Breaking Photography Rules
Or why you should ignore people who tell you not to shoot against the sun
If I had a nickel for every time an onlooker offered me bad photography advice, I’d be rich. I’m sure these people think they are being helpful. I’ve had this advice given to me MANY times.
“Don’t shoot against the sun.” “That’s not going to be a good picture.” “You need to use your flash right now.” “What are you doing? That won’t come out!” “Shouldn't you wait for a sunny day?
I was recently taking photos of a family during the “golden hour.” This hour represents the hour(s) before sunset (or around sunrise) when light from the sun must travel a greater distance through the atmosphere to get to you, producing beautiful diffuse yellow/orange/red light. It’s the only time I’ll shoot portraits unless it’s cloudy or almost rainy outside (and those are some of my favorite conditions! Bright harsh sunlight is the bane of my photographic existence, y’all! Unless you have great shade…)
So I’m at the session, happily shooting away. We are at a park where other parents and children are playing. At one point, a mom behind me decides to take it upon herself to give me photography advice.
“Don’t shoot against the sun. You won’t get a good picture.”
I’m getting great shots. I keep my eye to the view-finder and mind my business.
“Those aren’t going to turn out! Move them so you aren’t shooting against the sun.”
Really? I’m too busy taking pictures to respond — I can’t remember now whether I did or not. But this women is rather loudly correctly me, and the parents of the family I’m taking photos of seem to hesitate. I tell them I got some great shots, let’s move down the hill to a nearby tree that looks promising. But the women’s comments do make me feel a bit silly… as if I’m missing something obvious…
In the age of iPhone photography, everyone thinks they are a photographer. They often don’t even see the need for professional photos, or photographers, when they’ve got their phone in hand.
MAYBE if you are shooting with your camera-phone, and you don’t have the exposure control that I do over my Nokia Lumia, shooting into the sun would be problematic. Or with a point-and-shoot camera that you don’t really know how to operate. But if you can control exposure, and you are willing to get creative, by all means shoot into the sun!
And also break other photography rules out there.
Here are some beautiful examples of how you can shoot with the sun behind a subject.
In fact, in cases where the sun is setting but still very bright, if you were to orient your subjects so the sun was at YOUR back, they would very likely be squinting! And squinting, rules or no rules, does not make a good picture. Or, at least most of the time it doesn’t… (Breaking rules already!)
There are plenty of other examples of photographers shooting with the sun in places most camera-phone photographers wouldn’t dare to put it. But they should try.
Which brings up another point. You know those lens hoods that photographers put on the ends of their lenses? They help to prevent lens flare. There is only one problem — I LOVE lens flares! I can’t tell you how many lens hoods I have laying around that aren’t being used. I almost never use them, especially for portraits. I love lens flares so much, I purposefully bought an optical prism to add neat light reflections and flares to my photos!
Another rule broken.
Just to be clear, I don’t consider myself a great photographer. I might not even be good. Perhaps you should stop reading this article and forget everything I just told you.
But I bet you that the greats out there are breaking rules left and right — and they aren’t afraid to look silly doing it.
So get out there and break some rules. And avoid telling other photographers what will or won’t look good, unless you are an instructor, a pro, or they’ve asked for help. Because they might just be getting THE shot that will blow us all away…
That’s NOT going to look good!
Watch me make it look better than good.
All full-size photos in this post were taken by me, and I claim copyright over them. They are NOT to be reproduced or shared without permission. Thanks! http://paigesphotos.photoshelter.com/
