Midday Sun
You’re out on a sunny day. You’re having a picnic lunch at a park. The light is bright, the weather is warm, everyone is happy. Sounds like a great time to take some photos, right? Think again. Though it’s always good to have plenty of light, you also need to consider the type of light. When the sun is directly overhead, it’s at its brightest and produces very harsh light. This can make it very difficult to take photos of people, since the light will cast dark shadows on one hand, and cause your subjects to squint on the other hand.
Above is as photo of my daughter, Catherine, taken during midday sun. Of course, she’s cute, but let’s take a critical look. Note the shadows over her eyes, under her chin and neck. Also note the extremely bright patches on her cheeks. Some details could have been fixed in post-processing, but detail would have been lost. Another solution would be to force the flash on the camera to fire, filling in some of the shadows. But this can backfire if your flash is too bright or if you’re too close.
So, what are you to do if this is the only opportunity you have to shoot? Well, Digital Photography School has some great tips for how to deal with midday sun. Head over and check those out to see what you can do.
I’d also add that you could look for some opportunities to shoot things that do look good in midday light. For example, I’ve found that architecture shots are fairly impressive with this type of lighting, highlighting the geometry of their features and their bright colors. You can also get some interesting shots of people, if you’re going for a shadowy, dramatic look.
Let me know if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions about this difficult shooting situation!
Posted on May 12th, 2008 by Peter. Tagged with: lighting, midday, tips. No Comments »