Capturing the Summer Sun

The summer sun is still shining, meaning there are tons of photo opportunities still to be taken advantage of—from barbeques to picnics at the beach and everything in between. While you prepare to capture life on film, keep these outdoor photo-taking tips in mind.

Film: The right stuff
Those of you using 35mm cameras will want to be sure to select the right film speed for securing great shots of the sunny days. For bright sunlight, a 100 or 200 speed is typically great. However, if you’re planning on taking action shots, or shooting a variety of events, you may want to use a 400 or 800 speed—the versatility of the faster speed will allow you to shoot for bright light, but also allow you a quick shutter speed for action shots or a tad slower for less light (overcast skies, etc.)

Too much sun (there really is such a thing!)
Although taking photos on the sunniest days is appealing in order to capture the bright sunshine and emphasize bright colors, too much sun can be a big problem. If you’re taking pictures of people in direct sunlight, the pictures may come out looking unnatural due to a subject’s squinting eyes. Also, the sun can create blurry images resulting from reflection or render some areas of the subject’s face too bright and others too dark.

If you position the sun behind your subject or in your frame, your camera will be tricked into believing that the entire scene is brightly lit and will compensate by letting less light reach the film. As a result, you will end up with a dark, mostly underexposed picture with a single bright or overexposed spot. How do you prevent this or fix it? It’s all about positioning.

Positioning the sun
Positioning the sun behind you (the photographer) or to the side is typically your best bet to keep it out of the frame of the photo. This way, shadows will fall to one side or behind rather than in front of a subject.

Another way to take control of the light situation is to use a flash—if the light is behind your subject, then you’ll want to use the flash to brighten their faces. If the sun is directly overhead, a flash or fill flash would help to soften the shadows under the subject’s eyes. If the subject has no problem opening their eyes then a flash isn’t necessary.

The best conditions
Oddly, the best way to capture summer memories is to shoot photos on overcast days or in the later afternoon sunlight. Overcast skies allow your photos to show more detail—the clouds diffuse the sunlight so that it comes from several different directions at once, illuminating the shadows. The later afternoon sunlight tends to give photos a warm, reddish color resulting in less bright and dark spots.

Happy shooting!