Carey Schumacher, owner of Barefoot Memories, is our guest photographer today! She’s an AMAZING everything – mom, photographer, friend. You can read more about her from her interview a few months ago. Thank you Carey so much for stepping in with some on-the-spot coaching!

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There I was on the morning of Father’s Day, waiting for my clients at the beach in La Jolla.  It was a gorgeous sunny day, and I was not the only photographer at the beach.  Nearest me was a dad with his tripod, setting up the camera for a group family picture on the beach, self-timer style (had I more time, I would have gone over to him and offered to hit the shutter for him).  A little further away, there was an adorable family in photo session garb accompanied by what appeared to be a nice female professional photographer.  Smiling to myself, I watched from a distance as the photographer followed the family around, photographing candid moments of mom, dad, and their cute little toddler daughter.  I really enjoy watching other photographers enjoying their work & creating great photos for their clients, and those moments were no exception.

Then the photographer did something that made me literally slap my head in confusion.  I was dumbfounded.

Because of the low tide that morning, the beach gods were graciously granting us beautiful open shade alongside some rocks that had been under water not 8 hours prior.  I was planning on using that same shade when my clients arrived — it’s too good to pass up!  This photographer took that awesome shady gift and set up the family for a group family photo with everyone looking at the camera, but she put dad & baby in the shade and had mom squatting there next to them with her face in the full sunshine.  With you in mind, Me Ra Koh readers, I took this pic from a distance & blurred out the faces, so I could show you what I saw:

If she was planning on cropping out mom or creating some artsy over-and-under-exposed artwork (which, I admit, could have been her plan the whole time), she was using some very creative lighting strategies to accomplish her goal.  If her goal was to create a traditional evenly lit family image, that posing and lighting strategy was NOT going to work.  She had a flash on her camera, so that would help light up the dad & the daughter, but there’s no way the flash could light them up enough to match the sunlight that was hitting mom’s face.

If she had only put them in the shade so that ALL of their faces were lit the same — oh what a gorgeous family picture she could have created!!

To the photographer, if you happen to read this:  I’m so sorry to be dumping all over your technique!  If you know me at all, you know I love sharing knowledge and helping fellow photographers improve.  This blog post of mine is being written to that end:  to help emerging pros improve.

I’ll say this in the nicest possible way I can:  If you don’t know how to handle lighting at your shooting location, you need to PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE and LEARN LEARN LEARN until you start charging for your photography.  There are a LOT of new photographers entering the world of professional photography, and you will set yourself apart from the new masses when you improve your skills!  Having a creative eye is one thing.  Being able to search out and identify good lighting and bad lighting situations on-location is another.  Combine the two, and you’re on your way to Awesomeville!!

Had I been at that photographer’s side, and had she given me permission to share my two cents, I would have advised her to pose the family so that all of their heads were in the shade.  I would have also recommended that she position herself so that a brightly lit surface was behind her.  With bright sand or a sun-drenched rock face behind her, all of that awesome sunlight would bounce off the bright surface, onto her family’s happy faces, and back to her camera.

Here’s an example from later that morning, when I had my clients in some shade:

I’m not saying this is an award-winning photograph, but all three people are evenly lit without using a flash, and the little boy’s eyes are bright and cheery because of that bright surface behind me.  If he were looking at me with a dark surface behind me, his eyes would be lifeless.

Just for kicks & giggles, here are some more images from that session on Father’s Day:

That little dude wasn’t too thrilled about the crashing waves, but he was ALL OVER racing with dad, so that’s what we did!
For that image, I had my camera set to Av mode (I choose the aperture, the camera chooses the shutter speed) at f/2.8.  The important thing is that I had my camera set to “evaluative” or “matrix” metering (sometimes called “pattern”).  That way, it didn’t just try to get good exposure on the subject, which would have washed out the sky.  Instead, the camera took the whole scene into account when choosing a shutter speed, and chose one fast enough to keep the sky blue.

But for this picture, I had to change my settings:

If I had used matrix metering in that cave, the camera would have tried to expose the dark walls of the cave, and the boy would have been totally over exposed.  So, I switched to “center-weighted” or “partial” metering.  I was telling the camera to look more at the boy and forget about the surroundings (the dark cave walls).  So the camera chose a shutter speed that would expose his face, leaving the walls of the cave pretty dark.

So there ya have it:  some tough love for new pros, and some beach tips for you, too, all in one Carey blog post.

Me Ra: We’re all praying for you and your family here at Chez Schumacher!  Please let your dad know that we love him and are praying for God’s hand upon him to be loving, healing, constant, and keenly felt.