I need your help and suggestions. Re: Mid day Sun

eyeguy

I need your help and suggestions.

I will be heading off to Ixtapa mexico in December of this year, I will be heading out in the morning and evening to shoot but I know I will be taking photos during the day as well so I need your help and suggestions on how to best deal with the Mexican mid day sun. Is there a filter or a trick that I could use to reduce the harsh effects or try to make the sun a bit warmer ? I will be using my Film SLR , I use ASA 100 or 200 and have a Polarizing filter at this time.

thanks in advance for your time, help and suggestions :thumb

Dean

pathfinder

Being aware of the problem with a mid-day sun is much of the solution.

I do not think filters for the camera really help that much. I leave mine at home.

Think of shooting macros with flash instead, or architectural details, rather than large sunlit shots. Shoot indoors location shots. Shoot portraits in the shade, with fill flash if you have it available. Think of alternatives to broad landscapes.

The pros who must shoot in bright sunlight, have large [url-="http://www.sunbounce.com/cms/index.php?id=sun_swatter"]scrims to soften the light or large shades to block it[/url], and then add flash or reflectors to add the needed light.

davidweaver

good words here. If you want to shoot outside midday then go for things that will look good with hard overhead lighting. Architecture is a good and safe place. Also, look down. Stuff on the street is well illuminated in the midday sun!

Cheers,
David

eyeguy

Thanks for the great Info
Thanks to the both of you for the information
Eye guy

Art Scott

I know Pathy said he leaves his filters at home ..... however that could be the time for filter creativity.....bring out those special effects and such....also if you are in the desert....drag out those ND filters to enhance those harsh exposures.......you will need straight #3,4,5, etc ND's as well as at least a couple of graduated ND's.....what you acquirre is soley dependent on your cash flow...as really good filters do not come cheap and in my opion screw on filters are a waste of time.....large 4x4 0r 4x5 inch filters are the better choice as you can just hand hold them in from of the lens when needed.

jasonstone

I'd be looking UP! Yes seriously....
I love looking for cool silhouettes where you take a meter reading for the sun and put it just on the edge or behind the object your taking a photo of.

Can be really fun to experiment with different objects...

pathfinder

Art Scott wrote:

I know Pathy said he leaves his filters at home ..... however that could be the time for filter creativity.....bring out those special effects and such....also if you are in the desert....drag out those ND filters to enhance those harsh exposures.......you will need straight #3,4,5, etc ND's as well as at least a couple of graduated ND's.....what you acquirre is soley dependent on your cash flow...as really good filters do not come cheap and in my opion screw on filters are a waste of time.....large 4x4 0r 4x5 inch filters are the better choice as you can just hand hold them in from of the lens when needed.

HI Art, I guess I was thinking of a polarizer and a high sun.

Some folks like the Gold-N-Blue polarizer made by Singh-Ray Michael Reichman wrote about blue-yellow poarizers here

Of course an infra red filter can be used, as shooting infrared is best during the bright sunlit afternoon, although I recently saw a thread about shooting IR at night. A standard R-72 will work with film if you do not have a modded IR camera.

Shooting Muench stars can be done without filters, but is always fun as well --

eyeguy

ND Filters
I was thinking about getting a set of ND filter as my max shutter speed is 1/1000 and I don't want to blow out all of my shots. The ND filter will allow me to slow down the water to get some cool shots. I think the Gold-N-Blue polarizer is a cool filter but I don't know if I will use it that much
What about worming filters ?
Dean