One of the toughest challenges I face is shooting a subject against the sun. When I do have to shoot against the sun I’ll often opt for the silhouette. It’s very simple to get pleasing shot’s this way but the list is very short for creating “different” images. I love silhouette shots but I’ll get tired of them if I see them over and over again.
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Here, I have my younger brother and his girlfriend modeling at Sunset Beach. Sunset Beach in San Diego has beautiful views of the ocean and the sun shines very bright in your eyes. The time of the shoot was around 4pm in the afternoon during the summer. The sun in San Diego does not set until about 7pm in the evening. It’s partly my fault for picking this time but it was the only time slot open in my schedule.
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As you can see, the sun posed to be a problem because I waned to get the ocean in the background. Shooting on the opposite side would create an ugly cluttered background of the dirt parking lot.. plus it would put me near the edge of the cliff! The settings I chose here was a small aperture and fast shutter. I had my Vivitar 285 off camera alternating between 1/2 and 1/4 power. Even at 1/2 power, it was clearly not enough to light the shadowed side with the sun behind my models.
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In Photoshop I was able to manipulate the lighting seen and lowered the brights and raised the darks. It turned out quite well in my opinion although I wont be shooting at Sunset Cliffs at that hour again.
After sweating under the sun I decided to move the couple into the brush area. There was plenty of shade and trees.
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In the shade, light was much easier to control. I had more room and flexibility for my models to pose in various spots. One goal of mine is to communicate what exactly I would like a model to do. I’d like make them comfortable and make them feel at ease. This becomes very helpful for weddings as a lot of brides are kind of shy with posing for solos or even posing with their loved one. With this shoot my brother and his girlfriend were kind of shy since they’ve never really done a photoshoot before but I appreciate their efforts and hopefully I can work with them again.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
very creative blog; Ivoted you on photoblog.org
Thank you very much fabrizio!
Very difficult situation, but the shots you've made are very beautiful!
I especially like the last one!
Very good work!
Best regards,
Tim