Shooting at midday light

alaios

Dear all,
If I recall correctly middle day light is always the worse as it makes high contrasts and washes out colors...

What one should do if it really has to do shooting under these conditions? Will any filter allow to "return" back the lost color? Would only a polarizer work or can I do something extra?

Regards
Alex

pathfinder

Hi Alex,

The noon day sun is, typically, thought of by photographers as less than ideal for landscape photography. Yet, it can work fairly well for IR work, or for high contrast black and white.

If the sunlight is altered by a scrim or diffuser, it can be quite nice for portraits and people. It is difficult to find diffusers large enough for landscapes, unless there are large clouds in the sky. Fill flash can also be quite helpful in harsh sunlight for portraits or group shots.

A polarizing filter will not really help at high noon, as it is is the harsh, directional quality of the light and shadow that is the issue, not loss of color per se. Some folks like a blue-yellow polarizer ( like Singh-Ray's ) during the mid day, but I do not think they are the final solution either.


For landscapes it is not loss of color really, to my eye, so much as a change in color temperature also, which is much, much warmer with the sun nearer the horizon.

If one must shoot in the middle of the day on a sunny day, try for shots in shaded areas, macro shots, or use fill flash or diffusers to manage the light and shaded areas differences.

Landscape shooters rise very early, and stay out very late, and sleep in the middle of the day if they get the chance.

alaios

Hi thanks for all those tips.

Do you know any guides, tutorials or nice books that address these issues all together?

Regards
Alex

P.S bad sleep but I could not resist:P

pathfinder

Gosh, Alex, the list of discussions about landscape shooting is quite extensive.

Four books I found helpful are:

"First Light - A Landscape Photographer's Art" by Joe Cornish

"Capturing the Light" by Peter Watson

"The Print and the Process" by David duChemin

"Exploring North American Landscapes: Visions and Lessons in Digital Photography" by Marc Muench

Lots of folks seem to prefer video and web to books these days, but these four books are patient with their readers, and allow one to wander through them whenever it is convenient to do so. I like them quite a lot.

I found another one on my bookshelf

"Photographing the Landscape - The Art of Seeing" by John Fielder

alaios

Thanks for the tips.
This one looked really good

http://www.amazon.de/The-Print-Process-Compelling-Photographs/dp/0321842766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386276599&sr=8-1&keywords=THE+PRINT+AND+THE+PROCESS