As much as I love summer, I don’t love trying to combat full sun while capturing my kids. But, let’s face it…I can’t always wait until the golden hour to start activities. Sometimes, there just isn’t open shade.
These were experimental. I was having some trouble finding a good place to take some shots of my kids on our playground midday. I decided to put the kids on a see saw and pop them up to be the high end. I made sure they were backlit to prevent shadows (raccoon eyes) and began to shoot. My older kids were looking more down at me, which creates a different lighting that the ones where my youngest is looking out and beyond me. I love the light in those best. I exposed for the kids rather than the sky, which gave me the blown white background. I love high key photography, so this was fine by me.
One of the skills of photography is learning to creatively manipulate the challenges of your environment.
I hope this gives you a little trick for your back pocket when out shooting with your kids this summer.
