Quick Guide:

HOW TO FIND
GOOD LIGHT
FOR PORTRAITS
AT MIDDAY
by DigitalPhotoMentor.com
How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday
You’ve probably heard you need to have good light for
portraits, right? Okay great, but what does that mean
exactly, and how do you find that elusive good light?
In this guide you’ll get some tips on how to recognize
different kinds of light, and make choices based on
This guide was provided courtesy of DigitalPhotoMentor.com
the look you want for the final portrait. You’ll also learn
about open shade, quality of light, direction of light and
how to bring it all together so that you can work faster,
smarter, and with less gear. Let’s begin!
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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

1
Step #1

Quality of Light
You’re likely familiar with quantity of light, which is simply
how much light there is falling on your scene. But, how about the
quality of light? This is where the discussion begins about good
light.

Most portrait photographers prefer to work with something called

soft light, which is generally more flattering for people photos. The
alternative is hard light, but neither is right or wrong. They are just
different. Knowing how to spot the difference, and which you want
to use for your portrait, is where you want to start. Let’s take a look
at both hard and soft light.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday
This is an example of hard light produced by direct
sunlight. Not so flattering and harder to maintain detail in
both the highlight and shadow areas.
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Hard Light
Hard light is characterized by sharp edged shadows, high
contrast between light and dark, increased texture, and
more drama in your image. That means if you want a
portrait with lots of contrast and drama this is the type of
lighting you want.
Just know it will pick up every bump, wrinkle, pore
and imperfection in your subject’s face. If you are
photographing your mother do you think she will want
that? No, likely not! But a hard rock band, power business
portrait, a dramatic character portrait or photo of an old
gentleman might be well suited to hard light.
A small light source, or one that is proportionally far from
the subject creates this type of lighting. Meaning a bare
lightbulb, your small on-camera flash, and the sun are all
examples of hard light sources. Even though the sun is
a large ball of fire, it is very far away. So, proportionally
compared to the size of your subject’s head, it looks small.
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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

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 How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

This is an example of soft light. Simply by moving five

feet toward the building into the shade, it is now much
more flattering to the model.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday
Soft Light
Soft light is characterized by soft edged or almost
non-existent shadows (think a heavily overcast day
and looking for your own shadow on the ground), low
contrast, decreased texture, and less drama.
Most often this is the lighting of choice for portraits
because it is more flattering for people. It doesn’t pick
up all the flaws in the skin and parts of their face are not
lost in deep shadow.
A very large light source is what creates soft light. That
includes large umbrellas or soft boxes, large white
reflectors (I say white because silver and gold can create
hard light), and even the entire sky on a cloudy day.
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Get Out of the Sun
To sum up step one working with quality of light, simply
get out of the sun and into the shade. There is always
some shade somewhere, even at high noon when the
sun is directly overhead. Look under large trees and
around the shady side of large buildings.
Remember, if you do want a portrait with more drama
you may choose to work in the sun. Just know that it will
give you a very different look. For the purpose of the
rest of this guide we’re going to assume you want to
make a flattering portrait so we’ll continue on the quest
for “good light”.
Read more on quality of light here: Quality of Light –
What is it? How do you use it?
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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

This is another example of soft light. There was a large

open doorway behind me and we were inside a building
under an overhang. So no direct sunlight was hitting his
face.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

2
Step #2

Find a Good
Background
Once you’re in the shade and have softer light, the next thing
you want to take a look at is your background. So many times I see a
great portrait ruined by a busy or distracting background. Look behind
your subject, or better yet take a test shot and review it on the camera.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

This is what you want to look out for in the background:

• Areas of high contrast.
• Blown out or super bright areas.
• Bright colours especially warm ones like red,
orange, and yellow.
• Everything in sharp focus.

In this image, three of the four things I recommend

avoiding are going on in the background (bright spots,
high contrast, bright colours). Notice how busy it is, and
how much it distracts the viewer’s eye away from the
subject. She’s almost lost in the scene. While you can do this, there is a much easier way!

So how do you fix that? This is where the “work smarter
not harder” tip comes into play. Many photographers
will plunk their subject down in front of a pretty
background and try to fight with the lighting. They’ll
bring in a reflector or even multiple speedlights to try
and overcome the lighting issues on the background.
This could be a game changer for you, are you ready for
it? Here it comes - move the subject and the camera!
That’s it. Reposition the subject, or move yourself and
the camera position, so that the background behind her
isn’t so problematic.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

Okay that’s much better! All I did was move to the other Open up your mind to possibilities once again. Take that
set of steps and turned the camera and myself around trash and make it look like a treasure. Make art out of
180 degrees to get a different background. garbage, possibly quite literally. Make lemonade out of
lemons. Okay, you get it, enough of the metaphors.
Often times, within the area you are shooting there will
be more than one option for setting up and camera The point is to take an object that perhaps you see every
angles. One thing I recommend is that you walk around day and photograph it in a way that makes it look new
your subject - literally! to you. Make the lighting perfect, put it on an unusual
background, just get really creative. If you are doing
By that I mean, put them into position and physically
these projects with a friend, swap hidden treasures. Find
walk all the way around them, having them turn their
three in your garage, they find three—then you either go
body/face and follow you. Watch how the light on their
out together to photograph all six, or do three each then
face changes and how the background looks. You might
switch.
find a much better angle around the other side from
your original spot. Don’t feel you need to stick with
working in the first spot you pick, see step five below for
more on this.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

3
Step #3

Direction of Light
The next consideration you want to look at is the
direction of light. If you aren’t sure where the light is coming from
go stand where you want your subject and look back toward the
camera. Look for the brightest area around you (squint your eyes if
you can’t find it, that will help) - THAT is the direction of light.

