One thing that was great about taking a class from a portrait photographer who has kids of her own was that Jennings totally got that I am never going to use a tripod or remote to take pictures of my kids (two tools the single guy instructor highly recommended). They move. And I’m not just going to be able to take pictures of them at the magic hour before dusk. They play outside during the day, with direct overhead sun. So I’m trying to remember some of the things she told me to do to make the best of moving kids in direct sunlight.
Rotate around with your hand out to see where the light will produce the best shadows. I made myself a collage to remember this!
Usually, subject’s back should be to the sun.
Higher f-stop might capture some rays of sun. I think that’s still a trial and error thing for me. And photo shop would have been nice here to cut out the roof…
Use open shade if at all possible, and get as close to the edge of the light as you can.
Use AF manual point selection, not the scattered automatic selection, and when the sun is directly behind, move the light meter back darker, because there is so much light trying to get into the picture.
