Hard Light

I seriously groaned when I saw February's theme. Hard light is basically bright light that creates harsh shadows. I cringed for two reasons:

Hard light can be ugly. For portrait photography, noon on a summer day can be your nemesis. The overhead sun casts dark shadows on faces. Unless it's handled very well, it's just not flattering. Softer daylight is just easier to shoot in.
It's February. In Portland. GREY. GREY. GREIGE. GREY. I wasn't sure how in the world I was going to find any natural hard light. Thankfully, the weather decided to throw me a bone and the sun came out for a few days.

I truly struggled with this one. Even when the sun came out, I still was really frustrated when I was out shooting. I just have SO much to learn about how to shoot in hard light. I knew a couple of tricks, and this challenge helped me learn a couple more, but I also CAN'T WAIT to see how my photographer friends tackled this month so that I can hopefully learn a bunch from them. I'm super excited to send you on over to my BFF Kelly's blog to see her amazing vacation photos. Her photography is gorgeous and always inspiring!

I'd say that 90% of the photos I took in true hard light this month, I trashed. It's hard enough to compose an interesting or beautiful photo (especially when shooting fast moving subjects) and then throw in ever changing light (because as the kids move, the angle of the sun shifts, and more or less light enters the lens). So many of my photos were way over or under exposed.

However ...

I am just SO proud of myself for picking up my camera anyhow, heading out and about in the sun, and capturing some beautiful photos. I would never have had these pictures if I wasn't participating in the Life from this Lens group. I'm thrilled for the inspiration and camaraderie. I hope you enjoy seeing some of my results and learning as I share a bit of my process this month.

This post is REALLY long ... but it's because I wanted to share so much since I think even the grandparent with an i-phone can benefit from learning a bit about hard light and photo taking.

Basics

In my post, I'm going to focus on a couple of different ways of approaching hard light (positioning, utilizing reflection, and getting creative). Folks who are just starting out exploring photography always have the same question: what were your settings? I shoot in manual mode so am constantly changing my settings. For direct sun though, I usually take advantage of my lowest ISO of 100.

For beginners: ISO Speed is how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. As you increase your ISO, you double the sensor's sensitivity to light. You also increase potential for noise (speckled/grainy look) that may occur in your image.

In general, I try to keep my ISO as low as my light allows. If I find that I'm having to drop my shutter speed below 1/125, I typically up my ISO, which allows more light in. You could also try widening your aperture, but even in bright light, I often am already pretty wide open because that's how I tend to shoot.

#Fails

The above image was a total win! I found a large snow patch to bounce light up on her face, the hard over-head sun was filtered beautifully through the trees ... the composition is pleasing. BUT, for every good image in hard light, I seriously had a dozed fails.

Once I found hard light to shoot in during this dreary month, the main things I struggled with were:

Exposing correctly because the light was so bright, and I was constantly recomposing for the best angle to deal with it.
Missing focus because of the same reason as above
Random harsh shadows that detracted from my composition.

Here are some "misses" as examples. The top one actually shows examples of #1 & #3. The middle one is hard to tell, but the focus is on her jacket. It's still cute, but it's not the focus I was going for.

Positioning

The position of your subject (or YOURSELF) is critical in hard light (of note, backlight falls under the umbrella of positioning, but it's just one aspect of a much larger concept). My son Gavin was getting ready to compete in his gymnastics meet at the Evergreen Space Museum, and the sunset was blinding. The glare off the white floors and the shadows were intense. I took so many shots and most of them were overexposed or had way too many sun spots or too much haze. I finally tucked myself behind a pole to shield my camera from the intense light. It gave me the perfect shaded filter, and I seriously love the resulting image. The rim light around Gavin's head and the sun streaming behind his jacket is so pretty. The light even reflected from the surroundings to light up the top back part of his head, which I thought was really cool.

Below is a good example of how simply turning your subject really helps deal with harsh light. The sun was pouring in through the small windows creating interesting light and shadows. On the top photo, my daughter's face is distractingly dark. By instead having her turn to face the light, the photo becomes much more pleasing to the eye. I also recomposed ever so slightly to face my lens toward the window at the foot of the bed in order to get more of the light both from the window itself and the white sheets that the window light was reflecting up. Overall, just a couple little position tweaks really improve the overall composition of the photo.

And another fun one from that day ... nothing too special about it photographically, but it's a good reminder to me of my "why" for this project ... because if I weren't doing it, I'd probably not have photos of my kids jumping on the bed that lazy Saturday. Some day, I'll forget how messy the bed was after it was a trampoline for an hour, and I'll just be happy I have the memory.

