Baseball caps

Apart from telling the subject to take the ****ing thing off, has anybody
got any tips for photographing people wearing these things in sunlight? Just
about every picture I have ever taken of a person wearing a baseball cap is
pretty much useless because of the shadow cast over their eyes and upper
face. A bit of fill flash helps, but I usually end up resorting to working
in photoshop to lighten up the shadow - trouble is, I have yet to find a
completely convincing technique.
My solution - ban them. As simple as that - ban all baseball caps.

 

I figure they wear hats for a photo, they deserve less than perfection, and
just overexpose so they can see their facial features; I'm sure everyone
knows what goes where the highlights are blown out.
http://www.fototime.com/6C6D888955DA345/orig.jpg

As to fill-flaxh, wich of these do you likw?
http://www.fototime.com/AFA19D95C17E7FF/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/1AC27712DE0410F/orig.jpg

 

I agree, take photos of younger men. They do not seem to know the front from the
back of the cap and therefore the bill is not a problem.

 

I think that is the best answer to the problem. I ask people to take their
caps off and tell them why. Everyone has.

A reflector works better than a flash on top of the camera, but be careful
how you use it -- you don't want the lighting to appear to come from under
the subject's face.

 

A friend of mine is in a cowboy reenactment group and wanted me to take
pictures of a "bank robbery". Of course they all wore some kind of cowboy
hat and it was "high noon" when all this took place. I used a good fill
flash and all the pictures came out great except one - the flash failed to
fire on one picture for some reason and I got no face that time. I think
fill flash is a really good solution and easier than fighting half the
world.

 

I have no solution for you except fill flash. I have my own ball cap
problem, LOL......When i'm taking a picture the flash pops up and whacks me
in the visor, then i promptly turn it around backwards LOL. The Oly. 750
doesnt do that, you have to manually put it up but the 300D pops up
unexpectantly at times. Sure there's 1 mode that it doesnt but its in the
dummy modes. This is about the only thing i dont like about the 300D.

 

It is easier to shoot the wearers. Then, after they have karked it, there
should be plenty of light on their faces. ;-)

 

if they are posed shots... use a reflector to bounce some light up. won't
remove the shadows, but it'll help.

use a "real" reflector, or any nice sized piece of white material.

if there are clouds, wait for a cloud to pass over the sun. this'll help a
lot.

 

I've taken plenty of beach shots of kids with caps on. If your camera has a
built in flash, then it probably has a fill flash mode. This will get rid of
the shadows, or at least lessen them. Of course, then you have to worry
about red-eye.... hopefully your camera has a red-eye reductrion fill flash
mode.