Ideally, you’d plan every photo shoot at sunrise or sunset when the lighting is perfect for portraits. When shooting with Smiler, however, you'll sometimes be shooting under challenging conditions. Like when the sky is overcast or at midday - the most challenging time of day for portraits as the sun is directly above.
We recently sat down with our in-house photography expert, Tasmin, and asked her for her best tips and tricks for when you have to work with the light you get.
When it’s cloudy or overcast ☁️
Biggest challenges:
The light is constantly changing. Our tip for dealing with this is to try and keep your shutter and ISO the same and only change your aperture.
Top Tips:
Set the iso higher. We recommend between 400-800. Often clouds block the light and you need more light coming into the camera.
When it’s cloudy, the color of light tends to be bluer. If you are shooting someone on a cloudy day and choose a white balance that is more yellow, then the final image will look unnatural. If you’re unfamiliar with Kelvin temperatures and how to set them, you can use either the overcast or cloudy WB options. The difference between the two WB settings is one will be warmer than the other.
Silver lining:
An overcast sky essentially is a massive softbox that creates soft shadows. Clouds create a gradual transition between highlights and shadows making your subject's skin tones even and colors pop. You can snap gorgeous portraits on an overcast day.
When it’s a sunny day ☀️
Biggest challenges:
The bright sun creates heavy contrast between light and dark tones. Maintaining tones within your camera’s dynamic range is much more difficult. For example, the sky is either a lot brighter than the foreground (depending on where you focus) or the subject is too dark. Unflattering shadows occur under the eyebrows, nose, and chin.
Top Tips:
Try to even out the light. Find a shady spot like under a tree to place your subjects. That way you’ll get more even tones on their faces. If it's a group make sure they are all in the shade.
Put the sun behind your subjects for a backlit effect. Simply find the sun, then position your subjects so they’re facing away from the light. This will work anytime during midday when the sun is at an angle. Having the sun behind your subject will also prevent squinting. You may even capture a sun flare which is a super cool effect!
Bring along some equipment - like a diffuser, reflector, or flash.
Rather underexpose slightly, then overexpose. Edit your photos after to bring out shadows. If you overexpose - then you will lose tones like the blue sky. If you underexpose - you can always be back in the blue sky.
Silver Lining:
Embrace the high contrast! Use cool hats or capture the shadows from palm leaves, fences, etc...
