Shooting portraits outside at 11 am in full sun with no cover makes for harsh lighting. People squint, sun makes hot spots on their face and here are unflattering shadows.
I used my Sunbounce reflector as a gobo.. which blocks the light. Then I can shape the light with my moonlights and 2 ft octabox with an eggcrate to direct the light to get those great ratio of lighting across their face and make it look like you are in a studio when you are really outside. I usually add a strip light to separate the subject from the background but this wall was so bright, they were easily separated from the background.
I also measure in manual in camera to get the exposure I liked which is about 1 stop under exposed and then used TTL to get the correct exposure for the face and then switched to manual on the flash to lock it in. I had to shoot in high speed sync because my aperture was at 1/1000 of a sec at ISO 100 and f 4.0.
I also photographed the view of their field to put it into a composition for the Senior Tribute Banner and added a lot of drama.
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