Sizzling Summer Sessions

The normal summer day finds us making our business, family, adult, child, and senior portraits along with a good number of real estate listings.  The long hot summer has arrived in full force.  Every session ends with me being progressively wet from perspiration and it is very difficult to compose the image with my eyes burning with sweat.  I always make portraits in shady light using my external flash as a fill light for the face and eyes, to avoid coon eyes and give some definition to the eyes.  I also try to have some specular or direct sunlight in the background which gives the photo a three-dimensional look.  Many subjects have trouble looking into direct sunlight resulting in squinting.  It is best to use direct sunlight to light the background and control the light on the subject with the external flash in a good size softbox.  You can use an umbrella however you're just asking for the wind to blow it over or just the flash direct.  You can do this if you want a rather contrasty photo or you're far enough away not the over-light the subject's face.  Our most favorite session is the indoor-outdoor session, that way if the outdoor photos don't work out you have the studio photos to fall back on. Thunderstorms and high wind can sometimes get in the way and it is great to have the studio as an alternative.  My dream was to have a studio and I've had that since 1987.