Rangefinder - September 2014

“Recently, I had to shoot a massive family photo in the middle of the day and there was nowhere inside that could accommodate. I ended up finding a shaded area that was lit by the sun bouncing off a nearby building. It had the light and the space we needed, and turned out great! It’s always best to not be in a place where you have to shoot with hard overhead light, but if you do, find that shade!”

—Josh Goleman, Brooklyn, NY

“When strong sun presents itself, I keep my subjects in the same area of focus—something that happens naturally when a couple stands in front of each other during a wedding ceremony. For group photos, I position multiple subjects to stand next to each other in a straight line. I then adjust my ISO to 100 and my aperture to no higher than f/1.8. This helps to take the harsh highlights and jagged shadows surrounding the subjects and blend those exposures into the bokeh. I also prepare myself to expose primarily for the highlights rather than the shadows, as I can bring up the shadows in post-production more easily than trying to recover detail in an overexposed area of a photo. For full-sun photos, I also make sure to take a few shots with my 45mm f/2.8 tilt-shift lens, which does a wonderful job of blurring together any discrepancies in the exposure. Finally, a bit of dodging and burning in post-production can go a long way and in the right instance, it can be wonderful to embrace the lens flare that a harsh sun can bring, and have a bit of fun with it.”

—Sarah Gormley, Atlanta, GA
“Direct sun can be really beautiful if
it is done right—I usually find shade
or diffused light and let the bright
light drop behind the couple in order
to create bright, clean imagery.”
—Caroline Petters, New York, NY
“At a recent wedding, I realized the
bride was going to be in direct sunlight
and the groom’s face was going to be
shaded, so I split the difference and
shot to make it as even as I could.
Overall, everything was completely
blown out, so I just metered and shot
accordingly. Shooting film helps me
with tones and contrast in direct
sunlight.”
—Tec Petaja, Nashville, TN