How to Take Portraits in the Sun: Using Full Sun

Taking good pictures in the sun with a simple point and shoot camera can be challenging, and in the past I've blogged some solutions for shooting in the sun such as the following:

1) Bumping your exposure compensation

2) Using fill flash

3) Using diffused sun as rim lighting

4) Finding shade

Today I will offer one final solution to taking great photographs in the sun. You've probably heard the adage to shoot with the sun over your shoulder, right? Well, as much as I try to avoid it in daily shooting, that technique can work really well sometimes.

Problems

Watch out for people squinting into the camera, or dark shadows created in people's eye sockets. Both of which will almost definitely happen when shooting with the sun over your shoulder.

Solutions

To prevent this, I will often ask my subjects not to look at the camera when I am shooting. If they are focused on some task or interacting with each other, then they probably won't be looking straight at the sun and thus they won't be squinting.

Yes, it's a different kind of image, and possibly not the image you were looking to create, but it can work. Often, with couples, I'll just ask them to look at each other instead of the camera. That solves the squinting and the shadow problems.

Also, shooting with the sun over your shoulder, will create a much more saturated looking image, which can be a nice effect.