Comments on: Bright Ideas For Shooting In Midday Sun

By: bycostello

bycostello — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:50:09 +0000

unfortunalty Brides don’t get married early or late.. so always a problem for the pics…

By: Roohshad

Roohshad — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:01:29 +0000

Not sure what Dslr you’re using Harold, but most of the newer ones have the Live View function. If yours has one, perhaps you can put it one and play with the settings until you get the right exposure. You could then either shoot the image with the Live view, or (and this is something I do often) just check and see what settings you have, so you know roughly where you want to be with regard to aperture and shutter speed, and then you can switch back to shooting in manual through the viewfinder.

Also, dont be shy to use your dslr’s auto mode. Try it out, if the picture comes out nicely, then just remember the settings, its kinda like the camera is teaching you what the right settings should be, and once youve gotten that down a couple of times, im sure you would know what settings you want to use in each circumstance.

Lastly, try not to shoot with the light infront of you, because then with even a few degrees of you moving your camera upwards or downwards, your metering will change considerably.

Hope that helps!

By: Harold Chang

Harold Chang — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:58:58 +0000

I have been taking photos at the airport as a life long hobby. I just switched from using a point and shoot camera to a digital SLR camera. I am not able yet to get a good shot of airplanes due to the bright background at mid-day. Any suggestions? I tried thus far to go with ISO 100 and shutter speed of 640 but had unsatisfactory results. The image has either the pIane too dark with the correct blue sky background or the plane clolors correct but the sky almost white instead of blue. I subscribe to aviation magazines and am amazed at the photos taken at mid-day. Any suggestions?

By: MiKe Bashor

MiKe Bashor — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:03:05 +0000

I have to shoot a wedding at 1:00 PM (noon) MST and was hoping for some tips. Polarizer. Auto vs manuel.
White balance, etc. Low ISO. Shoot RAW? Need software to edit, but could set camera to do both. Have a Mark III and 7D.

Any help appreciaited. Wedding is Saturday in lovely Cascade, Montana. At a old railroad park that I have not seen.

Thanks,

Mike

By: W. Michel Kiteley

W. Michel Kiteley — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:37:38 +0000

Hmmm…

There is 1 (one) proper exposure on any digital array for every image and that depends upon the scene. What is crucial is highlight detail and not losing what you want to gamut which records nothing on the array. A RAW from a good camera will preserve all the reasonable shadows. All you need is a method to retrieve and use all that shadow detail that is retained on the array.

Consider this post of lessons on 11 pages:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockypix/2452578648/

Considered feedback welcome.

By: Ara & Spirit

Ara & Spirit — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:00:09 +0000

Cool, I was looking for this!… Nice tips, specially in these cold times here in Moab right now, too cold (22) to ride the bike to a sunsrise or stay out too late for after a sunset! Ara & Spirit

By: Pavel

Pavel — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:15:54 +0000

Hi,

Thank you for the tips. I’ll try to use the different metering oprions on the camera. I was tihinking to use the spot methering after I’ve seen the pictures on the pc. I guess with spot methering at least the persons face will have good colors

Cheers,
Pavel

By: Roohshad

Roohshad — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:55:42 +0000

Czesc Pavel,

Here’s another thing you might wanna try.

On your metering setting, if you have your setting on Center-weight average, then youre prolly gonna have more of a chance of getting a burn out, because your camera is going to take every bit of the lighting in its frame into consideration when doing the metering.
What i would suggest you do is switch to Evaluative metering (or perhaps Spot metering) and then try your picture again.

You would find this especially useful if you are standing out in the sun, facing a building whos wall is lit up, and you want to take a picture of a man inside the dorr or window in the building. If you have your settings on Center Weight Average, then he would come out to dark, if you change to spot and focus on him, then your walls around might be too highlighted, and you might be able to get a desirable picture with the Evaluative metering.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Roohshad

By: Pavel

Pavel — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:36:01 +0000

Thank you very much Neil. That is exactly what I was after … practical answers that even I can follow.

It is so strange in photography until you manage to imagine what the result will be before you take the photo. I’m saying this because our eyes see the environment in a totally different way, and you only figure out at home that 50 of your pictures have a horrible problem … I guess t comes with experience and many mistakes

Thanks,
Pavel

By: Neil Creek

Neil Creek — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:38:29 +0000

Pavel – looking at your photo, it seems to me that your camera’s meter is getting confused by the big variation in brightness in the shot and as a result under exposing your friends. Try setting the autoexposure compensation (as discussed in this post) to brighten the photo by a stop or two, look at the screen and adjust till it looks right. Otherwise, go to full manual and set the exposure.

You can also try moving your friends to mear the edge of the shade and using a reflector for fill light. Even a fiend in a white t-short can act as a reflector for you.