How to shoot into the sun????
<style>@font-face { font-family: "ＭＳ 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "ＭＳ 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }</style> Went out yesterday to the coast to get some pictures , but unfortunately the sun was in our faces.
The subjects face looked OK as far as exposure goes but the background was VERY washed out.
I used a photovision tool to find exposure and correct WB but still the images just looked shitty IMO.
So how are you taking your portraits when facing the sun??
The subjects face looked OK as far as exposure goes but the background was VERY washed out.
I used a photovision tool to find exposure and correct WB but still the images just looked shitty IMO.
So how are you taking your portraits when facing the sun??
Canon 5DMk II | 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM | 24-105mm f4.0 IS USM | 85mm f1.8 prime.
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Harsh sun is a bitch. Start by putting it behind the subject so it's not hitting their face.
Then you can start solving the other problems it creates using reflectors, diffusers, and/or strobes.
If at all possible, find open shade; it'll solve all your problems.
A photographer in an open field with no tools and harsh sun isn't going to magically produce good photos. In that regard, there's no secret.
Google sunny 16 for more info
The way to go on the fly
Except you have no creative control with sunny f16.
Sure you do. Any photographer who knows his tools knows that 1/125 sec at f/16 is the same EV as 1/500 sec at f/8 or 1/2000 at f/4, so you have control of DOF and motion freezing. And if you want to intentionally over- or under-expose by a stop or two for whatever reason, you should know how to do that too. And the rule is adaptable to other circumstances (overcast skies, shade, indoors, night, whatever) as long as you know the right EV on which to base your exposure calculations. What other creative control of your exposure do you need?
Got bored with digital and went back to film.
Please elaborate?
Using a flash to fill in was my first idea. At the time i didn't have it with me since it was connected to my lighting stuff at the house for another project.
Let me ask this though. When I put the sun behind her and exposed her face well (I didnt have the flash) I found that the background was WAY over exposed, Is that the norm, or did I miss doing something?? I lost all nice detail and color.
R.
Shoot manual, if the BG is really nice and you want it in the pic, meter for the BG and fill the subject.....that should take care of it.......it the BG is not wanted then burn it out (over expose)......
These shots were taken pretty close to high noon in open areas with a canon 580 on a Pocket Wizzard Tt5. http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=193870 On the first one the flash was a little too far away and in all fairness the last one she was under a slight amt of shade.
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When you shoot the subject backlit by the sun, the subjects face is in the shade, and hence the proper exposure is about three stops more light than needed for a sunlit object. Thus the over exposure for your background.
The beauty of fill flash is that it allows you to properly expose for your ambient lit background and light your subject so that it is not in the shade but illuminated by the flash.
The best way to do this is as Art says - shoot in Manual mode and expose for your background, and use your flash in ETTL to light your subject.... http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=74561
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It was still a great learning experience and generated some question.
So again, thank you for all the great info.
R.
I meant with the base rule of sunny 16. Most regular joes who you tell, "just use sunny 16", will go out and set the aperture at f16 and shutter speed at 1/100 and think that's the end of it. I should have worded it better to say that it just needed more elaborate explanation if he was wanting to blur the background, etc.
A lot of photographers just expose for the subject and let the background do what it does. If you choose your backgrounds well, this usually isn't a problem. If you must keep the background decently exposed then you have no choice but to light the subject with something (flash, reflector, etc.)
exposed for the subject and one for the background. Then perform the
magic in PS.
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Water reflects the sunlight in a different (stronger) way than the ground, so the usual rules of exposure (e.g. Sunny 16) rarely apply. You have to know what to meter off and do it very accurately, otherwise you can be 1-2 stops off...
When shooting midday on a beach you typically have two options:
* go for a pure silhouette (which sometimes is a fine artistic choice), or
* as it's been said above, bring a light source, such as a reflector or or flash. When using a flash, keep in mind: onboard one will hardly do anything than a portrait from a fairly close distance, which, by the virtue of the things, is not very good for portraits. If you shooting a full body from a distance (which is more like a typical beach scene) you'd need the offcamera flash and a way to trigger it.
Something like this:
would produce something like this:
HTH
Looking at your shot of the set up had be cringing. You have a fair amount of lighting equipment just waiting for a bigger wave.
My camera has not been able to get images like your second one. :cry
Sam
all shots 5.6 iso 100 Unfortunately the sky is overcast today. Good for portraits though.
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I gota say that Nikolia's model is way hotter than your model.
Sam
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it wasn't that bad, actually. Surf was steady, wind was relatively low, and the lights were set up at the end of the surf line. Believe me, I wouldn't place $1,000+ worth of equipment over there if I didn't think it was safe:-)
Uhm, why not? It's not the camera, it's the lighting/metering...
You mean, I severely overexposed her?
Basically what I meant was my while my models may be more economical to use, they generally can only provide one look and in a bikini don't exactly inspire a photographer or viewer .:D
Sam
This is purely subjective. In some parts of the world she would be considered way over exposed and the penalties would be harsh. Yet in other parts of the world she would be considered somewhat underexposed.
Sam
Lol:-)
I have her a bit more exposed, but I promised not to show those :-)
You hid the sun, but what you did not hide was the sun still blasting everything around her. With the shadow side much darker than the sunlit side, having the background (which was not shaded) remaining at full sun blast levels meant that having it way overexposed was not just the norm, it was essentially unavoidable, without any other gear available. No other outcome was possible.
That is why the flash is needed, it is one of the only ways to have any hope of competing with the intensity of the sunlight hitting the background. Or a reflector, where you can at least bounce a lot of that sunlight back into the shadow side for free.
I think Allen already posted about using two exposures and merging them in PS. I used Photomatix with 3 exposures for this HDR straight into tropical sun:
I know many don't like the over processing but the sun can be dealt with without over-processing... same for the shadows on the subject which is what the over-exposed image is used for (so as to not need flash).
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ciao!
Nick.
Nick.
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A mode at f/16
With flash TTL/FP
I chose FP s as to not limit the sync speed to 1/250
Without flash:
If your on the fly and using medium range lenses this is the easiest was to combat harsh sunlight.
A simple light modifier like the one provided with the SB800 will soften the flash shadows considerably. (not used here)
Most noticeable difference are the eye sockets.