Flash Forward: Shooting in Full Sun

Flash Forward

Full sun doesn't scare me. In fact, some of my favorite images are created in the exact light many photographers are trying to avoid.

Midday. High sun. Hard shadows. No open shade anywhere.

I don't wait for golden hour, and I don't automatically start looking for somewhere to hide my subject. I look at what the sun is giving me and decide what I want to do with it.

Sometimes that means adding flash.

Sometimes it means using nothing but the hard natural light that's already there.

Flash Forward is about understanding the difference.

I'm taking you with me through real shoots in Texas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas...places where avoiding strong sunlight isn't exactly an option. You'll see how I evaluate each environment, where I place my subject, how I position myself in relation to the sun, and why I decide whether flash belongs in the photograph at all.

For the midday setups, you'll watch me introduce a strobe and balance it against extremely bright ambient light. But I'm not simply showing you where I put a flash. I'm explaining the decisions that allow me to control the scene and create the finished look I'm after.

Then I completely remove the flash.

You'll see me work with hard natural light while the sun is still bright and directional. No portable reflector. No strobe. I'm showing you how I recognize usable light, position for it, expose for it, and turn something photographers are often taught to avoid into something I can intentionally use.

That's really what this course is about.

The goal isn't to teach you one formula for photographing in full sun. It's to give you more than one answer when full sun is what you're given.

Every setup includes behind-the-scenes video so you can see exactly what the environment actually looked like, where everyone was positioned, and how I worked through it in real time.

You'll also see my straight-out-of-camera RAW files and follow the complete editing process from RAW to final image. That way, you aren't only seeing my finished photographs...you're seeing how much of that result was created before I ever opened the file.

Flash Forward is included in the VP Box. Standalone purchases include lifetime access.

Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes