Midday sun solutions. This image is from a wedding I did in The Canary Islands. The sun is high and it's hard to light them without interfering with what's between them and me. Too bright for my spots etc. A mirror would have  been the best "try". My personal rule photographing people outside is: If you can't get good light on them, don't have them look in the camera! Dark eyes looking at you is like an autofocus hitting a white wall, you just keep searching and searching without getting contact.

If I had wanted an image with eye contact, I would have kept the camera frame, but moved them close to me on the right and added some nice light on them, maybe also a diffusion screen over their heads (a California Sunbounce Sun Swatter would been the ideal one, since you can keep it so high and out of your shot). If you know me, you know I love photographing in midday sun, and it is one of the main things I teach.

A second thing about this image: I got low to get more lines, but mostly to get their heads clear of the ocean line to keep it peaceful between them. 

Workshop in Oslo, Norway together with Roy Gabrielsen and Michal Tomazewicz

When I do workshops I love to challange myself to do something nice with not ideal conditions. Of course the location here is faboulous, it's the new Opera in Oslo. I really liked the glass corner as you see. So i took the challange of hard dirct sun, sometimes we get forced to photograph with light like that, normally I will go up against the sun since I love backlight. Then add whatever ligthsource is best for the given situation. Anyhow here I am shooting in direct sunlight as you can see very well in image number 2, see how hard the shadows are on the ground. It's June 8th at 5:57 pm and that day the sun went down 10:34 pm, yes it is some very nice long days in Oslo this time of year:-) The diffussion panel we had was big but not large enough to diffuse her and the building, so no diffusion. I'm shooting laying on the ground under the reflector shooting @ 28mm full frame. To make my model look good I have her lean forward to get more in level with the camera plane. Have her keep her hips back. This way I avoid distorting her getting big hips, small head etc etc. I use a silver/gold reflector to add a touch of warmth and to lighten up the hard shadows somehow. I tilt her head up more than normal so the sun will hit the triangle on her face. It is really important that everything face the sun right to not get unplesent shadows on her and the dress. Some other things that makes this image work well: She is the most important part of the image, so her skin/hair etc is the minority, the blue creates depth. Blue and yellow are also complimentary colors as you know. So there are several elements that make your eyes go to her more than the surroundings. Hope to see you somewhere in the world soon :-) Thanks for following my blog. 

I'm sure you as me often like to know when the sun is going up and down in connection with shoots or workshops you are planning. It is many places to find out, but I really like the website sunrisesunset.com , here is a link to where you can make your own calendar for each month. I like that so you can have it all printed out for the year. On a personal note, I'm such a night person, so it is very seldom I need the sunrise info, but it is sure nice light at sunrise. Please make sure you shoot the minutes before it comes up, it is usually such soft nice directional light.

Today I want to just give a little hint on a way to control the direction of the natural light on a subject. This image is 100% natural light bouncing off buildings etc. something I talk a lot about in my classes. Like most images you can read the light in the eyes and reflections on the skin. Example, if you look to the left on his face you can see the sun hitting a warm building next to him.

The image is from a Workshop I did in Cuba for a group of European Photographers. I was standing talking to this man and my Spanish is close to zero, but if I wanted him to turn his face to the left or right, all I had to to do was to take a step to the side and his eyes and face would follow. Also having so little depth of field let's me not have to worry too much about what was happening where in the background. Very often what we can do while photographing people is move ourselves instead of telling them to, happy shooting :-)

Last week I enjoyed consulting for some great Danish photographers. Denmark is such a wonderful country. Today I wanted to show you a picture of Helle S. Andersen's windows. When I drove up in the morning her windows just hit me very hard–impact! They were hard to ignore, so I think they are VERY GOOD at getting attention. It truly shows she is up to date for today's market and can get, and hold, your attention. She has a very nice blend of modern and more timeless images. IMPACT is just so important to set you apart from the crowd. Good job, Helle! We'll be talking more about impact in Part 2 of Photographing People on March 2nd and in another Wedding School we'll be doing soon sponsored by Canon March 4-6th.