Stay away from portraits unless you’re in the shade, look for textures on vertical surfaces such as carvings on headstones, use a polarizing filter to bring back some of the color, geometric shapes and architectural shots will come out good, use sunscreen, wear a hat, sunlight streaming through leafy canopies, hope for some clouds.
CR
wow, you must be sick…Grant go out in the sun to take pics ?????? I just knock the exposure down one notch…dependin on how bright it is out.
I have difficulty with ‘mid day’ as well. I usually end up ‘seeing’ the more ‘graphic’ shots ones where high contrast (light/dark) or colour contrast are essential to the picture. Sometimes I’ll take off the sunglasses and ‘squint’ at things to reduce them to ‘shapes’ and broad colour strokes. I usually find things like architecture offer possibilities while ‘nature’ shots are more of a challenge.
If Van Gogh could do it, so can you! But don’t get sunstroke or cut off your ear, OK? 🙂
"John_Burnett_ (JNB)" <@adobeforums.com> :
: If Van Gogh could do it, so can you! But don’t get sunstroke or cut off your ear, OK?
No ear lopping … oh my … I wish you had mentioned this an hour ago.
Grant
wow, you must be sick…Grant go out in the sun to take pics ?????? I just knock the exposure down one notch…dependin on how bright it is out.
Next thing we’ll know, he’ll sell his Nikon to get a Canon…
TW 🙂
Ray
Grant, you are right to avoid this kind of light.
When the sun is high, lighting is too harsh. People tend to have "racoon eyes" due to the heavy shade around the eyes. This light isn’t flatterig at all.
The best light is a slightly overcast sky. This brings out fine details without being harsh, due to the soft shadows.
Sometimes I cannot avoid shooting around noon. If so, I always take my subjects into the shade. This way I have pretty soft, but still directional light; I just only have to adjust the colour temperature.
Tip: if you don’t know what directiopn the light is coming from, like on days with extremely clouded skies, take a white piece of paper, like a bussines card, fold it once and point with the fold from your subject towards your camera. Now it is pretty easy to see the direction of the light.
Leen
Hi Leen,
Thanks for a great tip … light on cloudy days always fools me.
Wendy
Wendy, I learned this trick in the UK, from a photographer in Bisshop Stortford. 😉
Leen
I take a lot of my pictures in bright sunlight. For about six months of the year it’s that or night time scenes… For outdoor portraits, and closer-up subjects, fill flash is your friend. It does mean that the lighting is rather flat, but it’s better than the raccoon eyes, or here in Australia where everyone has realised the evils of UV rays, the dark shadows under a hat. Shooting RAW is better than jpeg as it often allows more detail to be brought out in the shadow areas and some rescue of highlights. But the best thing to do is to find subjects where you can work with the shadows and use them as part of the subject that you are photographing – as someone mentioned earlier in the thread, the different planes and the shadows cast by architecture can be interesting.
Thank you all for the great suggestions. I guess I didn’t make myself very clear I do shoot between 9 am and 4 pm but never in direct sun so that was what I was mainly concerned about. John B. off handed comment about Van Gogh really got me thinking. I have spent the morning reading and scrutinizing some of Van Gogh’s works I will study these for some time trying to find some insight.
Grant
FWIW
I travel on fair bit on business and frequently am in places that are interesting to shoot/document, but not quite at the right times. I still shoot. Yes the images are contrasty (>10 zones in Adams-speak) and I try to correct in PSE where possible. I invariably turn them into b&w since I find them more appealing, and certainly different from the ‘golden hour’ shots. Nothing like blown higlights and blocked shadows to add intrigue. imho.
As always, I think knowing the rules makes breaking them interesting. I shoot for my own pleasure, which makes it a bit different from those shooting for commerce and therefore need to have wider appeal.
Grant, as Vincent van Gogh was a fellow countryman I think I am qualified to add some lines. 😉
Vincent came from an exceptionally poor agricultural part of the country (nowadays one of the centres of hi-tech bussines). This once was a very sad environment with little hope for improvement.
He went to the southern part of France with lots of sunshine and quite a different life style. He wanted to capture the vibrant colours of this landscape under the heat of the sun. Watching his paintings you will notice he almost always had the sun in the back, this way lowering contrasts and having all subjects brightly lit. This way of lighting brings out the colours of the landscape very well and he was able to add even more colour to express his impression.
In photography this is an extremely dull way of lighting. Probably in photoshop we might be able to add colour to an image to enhance it in a way, close to the intentions of Vincent.
However, judging from your POD, you prefer shooting in more subtle lighting situations, in a way like the painters of more northern parts of Europe.
Moreover, you are not as mad as he was and you cannot miss an ear as your glasses would drop from your nose. So, be careful.
Leen