This shot was taken during the Golden Hour.
Photo by Ben Yoder

To get the best light, you need to be shooting when people are sleeping, eating, and having fun. This is your fun, after all, and it takes some dedication to get it right. So how do you get those great shots outside, utilizing the best light and avoiding the harsh light most people normally get? First, a touch of theory to bore you; it's what teachers normally do, after all.

Your eye can see roughly 12 stops of light; that is, you can see 12 distinctly different levels of brightness in a scene. That may not seem like a lot, but consider your digital camera: it can only see roughly 5 stops of light (for a normal .jpg image straight from the camera). That's not even half the range your eye has! Even film can't match your eye, only seeing about 7 or 8 stops of light. Because of this, you need to control your light; after all, that's what photography is all about. Here is how to control your light outside.

The reason your pictures in the middle of the day turn out so poorly, with shadow detail being lost to underexposure and highlight details being lost due to overexposure, is because the light during mid-day is harsh, contrast-filled, bright light. This light offers too many different stops of light, which your camera simply cannot deal with. It will pick an exposure in the middle of it all, and you are left with those aforementioned blown highlights and lost shadows. So what can you do? Here is a list of some great outdoor tips:

Shoot during the "Golden Hour" - First and foremost, you need to know when the best light for photography is. This time is commonly referred to as the Golden Hour. There are actually two golden hours each day: one at sunrise and one at sunset. The reason this light is so good is that it is low contrast, warm light - warm light being more yellow in color. The Golden Hour is generally about an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. However, this will change with the seasons, with Summer light not lasting quite as long, and Winter light lasting a bit longer.

Place your subject facing the sun, which will bathe them with nice warm light. If you want to add some contrast to the subject, turn them 90 degrees from the sun (or less, to your vision) to get beautiful,raking light going across your subject, bringing out the texture through shadows. Keep in mind, the Golden Hour after sunrise can be very early in the morning! It's important to get out there and shoot before the average person to get the best shots.

Shoot during overcast days - If you have to get out there during the middle of the day, pray for some cloud cover. This seems a bit counterintuitive, but in order to get less harsh light during the middle of the day, clouds are your best friend. You've seen the big soft-boxes over a professional portrait photographer's flashes; the idea will be that you will use the clouds to act as your very own giant softbox, diffusing the light enough to get you a great picture.

I shot this picture of a friend of mine on the Coronado beach (near San Diego) a year or so ago. The marine layer - i.e. fog - was in, and was blocking out the sun. I originally went there to get some great sunset shots on the beach, but when it was apparent that the fog wasn't going anywhere, I used it to my advantage. I got a lot of great shots at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon! So use those clouds to your advantage!

Find the foliage - When you have no choice but to go outside in the bright sunshine, go find your favorite tree, and get under it. Even better, find a tree line and get into its shade! By using the trees for your shade, you are again just trying to diffuse the light. You will get some ambient light through reflected light off nearby buildings. There are a few things to watch out for, however.

Watch out for dappled sunlight falling onto your subject. This will cause spots of overexposure, which will not look good. If you can help it, try to shoot into the tree line; doing this will avoid a too-bright, sunlit background that will overexpose when you are trying to expose properly for your shaded subject. Also, try to place your camera in the shaded area as well, as this will avoid problems with flare from the sunlight.

Use your flash! - This may be one of the most unintuitive things for beginners to think of. You're outside on a bright, beautiful, sunny day. Why should you need to use a flash? Well, remember at the beginning, how the camera can only see so much of a range of light? This is a way to fill the shadows with some more light, and bring them closer in brightness to the sunlit portions of your scene. By doing this, your camera will be able to see the whole scene.

A great tip would be to place your subject between your camera and the main light source (although, remember not to point your camera right at the sun!) and turn on the flash. Just letting your camera decide how much flash power to use is fine, and it will be smart enough to match the flash power to the rest of the scene. Instantly, your bright blue sky with puffy clouds will be exposed, and you won't have a silhouette for a subject!

So there you have it, the basics to shooting outside. Go and experiment - remember, taking digital pictures is free! - and find out what works best for you. Try adding a reflector instead of a flash; or try both!

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