The fall season is full of beautiful colors and it is a great time to have those outdoor portraits taken. As the season draws to a close however, cold and windy days increase, which can potentially ruin a perfectly good day for pictures. The sun is out, the skies are blue, but the wind is ruining everyone’s hair. Before you cancel your picture day, however, check out your location for any of these “workarounds” which may potentially save the day.
1. Block the wind with men. If you are taking pictures of your family and you have enough (short-haired) men to stand in the back row, with the wind on their backs, you can position everyone with long hair in front of them where they will be protected. Have the men stand shoulder to shoulder and have the women (or long haired males) kneel or sit in the front rows. Position them as necessary so that their hair is completely blocked from the wind.
2. Find a wall of thick trees, such as evergreens, to block the wind. As long as the trees are not blocking all of your light, this technique works very well. You can either put the trees behind them for a solid background, or put them out of frame to the right or left for an open background.
3. Find a nice building to block the wind. You get bonus points if it is a really cool brick building because those make great backgrounds for portraits.
4. Find a hill and place your subjects at the bottom of the side that is facing away from the wind. Ditches work well, too, like the kind you would find next to a beautiful bridge. The nice thing about hills is they give you a nice even background with no horizon, which gives you the freedom to angle your camera anyway you want and also brings your subject to the forefront of the photo.
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