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C A N O N E O S 7 0 D : F R O M S N A P S H O T S T O G R E AT S H O T S
Photography is all about capturing light, so the most important thing in all of your images
is the quality of the light on your subject. When you photograph people, you typically have
a lot of control over when and where the image is taken, so you can manipulate your
environment and find the best-possible light for your subject.
Before I get into what you should do, let me first talk about what
not
to do. It’s a common
misconception that bright sunlight is great for portrait photographs. Of course, this is not
entirely untrue, since there are some creative and amazing ways to use harsh natural sun-
light and make great portraits. The problem is that when the sun is at its highest point,
in the middle of the day, it’s going to cast some very harsh shadows on your subject and
probably make them squinty-eyed as well.
There are several easy ways to achieve beautifully lit portraits in an outdoor setting, and
here are my two favorites. The first is to find shade. It might not seem like it at first, but
on a sunny day an extraordinary amount of light fills shaded areas, for example, on the
side of a building or underneath a covered patio. This is diffused sunlight and will give a
very soft, even light on your subject’s face (Figure 4.3).
Figure 4.3
The light was dif-
fused evenly across
the little boy’s face
in this image, taken
in a shady area in
the grass.
ISO 160 • 1/180 sec. •
f/6.7 • 40mm lens
