no cloud cover you will get harsh shadows. This will occur just about everywhere but most significantly they will appear around the eyes of your subject creating what I call “raccoon eyes”. This happens because the brow bone above your eyes protrudes out to block the sun like a visor. Try taking your outdoor photographs closer to sunrise or sunset. Not only will it help you to eliminate “raccoon eyes” you will also get better color for your images.
• Keep the sun behind you, preferably at a slight angle. By doing this you will be using the sun to light your subject and the slight angle will help shape the face in a more flattering fashion. If the sun is behind your subject you will be creating a silhouette, which is of course fine if that’s what your going for. Keeping the sun behind you will also help to eliminate “lens flare” which can ruin an otherwise great image, and it will help prevent squinting.
• Clouds are your friends. Those white fluffy things floating above you act as a “diffuser”. This helps to spread the light around and create what’s called “soft lighting”. It’s much more flattering than “hard light” any day. Think of it as a giant soft box for the sun.
• Don’t forget your flash! You can use your flash outdoors with great effect to help eliminate shadows and better light your subject. You will want to set your flash at 1/4 or 1/2 power. Consult your manual on how to do this for your specific flash. This makes your flash a “fill” flash instead of the main light. You should still have the sun behind you at an angle for the flattering light.

By implementing these easy tips you’ll soon be on your way to getting better photographs in no time. Remember that in art and photography rules are really just guidelines, and the best way to get better is to experiment. Knowledge is power!

Photograph ANK_1150 by Anakin Tseng

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