Advice Please!

Greensquared

Hi all,
Well it's finally happened. One of my close friends has asked me to take family portraits for her. I've been thinking about poses, etc. and will do my best with the light (I'm sure I'll be posting for critiques after the fact!).

My big question right now is, do I use a polarizer? It'll be 6pm ish and the sun will be starting to drop, but I plan to use fill flash. Do I want to make sure I get color in whatever sky shows by keeping the polarizer on, or take it off and make sure I maintain the fastest speeds/best quality I can?

Emily

Seneca

Do not use a polorizer to take that shot. Polorizer's are primarily for landscapes. I made that horrible mistake serveral years ago (when I was using film), and my subject's faces were darker than they should've been. I personally do not think this is a good idea...but I'm just one humble opinion.

Don't take the shot in the middle of the afternoon...wait until 5:30 or 6ish...

Elaine

AFAIK, I don't believe polarizers and portraits are a good pairing. Polarizers can drop your speed a couple stops, which may not be very helpful when trying to capture people. They intensify colors (especially the blue sky like you mentioned), which is nice for landscapes, but with people, it's better to have control over that in post, I think. Depending on the circumstances, I may try and avoid much sky in the background at all. If there is some sky along the edges of the shot, a nice vignette may help to deepen the sky tones a bit.

Have fun! I'm sure you'll do great!

Greensquared

Thanks to both of you! It all makes sense, so I will not be using it. The shoot is at 6pm and the sky is a gorgeous blue anyway. I will be trying to avoid having it in the shot, but if it's there I think all will be fine.

photogmomma

You may already know this, but if you really want the sky to come out - and the things still lit by the sun - if they are in the shade and you're using a flash, expose for the background (the bright parts) and then let teh flash brighten up your subjects... If you're NOT having bring things in the background, expose for your subjects faces and then adjust your flash exposure compensation down about a stop or so....

And if you already know all that (as I suspect you do!), nevermind! I've seen your photos - I'm sure you'll do awesome!