With the northern spring not far away for many, here are five tips for shooting better pictures in spring and summer.

A profusion of spring daffodils

1. It’s a truism that subjects should face the sun when shooting out of doors. Not so. Why blind your subjects and have them squinting at the camera, faces distorted almost beyond recognition?

Instead, try to position them so that the sun is not directly in their eyes. Also, use a lens hood to reduce flare.

2. Try to get the light evenly balanced. This can be done by shooting people under a tree, where the light is soft, warm and dappled.

3. Keep the ISO rating low and the aperture large. This allows you to open up the aperture to make subjects stand out against the background.

4. Ever thought of using flash in sunlight? If the subject is half in and half out of bright light, digital cameras find it difficult to handle the wide range of lighting, unless you’re using RAW files which are not processed by the camera.

Flash will solve the problem, albeit at a high battery drain. An alternative is to use a reflector.

5. Use different parts of the day to create specific effects. Early morning gives a cooler light, while late afternoon introduces a more hazy, warmer effect. Experiment on the same view at different times to compare these effects.