Portrait Photography How To

In general, taking photos, particularly portraits, in direct sunlight is considered a no-no. The light is simply too harsh and the shadows it produces are unflattering on your subject.

But there are ways to shoot attractive portraits in direct sunlight if you know a few things. Photographer Peter McKinnon has some great tips, which he explains in the below video.

"Let me know if this has ever happened to you," McKinnon says. "You're outside, taking some photos with some family and some friends, snapping pix, just having a great time and the sun, maybe it's high noon, way up in the sky, is super harsh and very bright on your face. You look down at your camera and you have a photo that looks like this. So, you try adjusting all your settings and your aperture and your f-stop and your shutter speed. And you're trying everything to make that photo not look like this but it just keeps looking like that."

To help overcome this dilemma, McKinnon enlists the help of fellow YouTube Chris Ramsey to demonstrate and explain the following tips:

#1 Bounce the Light

#2 Diffuse the Light

#3 Use the Shadows

#4 Move Your Model

Watch the video below and you'll never fear direct sunlight for portraits again! Then hop over to McKinnon's YouTube channel and click the subscribe button to get all his great photography and video tutorials.