Photography in the Blinding Sun
Sigh.
It's always extremes with my photography, it seems. Either I'm struggling to catch a wedding bouquet in mid-flight during a dimly-lit reception, or I'm called to take outside portraits in the blinding glare of midday.
Generally I try to dissuade patrons from midday outdoor pics, but that's not always possible. Today, I was helping my good friend, Sarah Hobart, by photographing the cast for her current play. I don't have good lighting for indoors (Wish List!), and we needed to coordinate the outside pics with the existing rehearsal scheduling. So, outdoors at midday we went.
I would love to have one of those huge mesh screens to set up between the subject and the sun. It would be the solution to this problem....yet one more item on my "wish" list. I've read that you should try to position the subject in the shade, and I've come to the conclusion that that is a frustratingly unsatisfactory solution. I dislike the wierd shadows that show up on the face more than I do the strong light contrast. Using my flash did help a bit, but I strongly suspect that my flash only fires about 80% of the time.
I could kick myself. I never once looked at my ISO setting. That was an idiotic, inexcusable mistake. I think my camera only goes down to 100, but that may have helped quite a bit. 50 would have been even better.
Time to reread the text books and learn how to better deal with this situation. It's bound to arise again. Would adjusting the white balance help? I think it unlikely, but I'm not sure. Would shooting in RAW make it easier to correct? I would prefer to shoot it correctly to begin with, but at least it's another option to consider.
Anyway, I was up pretty late last night, make the initial adjustments in Photoshop and creating B&W counterparts. Actually thought to create an action in PS to set the B&Ws the way I like them. I suppose it was faster, but my laptop is so slow, it's hard to see a difference right now. Another item on my "Wish" list. Sigh.
It's always extremes with my photography, it seems. Either I'm struggling to catch a wedding bouquet in mid-flight during a dimly-lit reception, or I'm called to take outside portraits in the blinding glare of midday.
Generally I try to dissuade patrons from midday outdoor pics, but that's not always possible. Today, I was helping my good friend, Sarah Hobart, by photographing the cast for her current play. I don't have good lighting for indoors (Wish List!), and we needed to coordinate the outside pics with the existing rehearsal scheduling. So, outdoors at midday we went.
I would love to have one of those huge mesh screens to set up between the subject and the sun. It would be the solution to this problem....yet one more item on my "wish" list. I've read that you should try to position the subject in the shade, and I've come to the conclusion that that is a frustratingly unsatisfactory solution. I dislike the wierd shadows that show up on the face more than I do the strong light contrast. Using my flash did help a bit, but I strongly suspect that my flash only fires about 80% of the time.
I could kick myself. I never once looked at my ISO setting. That was an idiotic, inexcusable mistake. I think my camera only goes down to 100, but that may have helped quite a bit. 50 would have been even better.
Time to reread the text books and learn how to better deal with this situation. It's bound to arise again. Would adjusting the white balance help? I think it unlikely, but I'm not sure. Would shooting in RAW make it easier to correct? I would prefer to shoot it correctly to begin with, but at least it's another option to consider.
Anyway, I was up pretty late last night, make the initial adjustments in Photoshop and creating B&W counterparts. Actually thought to create an action in PS to set the B&Ws the way I like them. I suppose it was faster, but my laptop is so slow, it's hard to see a difference right now. Another item on my "Wish" list. Sigh.
posted by Rhonda L at 8:03 AM
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