I'm hoping that my explanations can help even the doting parent with an iPhone who wants better photos of their kid. Check this out ... after Tyler's TOP GUN meet (great job boys, 1st place again!), we were trying to get a group photo. One parent suggested that we do it in front of the banner. I didn't want to squelch their idea, so we took the photo. But I also knew that the light was AWFUL in that spot, so I grabbed the boys and moved them 90 degrees. The result was drastic in terms of the pleasing portraiture light of the photo. This was shot with my camera, but even for phone pics, this is an easy change that will improve your shadowy photos. Try it!

The above example is a perfect visual response to the comment of "wow, you have a nice camera" (which by the way is inevitable if you invest in some gear and share your photos). Yes, I have a professional camera, but light is light, and it's up to the photographer to use it well.

That being said, sometimes, you have one chance to take a photo, and you can't do anything about the light. If that is the case, just take the shot, offensive hard light and all. At least you've captured the memories, and you can throw the not so great ones into the mix in a collage with the great ones, and together they will paint a cohesive picture. PS ... our gym OMEGA is rad, and hosted the coolest meet EVER at the Evergreen Space Museum. Plus look at Gavin holding my niece ... I mean so cute, who even cares about the light :).

Reflective Light

As I mentioned, February is not what I normally think of when I'm shooting in hard light. Typically, hard light makes me think of noon on a Summer day. However, as I began to study the hard light that February has to offer, I noticed a couple of things. They were not necessarily new to my knowledge bank, but I'd not really been considering them when I was taking on the dreaded "hard light" task.

Winter sun is lower in the sky. It's a gift to the photographer. While the average eye may equate a July sunny day to a February one, the PNW photographer who studies light angles will know that the midday winter sun is actually lower in the sky. While the sun is still out, it means that positioning it to provide artistic backlight is always easier at noon in Feb vs noon in July.
Guess what we {might} have in February that we never have in July? SNOW! One of the best things to help a photographer combat hard light is a foreground reflective surface to bounce light back onto the subject. What is the most reflective color? WHITE! It was awesome to get some much anticipated snow to help me illustrate this point.

The portrait of Claire below illustrates both of these points ... plus she is in her Super Hero attire (Classic Claire), which makes the result even better. I didn't set out to photograph her. I was actually messing around with my phone trying to install a new camera app before we went out sledding. But out of the corner of my eye I saw Claire immersed in sunlight, and I had to grab my camera.

Also, the group photo of our neighborhood kids out sledding was taken at 11:30 AM. The sun was almost as harsh as it can be on a Winter day, but the snow provided a perfect reflector to bounce light back onto the kids' faces.

Step Back

In bright sun, stepping way back from your subject is one of the best ways to offset hard light.

It can add negative space in your photos (areas of solid color on an absence of any texture or busy-ness) and let your eyes focus on your intended subject.
The harsh shadows resulting from the sun will be less noticeable or offensive.

Canon 70-200 mm {f/2.8, 1/1250, ISO 100}

Wide Angle

Similar to the concept of stepping back, using a wide angle lens is ideal in hard light. The more landscape you have occupying your image, the less people may notice harsh shadows or light spots.

My Sigma fish-eye (15mm) lens is one of my very favorites for hard light situations. It handles them so well. It takes in such a large scene that the little lighting imperfections like splotchy shadows are inconsequential. It makes such a dramatic statement, that the viewer doesn't care that it's not actually a perfectly lit photo.

For this one below, the sun glare on the gymnasts' faces during their high bar routine was intense. It was so bright that after Shaggy finished this routine, the judges actually moved their table to the other side of the high bar so that their backs would be facing the sun. But, because the image has such a large scale, you don't even notice that the athlete's face is totally blown out. Lighting aside, I really love the composition of this photo. The white beams and the high bar follow a nice rule-of-thirds set up, and the flag and gymnast/coach all offset and compliment each other so well. Love me some fish-eye in the right moment!

Composition first

When in doubt in hard light, use your gut and compose an image using the photography properties you know to be true. Use line, color, negative space, motion, emotion, light and dark ... if you can compose a beautiful or thought/emotion provoking image, the viewer's brain is less likely to focus on the hard light that may otherwise have detracted from the photo.

For some samples, I went back through some beach photos I took in September when we were in California with our cousins. It was noon under cloudless skies. But I knew we wouldn't be back to a warm coast in about a year, so I brought my camera anyhow. They aren't beautiful, soft light portraits, but they show that we had fun, and they preserved the kids as they were.

Above, the surf provides leading lines that draw your eye to the subject (Gavin), who is also nicely off-set by the palm trees. Because it's a well composed photo, the dark shadows on his face don't detract from the scene. His shadow actually lends interest to the composition.

