Key tips

1. Always try to illuminate the face, unless you’re looking for a silhouette or something that’s similarly interesting.

2. You don’t really want the horizon line to just cut through your model’s head, or worse, right at their neck. You can avoid that by getting higher or lower with your shooting angle.

3. Even when it comes to shooting in harsh light conditions, you don’t want to turn completely away from the sun, since doing otherwise would make the model lose a lot of details on their face and it’s just not flattering.

4. Make sure the shadow underneath your model’s chin is not too strong. Tilting your model’s head can sometimes help to soften the shadows around their neck.

5. Don’t let your model stare at the sun for too long, instead play around with counting your shots in, it’s going to make their life so much easier. 

6. You can come up with a diffuser/reflector on a higher angle to light up your model evenly. It’s important that you don’t position the reflector and light up from under, because that’s not where the light is naturally coming from.

7. Factor in the experience of your model. A professional model would obviously be able to keep a much clearer face and perspective in full sun than someone who is an absolute beginner. So ask your model about their experience with being photographed, and whether they’re comfortable being in full sun.

8. As a photographer, you need to make your model feel as amazing and comfortable as possible. Give them that confidence, show them some of the shots you’ve taken and reassure them that you’re going to take lots of shots and only use the best ones.

9. One posing technique that you can try is what’s called “turtling.” The idea is when we push our chin towards the camera, we can hide the double chin effect and give more dimension to our face. On the other hand, when we pull our chin back, maybe trying to outstretch our body, even the skinniest of us are going to get our chin almost blended into our neck a little bit.

10. When it comes to sitting poses, one great technique you can ask your model is to elongate their legs and create a triangle with mainly their arms and other parts of their body. That way you’ll have a sort of long leading line and at the same time make their whole body feel longer and interesting. 

Definitely give all of this a go at home and if you have questions about everything that we’ve done, let us know. Good luck!