Take Better Phone Photos, Part 6, Outdoor Lighting Tips

by Jenifer Juris

My tips for dealing with outdoor light are similar to the ones I give for indoor light, but there are some differences, too.

I also need to give a similar disclaimer to the last post. I can never cover all the ins and outs of dealing with light outside for taking pictures. This blog post is just a starting point, a way to deal with the most common issues we face when trying to take photos with our phones. There are many classes, books, or videos online you can explore if you wish to get more in-depth on this topic.

Also, unless specified, none of the photos used below have any editing done to them. This is to help you see the difference straight out of the camera.

Outdoor Lighting Tip #1: Do Your Best to Avoid Full Sun

Whether you’re getting ready to take a selfie or a photo of someone else, it’s always best to avoid the times of day that have the sun straight above you, or the areas outside where there is no shade. Most people will be squinting or have their eyes closed entirely. Also, (similar to indoor lighting and avoiding standing directly under a light fixture), standing in full sun in the middle of the day will cause harsh shadows to be cast on faces.

Here are two photos of me trying to take a selfie in full sun. I could barely keep my eyes open even a little bit. Full sun is also giving my face some harsh shadows, which causes uneven lighting on my face.

When you can’t avoid the midafternoon sun, try to find areas of shade to stand in instead. This will give your face more even lighting and make it easier to keep your eyes open. Here are a couple of photos I managed to take once I found some shade. The first one, I’m standing in the shade of a building. The second one, I’m standing in the shade of my trees.

In both of these, I might still be squinting a little bit, but it’s much better than the before photos. The lighting is also more even, and I don’t have any strong harsh shadows on my face. Both of these after photos would be MUCH easier to edit and improve compared to the before photos. In fact, let’s try editing one of each and see how they compare:

It’s very obvious that finding a shaded area (whenever possible) can give you a much better result. Even with editing, it was very difficult to fix all the issues in the full sun photo. Not to mention that you can barely see my eyes.

I fully understand that sometimes, full sun is your only option. And, a not-so-great photo is better than no photo at all. But IF you have the option, finding shade will be much better.

Outdoor Lighting Tip #2: Avoid Mixed Lighting When Possible

Another issue we can run into outside is trying to find a shaded area that doesn’t contain mixed lighting. What do I mean by mixed lighting? I mean areas of both sun and shade on the subject:

In both examples, I have areas of shade and light on my face. This is another kind of photo that will be very hard to edit or make look somewhat nice.

The solution is to try to find areas of full shade that work for the whole subject or group of people. The more people you have, the harder it will be. So, just do your best.

Outdoor Lighting Tip #3: Golden Hour Light is Best

Golden Hour is the time of day that falls just before and after the sun rises or sets. The sun is either below the horizon or very low on the horizon. The light is softer, warmer (golden), and makes for easier picture taking.

Golden Hour light can give us some of the best light for photos, especially for photos of people. Most of the things we do or want to photograph will fall outside of the Golden Hour windows in the morning and evening. And that’s okay. The tips I’ve provided so far will help you with that.

But when you have the option to take pictures during Golden Hour, this is the better choice. Here are two pictures I took during Golden Hour to show you the difference between them and the pictures above taken during the afternoon.

Both of these pictures were taken in my backyard (which faces West), and so I had access to the soft, golden light just after sunset. As I just said, the light is soft and not harsh. There are no blown-out highlights on my face. There are also no deep shadows from light overhead because the light is now from the side. Both of these photos would be easy to edit and use on a digital scrapbook page. I’d probably want to adjust the color balance a little bit because both of these photos feel a little bit too warm (to me). But I’d rather deal with editing that than trying to fix full sun or mixed lighting with editing any day of the week.

Other Outdoor Lighting Tips:

• Turn in a circle. Just like my tip for indoor lighting, turning in a circle to see where you or your subject looks best is always a good idea.
• Tilt your glasses. My tip for reducing reflections in indoor lighting works the same outdoors. Tilt your glasses by not placing the bows all the way down on your ears.
• Tap the screen to pick your area of exposure and focus (as we talked about in Part 1 of this series).

In the next post, we’re going to wrap up this series by recapping what we’ve learned. I hope you have found this series helpful, and I can’t wait to see your amazing phone photos on your digital scrapbook pages!

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Author: Jenifer Juris | Contact Us
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