Here, the surf provides leading lines that draw your eye to the subject (Gavin), who is also nicely off-set by the palm trees. Because it's a well composed photo, the dark shadows on his face don't detract from the scene. His shadow actually lends interest to the composition.

Sunlight portrait hack: you can still achieve a beautiful portrait in the hardest of mid-day sun. Rely on the rule of thirds to draw your focus to an interesting surface that both absorbs and bounces light (hair is perfect), and turn your subject's face to the side so that there are no angles to cast shadows.

The photo below contains both leading lines and color that draw your eye in. It's very hard light, but it works because of how it was composed.

This next one is just a cute photo, plus the light coming in from the window adds interest. Again, it just works even though her face is pretty shaded.

Lastly, pops of color are a fun way to compose brightly lit photos, and snow is the perfect backdrop for that.

Put shadows to work

Speaking of shadows from the above beach photo, I'd hoped to have more new material to provide examples for using shadows as an actual subject, but I just ran out of time. Below, the first two photos are from my portfolio, but they demonstrate how shadows provide the main subject matter of the image. The bottom two photos are from this month, and while they are less obvious, they still show how shadows can create compositional lines and elements that augment an image.

Backlight

Most photographers LOVE to play with backlight.

For Beginners, backlight is as it sounds, when your main light source is behind your subject, creating a glow (which can be harsh or very soft).

Here is a stark example of hard backlight. As is the case with hard light, you are often battling haze. I like how the right side of the photo is more sharp/contrasting though (because it was farther from the direct light source).

Since it is February, the sun in Oregon is lower in the sky even mid-day. You can use that to your advantage to play with backlight. Shooting in RAW really helps with this because in a backlit, hard lighting situation, you may want to pull up your exposure on the foreground of your subject (which I did for the photo of Hadley below). When you shoot in RAW (vs JPG), your camera stores so much more data to help you accomplish this. The files are annoyingly big, but if you are serious about artistic photography, it's really worth the extra memory space. For the photo of our neighbor Isaac, I decided to make it more of a warm silhouette and didn't lighten up the foreground. In my opinion, they both work, so there is no hard-set rule ... just go with your instincts when shooting or editing each photo.

Details

Sometimes the big picture light is really challenging, but if you narrow your focus, you can still achieve an interesting image. Maybe the light is catching one particular feature just right, or maybe you can stand over your subject to block the harsh light. When I'm feeling overwhelmed composing a portrait, sometimes I take a details shot to at least make me feel like I got something worth keeping.

Manual exposure

A big thing to remember when shooting in hard light is that you control your exposure. Now, this can be a really frustrating thing when you miss exposure by a landslide even though you were trying to take your spot meter into account. It's not just you! Nailing exposure in hard light is HARD. The light is almost always very bright and ever changing (especially if your subject is moving).

And sometimes, when you expose perfectly for the overall scene, it's actually really boring. Play with it. I think this bottom image, which is actually very underexposed for the surrounding, is actually the more interesting result. I was just sitting at my computer editing photos for this project when I noticed the way the light was harshly hitting my desk decor. I grabbed my camera and played with some angles and exposures. These aren't photos I'd normally ever share, but I thought they'd be helpful to show just how much you can change the feel of an image by manually exposing in a dramatic way.

Canon 50 mm 1.2 {f/1.8, 1/1250, ISO 4000}

For this one, I positioned myself close to the light source, exposed only for her tutu, and let the background fade into the darkness of underexposure.

Find a filter

Sometimes the risky shot is the right move. You want a stunning sun flare or to capture a gorgeous blue sky. Other times, you just need to get a portrait and you want a softer light, but it's noon and the sun is right overhead. All you need to do is find a way to filter the sun. It can be ANYTHING ... a tree, a building ... in this case I literally lifted up the hatch of my car and had Hadley stand underneath it. I was still getting a light source through the glass, but it was shaded and diffuse. Guess what, it was my favorite shot of the day.

Grow & Create

When it's the greyest of grey in February in Portland, OR, sometimes you need to just find or make your own light. It's like self-tanner for your camera, haha (I crack myself up). When a car headlamp or a RARE sun stream through a window {onto a fake plant you look at a hundred times a day in uninspiring plain light} suddenly inspires you, grab that camera and find beauty. So often it is hiding there somewhere.

One thing I have learned over the past year or so, is that whether you embrace the harsh light or find a way to manipulate it, don't be afraid to bring your camera out no matter what time of day it is. Grab your camera, brave the sun or shadows, and let the magic ensue!