011 - April 16, 2010 -- Color Casts
Answering your questions: “What Makes a Good Picture - part 3 – Sunny Day Photos
Lighting is an aspect of good photography that most people ignore or take for granted. So often, you see a photo opportunity, throw the camera up and snap the picture. Particularly on a bright sunny day, your eyes tell you there’s lots of light for the photo.
The lighting in a good photo will balance the highlights (brightest areas) and the shadows (darkest areas); ideally, in the photo, none of the brighter spot’s details are over-exposed and blown out to solid white, or the shadow’s details under-exposed so they appear solid black. You probably have taken lots of photos in which the subject is too dark and the brilliant blue sky is blown out to white; I know I have. Or maybe, the part of the subject in bright sunlight is over exposed AND the part in shadow is underexposed. Your eye has no problem seeing the details in the light and dark areas, but this lighting inbalance creates problems for film cameras and even greater problems for digital cameras. If you have time to plan the photo, becoming aware of lighting can greatly help the quality of your photos. Here are a few ideas for better, bright, sunny day photos.
Normally when we think bright, sunny day lighting, we think sun behind us or off to one side; this places the subject partially in brilliant sunlight and partially in shadow. The difference in light intensity between the light and shadow could easily be as much as six f-stops – and that’s a lot, but how would you know that without an expensive light meter. Most digital cameras can handle about one f-stop lighting difference without blowing out highlights or losing shadow details. Best solution in this case is snap a trial picture and see what it looks like. If the harsh sunlight gave the expected light balance problems, turn your flash on full power to act as a fill flash (full power because the sunlight is pretty bright). You can also decrease the shadows by reflecting light back into the shadowed area with a large piece of white cardboard - or, if possible, use the cardboard or some other large shield to shade your subject from the direct sunlight.
If the sunlight is coming over your subject’s shoulder, or you’re shooting directly into the sun, definitely turn your flash on full. If the sun is shining directly onto your camera lens, you will likely be getting lens flare; this can be a desired artistic effect, but usually should be avoided and added with software later if you really want that effect. Very simply, lens flare is caused by a bright light shining into your camera lens and being partly reflected back by the lens; it can be severe enough to ruin your photo. To avoid lens flair, hold a hat or even your hand between the sun and camera to cast a shadow on the lens.
An even better solution for bright sunny day photos is to move your subject into a shaded area so your subject is lighted by indirect light. (Try to select an area in solid shade with no dappled sunlight hitting the subject.) With indirect light on your subject, you will still have shadows, but these shadows will be much softer and more subtle, with much less lighting difference between the light and dark areas on your subject. Take advantage of this lighting by turning off the flash and if needed, using a tripod to steady your camera.
Lighting can be a little tricky at times – and a lot can be done with software to fix lighting problems, but it’s much better if you take the photo without the lighting problems in the first place. Do a little experimenting to see what your camera will allow you to photograph successfully.
Tip #1 : The best time of day for outdoor lighting is early morning and late evening. The sun is at a lower angle at those times to decrease harsh shadows. Sunlight at these times of day also tends to be a warmer color, producing less harsh photos.
Tip #2: Photos on a bright, sunny day? Try to get your subject into an area with solid shade.
Tip #3: Have to take the pict in bright sunlight? Try turning the flash on to fill the harsh shadows cast by the sun.
Tip #4: If the bright, sunny day has clouds moving across the sky, take advantage of the cloud’s shadow to minimize the hard shadows caused by direct sunlight.
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