But let's take a reality check here. Firstly, who get's up an hour before sunrise and is compus mentus enough to get out with all of their photography gear and find a great place to shoot? And secondly, when can we ever get out at just the right time in the afternoon?
So, it's 11.30 am on a Saturday morning and you have a precious two hours to spare. Is it a waste of time to pop outside with your camera? The short answer is no.
It is true, however that sunlight between 10am and 3pm is pretty harsh light. It has a tendancy to wash out colours (desaturate) and cast very harsh black shadows (think portraits with black shadows under the eyes, nose and chin). So what can you do to combat this?
1. Shoot in the shade
You are always best to aim for a shady spot on a sunny day - in fact, overcast days are actually best if your shooting in the middle of the day. If you can shoot with your entire scene in the shade, your results will be a lot more even and better saturated. Beware dappled shade (from tree branches etc). This will put dark and light dappling across your shot which simply looks ugly and unprofessional.
If you can't find any shade, it's always handy to have an umbrella. This can be held (preferably by a kind supportive friend) between the subject and the sun to give you the shady, diffused light you need.
2. Get in close
Work with closer subjects rather than broad landscapes for better results. Landscapes are notoriously hard to get correctly exposed in bright sunny conditions, as you usually have a very bright sky and a darker foreground. The camera will try to meter the scene and will fail miserably, leaving you with either a black, under-exposed foreground or a burnt-out white sky. If you are skilful you can bracket your shots and HDR layer them in Photoshop later for the perfect shot (the subject of a later blog!) but otherwise, save it for a different time of day.
3. Under-expose your shot
A great trick if you are shooting in bright conditions is to use exposure compensation (a later blog will deal with this in detail). Under-expose your shots by around 2/3rds to 1 stop. This will allow less light into your camera and so your images will look more saturated and more similar to what we see with our naked eye.
[QUICK TIP: Most camera models have a +/_ back and white square button which takes you to the meter reading -2 . . -1 . . 0 . . 1 . . 2 Each dot is a third of a stop. Minus under exposes, plus over-exposes.]
4. Lower your ISO
If you leave your ISO too high from shooting in dark conditions previously, chances are your shots won't come out to the best quality and your camera may even blink at you to tell you it can't take the shot. This means your sensor is far too sensitive for the bright light. You need to reduce the sensitivity by bringing down the ISO to 100.
5. Shoot away from the sun
Finally, the old adage of shooting with your back to the sun is still true in most situations. If you have the sun behind you for architecture and detail shots, the sun will light your scene, rather than creating glare and flare in your image. If you're shooting portraits, however, you will simply get people squinting - not their best look. Again, try and take them into the shade, but if not, a 90 degree angle to the sun can give some nice side light, or if you have a flash, putting the sun behind them and filling in the shadow on the face with flash works nicely.
Remember too that rules are there to be broken and the best results often come from experimentation. So shooting into the sun to get strong silhouettes or vintage look lens flare can often be very effective.
Happy snapping!
Nic
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