Backyard Portrait

Sunlight is usually too harsh for portraits so I try to avoid full sun on the face when shooting outside. My usual choices are to shoot in the shade or put the sun behind my subject (as in the case of this photo).

Accurate metering is important so the sunlit background doesn’t fool the camera into underexposing the subject. This is an ideal situation for metering with an 18% gray card with the surface of the gray card right in front of the subject and facing away from the sun. More about gray cards in the link below.

I used a 67mm focal length (anywhere around 70 mm or longer would do) and an aperture of f/7.1 to have just enough depth of field to keep her face sharp but keep the grass somewhat out of focus.

I wanted as even a background as possible so I picked a position and photo angle with an area of sunlit grass as even as I could find. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds since my subject was playing in the yard and moving around a lot. That meant I was moving around all the time (on my knees), keeping an eye on my subject, an eye on the background, and waiting for a good moment with a nice facial expression.  I usually don’t try to pose young children. It is better to just let them play and follow them around. You get happier, more natural expressions that way.

As I followed her around, I took pictures with my camera just above her eye level, a pleasing angle for most faces.

When I opened the RAW file in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), the exposure on her face was pretty much right where I wanted it to be right out of the camera. I moved the “Highlight” slider in ACR quite a ways to the left to tone down the sunlit highlights in the background.

Processing RAW files with ACR is one of the joys of digital photography, allowing you to do great things with the tonality of RAW files without expending a lot of time. Much better and faster than trying to correct JPEG files.

Photo Info: Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at 67 mm. 1/80 sec,  f/7.1,  ISO 400.

Links

For more information on metering and gray cards, read Using a Gray Card, Incident Light Metering on the Cheap.

For detailed information on exposure, metering, depth of field, using the light, and portrait photography, read Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies which has a five star rating at Amazon.com. Learn more here and order it here.

For more information on processing RAW files with ACR, read Mastering Photoshop & Lightroom: Adobe Camera Raw (ACR).

For the best books on portrait photogrpahy, read “How To” Book Recommendations: People Photography

If you are looking for the best “how to” photography books, go here.