I forgot to mention, My wife has trouble taking pills. She puts them in a spoonful of applesauce and then drinks some water.
The time and amount of skin exposed depends on both your skin type and conditions such as the UV index. In good UVB light conditions a UV index of 3 or higher, between 10:30 a.m. and mid-afternoon. You need 50-75% of your skin being exposed. That's a lot of skin. Exposing less skin will still allow you to absorb UVB rays, but more time is required the less skin that's exposed.
FitzPatrick Skin Type Chart
http://standtanning.com/The_Fitzpatrick_Skin.pdf
Do you avoid the sun? A half hour in the sun at peak hours is how we naturally get vitamin D, but these days people spend almost all of their time indoors and we've all been told the sun will kill us so even when we go out we cover our exposure in sun screen. If you don't get any sun, try getting some. As for the gel caps, they're really easy to swallow, much easier than a tablet or regular capsule. Vitamin D is fat soluble, so take with a meal, but as it's a liquid fat that's why the gel cap. There are foods with vitamin D supplements in them, but how potent supplements are by the time you eat the food is in question, especially as most foods are exposed to heat.