# Outdoor portraits between 8a.m. and 6p.m. and partly cloudy



## jdramirez (Jul 9, 2014)

I volunteered to take our team photo for softball and some individual portraits. 

The problem is that we are going to get to the field around 7:30ish... warm up and play a game @ 8a.m. We should be done around 9a.m., but it is a tournament so there is a chance that we will have a game from 9a.m. to 10a.m. give or take. 

So I'm preparing for a break sometime between 9a.m. and 11a.m., and for obvious reasons I'd rather not take either team or individual portraits @ Noon. 

The weather report is spotty... it will either be cloudy (score), partly cloudy (score), or sunny as all hell (dee-daw). 

So I'm preparing for the worse... which is sunny as hell... which means I need some fill light I was stupid the last time I was in this situation... I shot at f/2.8 and 1/200th of a second... and no surprise, the photo was incredibly over exposed. 

So this time... I presume I'll use hss and ettl, and maybe twin satellite flash bounced off of an umbrella. 

The problem I'm having... or at least think I have is that when I shoot in full daylight @ f2.8, I wound up shooting at around 1/6000 to 1/8000th of a second. 

Sure the problem can be resolved by going under some shade, but I want to take the individual shots on a field so the field is a pleasing background. So maybe having a tent might work... but that's too much effort. 

So am I over thinking it? Or should I just pray for clouds and also winning enough times that I can take the images in the golden hour... though in that regard, I wouldn't hold my breath.


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## privatebydesign (Jul 9, 2014)

So shoot at max sync and stop down whilst in lowest iso. Don't take the shutter speed up, close the aperture down, HSS is very inefficient. Or, if you want narrow dof get a variable ND filter.

But you know you need a scrim, so take one. A white bed sheet and a couple of broom handles will probably do.


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## Zv (Jul 9, 2014)

You don't need flash if you have a scrim and a way to bounce light back via a reflector. I like PBD's idea of the white sheet as it's large and folds up nicely. This way you can shoot with a shallow dof and not worry about sync speed. 

Otherwise you'll need an ND filter and a much more powerful flash (or gang two or three together but that's a hassle compared to a simple white sheet). A large white circular reflector would work too.


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