Being a wedding photographer in the tropics, I am often forced to shoot the formal portraits in harsh sunlight. This is because couples love having their formal portraits shot on the beautiful beaches we have here. The problem is the wedding schedule is often set where I am shooting these formal shots during the worst time of day. Ideally, I would be shooting all these portraits after 4:00 PM, when the light is less harsh. After 4:00 PM, the sun can actually be used as directional light, that is, the sun can be used as the main light source coming from above at a 45-degree angle, and a reflector as the secondary light source. As I said above, this is not always the situation. Sometimes I am shooting between 12:00pm and 3:00 pm, where the sun is nearly directly overhead and making exposure very difficult. A problem with shooting at this time of day is that the background is normally totally blown out, with these harsh shadows on the faces of the subjects. So here are some tips for shooting in these conditions.
Obviously, if you can find some sort of shade, this is the easiest option. Just make sure the background is also in shade to maintain proper exposure, unless you are trying for a high key portrait. A more creative option though, is to shoot in the direct sun. To do this, you need to find a dark background. This could be, dark rocks/mountains, or dark vegetation, or anything that is darker than the skin tone of the wedding couple. This works really well for 3/4 portraits or closer, unless you have can find a really big dark background. At the beach I normally shoot, I use a big island off the beach as the background. The island is dark volcanic rock and a perfect backdrop. Next, shoot so that your subject (wedding couple) is between you and the sun, or if the sun is directly overhead that will work too. With the sun behind your subjects or directly above, you will find that what it is doing is just providing an interesting rim light to your subjects. That is because you are exposing for your subjects, with a darker background that is totally filling the frame behind them.
If properly exposed you will see the sun is just creating an interesting rim light around the shoulder and hair. If you have the couple positioned correctly you can shoot 2.8, and the background will not draw attention away from your subject. This means when choosing a background, you just need to make sure it is darker, and maybe has interesting lines or shapes when out of focus.
Practice this before shooting your next wedding. I hope this tip works for you.
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