Pitfalls to Full Sunshine for Photos
Sun, sun, sun. Everyone wants sun for their photos. But is it really that great? After last week’s article on the benefits of full sun, today I’m dishing on the pitfalls:
1. Splotchy Light
The dark, streaking/splotchy shadows that full sun can create on the ground for most of the day can be distracting. We want the focus of the photos to be on the subjects and their story of connection not the splotchy light.
While this is still a gorgeous photo of Shannon and Drew’s Historic Ashland wedding in York County, PA, the splotchy light on the ground is a little distracting. It was the best option we had for time and location at the moment. Sometimes you just have to make that call and do the best you can with what you are given…as I did here.
2. It’s Hot
In the summer months the added temps from full sun can be almost unbearable depending on where you live.
For KaraAnn and Bill’s Lancaster wedding at Wissler Farm in southern Lancaster County, PA, we only did a short round of photos in this location that they wanted so badly. They were so hot with the sun reflecting off the water and the dock….worth it though!!!
3. Neon Colored Grass
When the sun reflects harshly off grass (especially “just cut” grass), its color is a gross neon-looking yellow. It’s not nice in any way. This forces the photographer to desaturate the yellow and green tones of the photo to make it look better. This is why sometimes the grass looks greyish in some photographer’s photos. You can bet the photo was taken mid-day in full sun and the photographer was desperately trying to “fix” it. We’ve all been there.
*DM me if you need some tips on how to edit those yellows without losing all the color.
Here, we “just went for it” for fun. I still love this photo even though there is a shadow across Becca’s face and the grass color was hard to work with in my post process. It helped that the grass was long but I also took extra time to save the “green grass” color in post processing so that the grass wasn’t the neon green it was straight out of camera.
4. Limited Background Options
When the sun is shining, I’m always going to need to shoot in the direction of the sun so that the subject is turned away from it. This cuts the background possibilities in half in any location.
This was one of my favorite sessions of all time. I flew all the way to San Diego for this session for Marc and Angel Chernoff. They are some of my favorite authors. New York Times Best Sellers! What you don’t see in this photo is the beautiful bay view that is behind me. Because the sun was shining, we had to shoot this way with the hotel rooms as the backdrop so that the sun wouldn’t be in Marc and Angel’s faces (a big no-no). It is always the light that is the most important…not the background. Check out more from this session HERE.
5. Lens Flare
And, anytime you are shooting towards the sun, you will battle lens flare which happens anytime the sun hits the lens causing a washed out/orange “flaring” effect and circles of color on the photo called chromatic aberration. Some will say this “artistic” and I agree if it was intentional. If you didn’t want a blue streak across the subjects face, it’s not artistic…it ruined a good photo. You must shade your lens to avoid lens flare.
In this photo, the sun was hitting my lens as I tried to keep it behind the girls so that their faces were shaded.
Here, I corrected it by shading my lens with my lens hood.
While full sun is the most difficult light quality to shoot in and can feel limiting when you are newer to learning photography, if you can work with it instead of against it, it's magic. (Check out last week’s article on the benefits of full sunlight)
There was a time I was so scared of shooting in full sun that I ONLY put my subjects in full shade EVER.
I've BEEN THERE.
Keep shooting. Keep trying. You WILL get it. And, all this was news to you, it was to me too at some point. Now you know!
Stay tuned for next week’s article: Benefits to shooting in Diffused Light Quality
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