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 Re: Best way to eliminate harsh shadows for outdoor portraits | |
Nikkorman wrote:
I have a SB-700 that I need to learn more about. Tend to use auto settings. Here is the image!
I think you're being too hard on yourself, as that's a decent photo, but here's my thoughts.
Generally (for me) with casual/fun photos of friends and family, it's a balance between a few capturing a few things: 1) emotion/mood 2) flattering lighting 3) sharp focus 4) good composition. For me, a snapshot (ie nothing special) nails one of those things, a decent photo gets two, and strong photo gets 3, and a great photo all four. I think we all put pressure on ourselves to nail everything in every photo, but in reality most of us mere mortals only get a photo of friends/fam with all four nailed once in a while, as for example sometimes belaboring focus, lighting or composition makes us lose the mood/emotion of the moment (entirely different from a paid shoot where you may hire talent specifically because they can look natural consistently).
The light in this photo is high in the sky, and hard barely diffused sun, which will inevitable cast "raccoon eyes" on the face, which I'm guessing is what you don't like. There are ways to use photoshop to reduce the appearance of the shadows on the face, but then you'd have lighting on the face that's incongruous from the rest of the photo. It's challenging to produce flattering results with hard light on the face unless the sun is on the horizon.
Rather than lug around a speedlite, one of the best ways to overcome challenging overhead sun is open shade: A doorway, under a tree, shadow side of a building, etc. Expose for the face, and embrace the idea that it's ok to blow some highlights in the background/foreground in order to get a reasonably flattering exposure on the face and capturing the moment. Best of all, this approach is free  which is an important consideration as you mention you want a solution that’s inexpensive.
Flash is certainly one way to "solve the problem", but as the saying goes there's more than one way to skin a cat. Fill flash can be an effective tool to overcome challenging light, but it's a balance again of those 4 priorities I listed earlier (emotion, lighting, focus, composition). Adding fill flash can eliminate the ambiance of the available light, which may not be ideal, and it can take away from the moment especially with candid photos.
Anyways, here's a few photos kind of illustrating the different approaches. None are necessarily the "right" answer, just different ones.
Bare sun, high noon (no flash):
Bare sun, later in afternoon so at a more pleasant angle (no flash):
Bare sun placed at subject's back, exposed for the face (no flash):
Subject in shade, 39" softbox as key, ambient light as fill:
Bare flash placed slightly to the left of camera, subject in shade:
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