Not optimal conditions help - how do you deal with them?

brvheart

Hello all -

Yesterday I had my very first family shoot. We had planned it for outside, however it has been raining for the last 15 days so the shots I planned for I did not exactly get. It rained up until about an hour or so before the shoot, then stopped thank goodness.

Though the rain stopped I had a ton to deal with - Wind blowing the girls hair everywhere, harsh sky that blew out no matter what I tried etc. so I was wondering how everyone deals with that when you have to shoot under not so good conditions. I am striving to get better and thought I would ask and get feedback from all of you that have more experience than me.

Thank you in advanced.

Sam

You can't change the weather. Find an indoor location. Always have a plan B.

Reschedule.

Sam

brvheart

I wanted to reschedule, however the parents were only in town for the day, I also wanted them to come to my house so I could shoot with my lighting in a controlled environment, they wanted outside though.

Sam

brvheart wrote: »

I wanted to reschedule, however the parents were only in town for the day, I also wanted them to come to my house so I could shoot with my lighting in a controlled environment, they wanted outside though.

Then they got what they wanted.

Sam

zoomer

Find a location out of the wind, face the people into the wind.
It is ok to let the sky blow out if you need to, or flash the crap out of it and save the sky.

I am an outdoor photographer, the conditions are what they are.
Get out and practice in all conditions, then you will be ready for whatever conditions you encounter.

brvheart

Sam wrote: »

Then they got what they wanted.

Sam

well said

zoomer wrote: »

Find a location out of the wind, face the people into the wind.
It is ok to let the sky blow out if you need to, or flash the crap out of it and save the sky.

I am an outdoor photographer, the conditions are what they are.
Get out and practice in all conditions, then you will be ready for whatever conditions you encounter.

very good advice!!

One question - when taking a group photo with sky behind - can you help me know how to "flash the crap out of it" to save it? I did not know that that was an option - I am still in the learning stages

zoomer

Well I don't worry about the sky, get the exposure right on the peoples faces.

If you feel you have to save the sky you need to provide enough flash to even out the exposure on the faces to be close enough to the sky that it can be saved exposure wise....depending on the lighting conditions this can vary, a lot....then you are also dealing with strong shadows, expecially if you are using multiple light sources...really an advanced technique to do it "correctly".

What I do....I use fill flash on my camera and expose for the faces and let the sky go....the sun should be coming from behind the group (not in the frame).

lanaer

There was a thread recently about shooting into the sun, with a lot of thorough discussion of how to use a flash on faces with a bright sky behind the subject.

brvheart

lanaer wrote: »

There was a thread recently about shooting into the sun, with a lot of thorough discussion of how to use a flash on faces with a bright sky behind the subject.

Perfect thanks! Off to read