Top tips for better sunlight portraits
Embrace the sunlight
Why not embrace the hard-light look? You can ask your subject to turn their face to the sun and lift the chin, which will mean that the eye sockets are not in the shade. Look for butterfly lighting under the nose (where the shadow cast by the nose forms a butterfly shape).
Use fill flash
We can use a flash to gently fill the shadows on a sunny day. Our flash should be close to the same angle as the camera. A hotshoemounted Speedlight can also work well. Try using the flash in TTL mode and use Spot metering to meter off of the face of your subject.
Look for natural bounce
When the sun is out, there will be little pockets of perfect light all around. Look for sunlight bouncing off bright surfaces, like white walls; bring the subject’s face in close to the surface and it’ll act like a secondary light source to fill in the shadows. You could also use a white reflector for similar results.
Scrim it
The quality of light from a scrim can give you stunning portraits. A scrim can be any semi-translucent material that we use to partially block sunlight, like a shoot-through umbrella, or the diffusion panel from a 5-in-1 reflector. Position the scrim between the subject and sun to diffuse the light.
Make a spotlight
A reflector is mostly used to gently lift the shadows under the chin, or it can be used as a subtle fill light source, but, if needs be, you can also create a spotlight effect with it. Ask your subject to stand in a shady spot, then bounce a beam of sunlight onto them by using the shiny gold or silver side of the reflector.
Look for open shade
There are different kinds of shade. The best for portraits is usually open shade. This often occurs in places like doorways or under high trees. We’re looking for areas out of direct sunlight, but still with plenty of bright, reflected light. The shadows will be gently filled for beautifully balanced light.