The effects of the sun in wedding photography

You've probably heard that an overcast day is better for photography and while that has some truth, it's not as clear cut as you might think. With this post I hope to give you an understanding of the impact that sun/shadow/highlight has on our photos and why we breathe a sigh of relief when we see a bit of cloud on a wedding day.

As you can see in the photo above, there is considerable highlight (brightness) on Dad coming down the aisle. This comes about because you have a small round light source being the sun. When the sun is beaming straight down without cloud you get a super bright day with defined highlights and shadows. In the above photo, the shadow cast from the house is over the top of the bride whereas there is full sun beaming down onto Dad. In this case, I figured it was better to have Laura perfectly exposed and sacrifice Dad (sorry Dad). If I chose the opposite (Dad well lit), Laura would be way too dark. Weddings are about Brides and Grooms so I made the right choice here. With enough time, I'd try to get images of both perfectly exposed but with 3 to 4 seconds to work with, that just isn't possible.

When we're taking our photos, it becomes difficult on sunny days to balance these harsh differences in light. The most difficult time of day is when the sun is highest in the sky at around midday in Summer. Most photographers are probably happiest when it's a bit cloudy so that the light source is evenly spread through the sky. Cloud acts as a giant diffuser, spreading the light everywhere and softening it to lessen the difference between light and shadow.

On days of full sun, it's best to take photos either early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Take a look at the image below, you can see that with the cloud covered the sun, the difference between highlight and shadow is much less extreme which results in a far more attractive photo.

The main reason for wanting a cloudy day is to give you the widest range of photos from the areas we've picked out to use. Being in the blazing sun gives us a limited selection of areas to create images in. As photographers, we'll try to look for areas in full shade. On top of that, we'll place you between us and the sun so that we get the best possible angle of light and avoid things like squinting.

In terms of an outdoor wedding ceremony in Australia, the only major thing you can do is control the direction in which you place your setting. Most photographers will suggest having the sun directly behind the wedding party so that your guests are looking into it. It's not ideal for them of course but to provide you with great images of you and your wedding party, this is the best option. Having the sun placed on one side of your guests will create shadows on the faces of one side of your wedding party and full sun on the other.