Wedding Photography Tips for Bright Sunny Days

Lighting  •  Photography Tips  •  Wedding Photography

Any sort of photographer would love to work in conditions where they have some amount of clouds rather than working on a clear sunny day. This is equally true for a wedding photographer as well. While theoretically, a clear sky means more light, it doesn’t necessarily equate to good light. This is one of the core reasons why a clear sunny day can be troublesome for a wedding photographer. In this context, today we have wedding photographer John Branch who shares some ways you can tackle the harsh sunlight and take awesome wedding photos:

An interesting aspect that Branch touches on is to assert your dominance. And this dominance has to come from your photography expertise. It cannot be possible to take photos anywhere and everywhere when the sun is shining bright. As the expert, you need to be wary of stuff like specular highlights, squinty eyes, weird shadows, and whatnot. So, communication becomes key. If your clients want to have their picture taken in a location you deem unfit, make the situation clear to them. They’ll surely appreciate you for this.

Now, when it comes to tackling harsh sunlight, Branch talks about a lot of ways you can do so. The simplest way is to find a shade and have your subjects pose there. The soft and diffused light allows you to have an even exposure and create a much more flattering image. But if there’s no shadow in sight, a simple trick you can use is to either have the couple face each other or use side lighting. In any case, make sure that the shadow of one does not interfere with the other subject. You can see a couple of examples in the video to visualize these concepts. Be sure to watch it.

And if you’re someone who loves using a wide-open aperture, but can’t do so due to the abundance of light, Branch has one trick for you too. And that is to use a variable Neutral Density (ND) filter. These work as glasses for your camera and cut down the amount of light entering it. And if nothing works, you can still take the help of post-processing to balance the exposure. The latter is especially true if you love to backlight your wedding couples.

If you love taking any sort of portraits outdoors but have been struggling on clear sunny days, we highly recommend that you watch this complete video. You’ll definitely learn a good deal on the subject matter.