One of the hardest parts of shooting outside is finding the right light. There is a really easy way to find the light. Professionals use this technique all the time.
Hold your hand up in front of your face and then turn around with your body until your hand lights up. You find the light by looking at the back of the palm of your hand and you’ll see where the light is coming from.
You can shoot into the light if you’d like to but it’s going to take a strong technique to be able to do that. Generally, what you want to do is have the light at your back so you can you light up your subject. If you reverse that and you shoot into the light with your subject’s back to the sun or to the light, you are going to silhouette them and they’re going to come out dark and the background is going to be light.
You can compensate for that. Some point-and-shoot cameras have “face recognition.” This mode will expose the face lighter, but DSLRs don’t have that mode. You have to get creative.
So let’s start with putting the light at your back to light your subject. You also always want to think about your background. Never forget about your background.
Let’s stay with shooting people or portrait photography. Let’s say you’re at the beach. You want to find the light. Place your subject in a nice spot, but check your background. You don’t want to have some debris or trash in your background or something that’s not pleasing to your eye.
So check your light, put your subject in a well-lit area, check your background, and shoot. You will get awesome, outdoor photos.