There are times when one does not have all the tools at one's disposal that one would normally have with them. Last Sunday was one such occasion. I was enjoying some wonderful Italian food and good conversation when I was asked to take a photo of everyone, about forty or so people, present at a gathering.
My first reaction was "Good lord, the light is dreadful!" followed closely by "Ooh, I have no flash!" Of course my response was "I'd love to, why don't we do it in 5 or 10 minutes when everyone has finished eating?"
Allowing myself two minutes or so to finish the food on my plate, I started thinking about the options available to me.
Dreadful light defined; very strong sunlight coming through the trees which would have resulted in "split lighting" i.e. some of the subjects would have been in bright sunlight others would have been in shade. So even had I had a flash with me it would have been of little help had I chosen to shoot in that sunlight.
Background: in a word not terribly conducive to a pleasing image due to wire fencing along one side, parked cars on another, the remaining two sides were cluttered with picnic tables, chairs and passersby.
The solution I opted for was to bring everyone inside under the shelter of the bocce court which accomplished several things the most important being that everyone was in much softer, even light.
This also reduced the likelihood of my subjects squinting into bright light. Finally the foreground and background are less cluttered.
As people stared to come into position I brought four or five chairs into the center in order to reduce the height disparity, and discomfort that would have resulted had everyone been standing or lying down :)
At this point, still talking and directing, as one does when photographing the "formal portraits" at a wedding for example, I have checked that my camera metering mode is on spot and that the exposure mode is manual.
I now take a reading from the back of my hand.
The main reason I prefer to use a reading off the back of my hand is
consistency. There's no doubt in my mind where the reading is coming from and I always have it, my hand that is, with me and tone of my skin rarely changes so I have now a base for my exposure. If your skin, or your subjects' for that matter is darker or lighter then experience will help in providing you with a constant which you can apply in almost any situation.
In determining the final exposure the for the above shot I wanted first to ensure that there would be no blur caused by myself or the camera so choosing an adequate shutter speed was my first priority. I chose 1/125. (While I'm comfortable shooting a speeds much lower than this, this was yet another new body undergoing testing hence the somewhat higher shutter speed than is often my norm).
To guarantee adequate depth of field and ensure sharpness throughout the image my lens was 3 stops down from wide open and focus was on the lady with the white jacket holding the ball. Yes, the old rules do still apply.
To further guarantee that people will still talk to me, happily, I make it quick, in much the same way as I do when shooting portraits at weddings or elsewhere.
