How To Take Incredible Sun-kissed Photos
Who doesn’t love a photo bathed in gorgeous warmed sunlight, right? There’s something so ethereal and timeless about this —and when you’re able to capture it? It’s pure magic! Boldtechinfo is always here to provide you with information to help you achieve your desires.
We know from experience, though, that working sunlight can also be tricky. When done right, shooting in sunlight blankets your image in a warm, sleepy halo. When done wrong? You can be left with awkward shadows, squinting subjects, and blinding overexposed photos. The trick is finding the balance.
In this post, we will show the exact techniques we use to capture that perfect sunlit shot each and every time. No special equipment needed. Just you, your camera and these tips below!
1. Take Advantage of Backlighting
Backlighting is one of most effective and simplest way to capture glowing, sun-kissed photos. You will need to shoot directly into the sun to create this effect. To get the best results, aim to shoot early morning or late afternoon when the sun is low over the horizon.
Example
Have your subject stand with their back towards the sun like the model in the photo below. This will create a rim of light around them, resulting in that dreamy, whimsical effect (conveniently, you also get a well-lit photo). You may have to underexpose slightly so that your background environment doesn’t get completely washed out, but don’t go overboard, otherwise, you’ll lose your subject’s details altogether.
2. Find The Right Angle
A slight adjustment in your position can completely transform the way the light hits your subject and the camera. Lighting is important, but how you are positioned relative to your subject enhances or detracts from that great light source you found.
Example
Don’t be afraid to shuffle around to get a different perspective and play with the effects that result. Shoot from down low or from an elevated platform, then move around your subject until you find a beautiful, well-lit photo that satisfies your vision. Shift left, right, up, or down as you work with your backlighting and your subject. It’s gets a lot easier the more you practice.
3. Plan For The Golden Hours
The goal here is to work with natural light sources to give you that soft golden photo. Natural light is at its softest and most alluring at sunrise and sunset – these are referred to as the “golden hours.”
Example
Plan your shoot for these times of the day, your subject will be bathed in a magical golden light that will give your shots a romantic, calming feel. Be sure to arrive extra early so you have time to set up and experiment. Once you start shooting, be wary of your subject being too golden. Play around with your white balance to ensure you capture realistic skin tones. Not sure when the sunrise or sunset in your area, you can check by clicking on this link.
how to take incredible sun-kissed photos
4. Adjust Your Aperture
Even with the best planning, you’ll still end up shooting photos after (or before) your “golden hours.” To soften the shadows in your portraits created during bright sunlight, you can try lowering your aperture setting (measured in f-stops). The lower the f-stop value, the sharper your focused subject will appear while the rest of the image will be become blurred. The amount of blur will be based on your lens and camera.
Example
Locate the Aperture setting in your DSLR camera. It’s usually found on the main dial represented with letter A or Av. Start at f/16 aperture (no blur, everything in focus) and play around with the different effects created as you drop the aperture to f/11 or f/8. The shadows should gradually soften around the edges and eventually become barely visible.
5. Use Fill Flash
If you have strong shadows on your subject caused by bright sunlight, fill flash is an effective way to illuminate the dark areas and create a more even lighting. This feature is perfect when you’re working outdoors when you have an extremely bright, unobstructed background. Fill flash effectively “fills in” the dark patches with light or helps to counteract if your subject is underexposed.
Example
Most cameras usually come with a built-in flash. All you need to do is pop up the built-in flash, set to automatic exposure mode, focus on your subject and shoot. That’s it! With your flash activated, your camera will automatically calibrate and work its magic to properly expose both the background and the subject.
6. Enhance With Lightroom
Any photo, no matter how great it looks in the camera, can be enhanced and made more beautiful with post-processing tools such as Lightroom. Case in point: every single photo shown in this tutorial has been enhanced by Lightroom in some way. With Lightroom you adjust or fix the colors, lighting, shadow and everything in between to make your photo look as flawless and magical as possible.
Example
If you don’t want to spend hours editing and tweaking to get that perfect sun-kissed effect, you can use Lightroom presets (premade photo filters) that are specifically designed to enhance this effect. With just one click, you can instantly illuminate your photos with a gorgeous sunlight effect that’s both realistic and dreamy.
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