Analyze how the light is falling on the subject. Is it coming from the
camera angle straight at your model? Is it off to the side, or from
overhead? Often the issue shooting at midday is overhead lighting
which will cause dark eyes, especially on people with deep set eyes
or raised brows.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

The light here is from above left. Look at the dark

shadows in his eyes. This is not desirable.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

If this is the case, look for a subtractive lighting situation

where there is something to help block the overhead
light. That might be a large overhanging tree branch,
eaves on a building, or a porch or doorway.

Ideally you want the light to come from the side, which
will allow you to create nice portrait lighting patterns on
your model. By moving them or having them turn their
face slightly the pattern will change. But overhead or
direct straight on lighting will not give you those options
and flattering lighting.
Now you’ll notice one side of his face is in shadow, which
is fine – this is called Split Lighting. But there is light in
his other eye and you can see his iris clearly. If you can see
the light source reflected in the eyes that’s called a catch-
light and is what you want to happen! If there is no light
in the eyes they look dull and lifeless.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

Let’s look at the example of the girl again. In this image,

there are two things working in my favor to create nice
soft and directional light.

1. There is a large tree just to camera right blocking

much of the overhead light.

2. There is a five story white apartment building across

the street to camera right. It is basically acting like
a giant reflector providing a large light source, and
thus soft lighting, from the side. Because of this, it
is one of my favorite portrait photography locations Of course, keep in mind when go location scouting,
when I have to shoot at midday. to do so at the same time of day you will be doing
the photography, otherwise the light will be different.
This scenario is often referred to as “subtractive lighting”
Scouting in the evening but going back to shoot at
(part of the light is being blocked) or “open shade”.
noon could give you some unwanted surprises, i.e.
When you go look at (scout) a potential portrait location,
completely different light.
take all these factors into consideration, and if you can
find a spot that offers this type of situation you’ve struck If you struggle with seeing the light and direction of
gold! Make note and use that spot often. light, try this challenge: Monthly Challenge – Shoot in
Monochrome Learn to See Light.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

4
Step #4

Dial-In Your Camera

Settings and Take a
Test Shot
Only after finding the best light and a good background
is it time to set up your camera and think about settings. Take a meter
reading (using either your in-camera meter or a handheld one) and set
your exposure. I highly recommend working with a tripod for two reasons.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

First, you’ll eliminate camera shake in case of a slow

shutter speed (although you can still get blur if your
subject moves during the exposure), and second it
allows you to interact with your subject.

Select an appropriate ISO, aperture, and let the shutter

speed fall where it may. If it’s too slow, increase your
ISO or open the aperture. Usually for portraits a wider
aperture like f/4 (or larger if your lens allows) is desired
to help throw the background out of focus.

When you’re all set take a test shot. Examine it carefully

on your camera’s LCD screen looking for:

• Proper exposure (use the histogram to make sure

no highlight areas of importance are clipped).
• Good white balance.
• Composition.
• Quality and direction of light on your subject.
• Distractions in the background.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

5
Step #5

Adjust as Necessary
This last step is actually the key to having more success
on your portrait photo shoots. Photography is a journey, not a
destination. Do NOT expect to get everything perfect on the first
test shot - the pros don’t!

Earlier I mentioned not being afraid of changing things up if it isn’t

working or you can’t get the results you want. So take your time.
Slow down and review your images. Refine any camera settings,
lighting, and move to a new location if need be.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

Your subject is likely way more patient than you think,

and will be appreciative of a great final portrait by
spending an extra few minutes refining things. You
owe it to them to do the best job possible. Just explain
you want to try something else because the light isn’t
working – and make sure to tell them it is NOT their
fault.

Remember to build rapport with your subjects, and

most of all - have fun. Now it’s your turn to go try these
tips and let me know how you make out.

Come share your portrait images and join the discussion

over in our DPM Facebook group here.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

More Learning

If you found this guide helpful, you can get even more portrait
lighting help with our online photography class – Portrait Fundamentals.
Learn everything from exposure, what equipment to use, light ratios,
metering, using flash, and more.

For a little adventure and practical application, you might want to attend
one of our workshops where you will get small group instruction custom
tailored to meet your needs - get more information on workshops here. Or
join us on an adventure and see the world on an exotic photography tour -
see where we’re going next and get more info here.

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How to Find Good Light for Portraits at Midday

Contact Us

Contact form: On the website

Twitter: @DPMentor
Instagram: @dpmentor
Facebook: facebook.com/DigitalPhotoMentor

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

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