Photographing Shadow-y Faces

Location:  Sutter’s Fort, Sacramento CA

Shadow-y faces were a problem when we visited Sutter’s Fort, in Sacramento CA, one sunny day. The fort was the center of California Gold Rush history. Today it is a living history museum, with docents dressed in costume and taking the role of participants in that time and place. We were there as part of a photography workshop taught through our local camera store. The assignment was to practice photographing people, using the techniques we had learned about light, shadows, and telling the story of what people were doing. What a great place to do that!

Challenge: Photographing Shadow-y faces

This man was one of the docent participants, playing the role of one of the gold seekers stopping off at the Fort for provisions. I loved his hat and the character in his face. The problem was that the hat threw a huge shadow on his face, intensified by the sunny day. What to do? I couldn’t ask him to remove his hat or tip it back to reduce the shadows and I didn’t want to use even a light flash because of the potential distraction and potential for flash glare on his glasses.  These were film days and although I could take multiple shots, I couldn’t check them.

Accidental Photographer Tip:  One solution for Shadow-y Faces

I turned off my flash.  I finally got down low, since he was sitting, and focused the exposure reading on his face. I cropped down with my zoom lens, hoping to even out the light between his face and hat so I wouldn’t lose too much detail in in either one.

This workshop was years ago, and I was shooting slide film with an analog camera. Slide film is a good teacher. There is very little room for error and in review sessions, no way to crop out the errors. When I reviewed the developed film, I was delighted to find I had achieved my goal. Today, I could brighten up his face in photoshop, but I didn’t. My purpose has always been to get the shot in the first place.

For simple tips to improve your photography on the go or on your travels with any camera or smart phone, check out my book, The Accidental Photographer for the Camera Bag.

For those of you interested in getting a more  technical foundation, I recommend taking the courses at New York Institute of Photography.  These are online correspondence courses with assignments reviewed by professional photographers.