Look into the light! No, really.

While I am not going to recommend you stare at the sun for long time, the simple act of moving your subject’s face towards your light source will bring the light to your or your subject’s face. Your light source can be your fancy photography lights, your desk lamp, or the flaming ball of fire in the sky. The shadows on your face will be softened and the result is a much more flattering photograph.

Here is an example of what the difference is when you position your model and then have them glance towards the light:

Facing away from the light:

facing the light:

See the difference?

We all know that when you are further away from something it looks smaller. When you are further away from the light you get less of it. In the case of the sun, this is a really good thing. We want to mix the distance we are from that light and turn towards it so it illuminates your model’s face and gets rid of a lot of extra shadows where you don’t want them.

Pretty simple and you don’t need anything fancy to try it.

Another trick, have your subject open their eyes when they are looking towards the light.

One of the reason we don’t move our heads toward the light is that it’s bright. We tend to squint a lot and that doesn’t look the best in photos. I’ll recommend what I tell all my models – especially when we are shooting outdoors on an especially bright day.

Have your model close their eyes, and then, count to three. On three they will open their eyes and you will snap the photo.

Simple and your models will not hate you, and when your models don’t hate you, you generally have better images and someone who will want to work with you again. 😛

 

Have you tried this? Did it help? Show me your photos!