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How to Take Great Photos at High Noon - Part One
The Sun Sets on Château de Chillon by Eric Hill
“How to Take Great Photos at High Noon - Part Two” is now available. Check it out!
Photographers are known to wax lyrical about the ‘golden hours’ at sunset and sunrise. What about those of us who sleep through half the morning and drink through half the evening? Taking photos in the bright afternoon sun is all we’ve got!
It’ s a common mistake to write off noon as a terrible time to take photos and it’s one I make frequently. Instead of giving up and hiding indoors, we need to turn the situation to our advantage. Here are four ways you can make high noon work for you and learn to take photos in bright sunlight:
Seek the Shade
We perceive the shade as being much darker than the sunlight in comparison, but the shade is still quite bright on a sunny day. The shadow of a large leafy tree is usually the best, but it’s important to keep an eye out for hot spots of light sneaking between the leaves. You should also be standing in the same quality shade as your model, so pick a large section of shade.
Diffuse the Situation
A proper diffusion apparatus might be a bit out of your budget, but you can make a pretty good DIY substitute out of a white sheet and some PVC pipe. Just have an assistant hold the large diffuser between the sun and your subject. Trying not to look embarrassed about using your ghetto sheet-frame is also recommended.
Increase Your Aperture by up to 3 Stops! Call Now!
If you’ve got a digital camera, it’s much better to underexpose a photo than to overexpose. Once the light hits the white value of the sensor, you can’t recover any detail from that portion of the photo. This can happen if you’re going the other way as well, but it’s much easier to recover an underexposed photo.
Switch your camera over to manual and bump the aperture up a stop or two to darken everything. You can also take Joseph’s advice and use the “Sunny 16″ rule. He wrote about it in his “Five Rules of Photography” post last week, try it out!
Look! Up in the Sky! …A Photographer?
No, I’m not recommending you fly around with your underwear on outside your pants. Unless you can actually fly. In which case, you can do whatever you’d like with your underwear. No, I’m talking about climbing on stuff! Getting up on nearby hills, hanging over balcony railings, standing on benches, or if all else fails, bring a ladder.
Getting up high will encourage your subject to look in an upward direction. This can dramatically cut down on the deeply shadowed eyes you see when it’s bright out. Make sure your model is looking away from the sun, so they won’t be squinting in the photo.
The important thing to remember about taking photos at noon is that it’s not a waste of time. You simply need to analyze the quality of the light and approach it from a different direction. There’s no such thing as a bad time to take photos.
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Ed Z Said,
August 13, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
Great tips!
I’d add that a polarizing filter is also a great help in a) reducing the amount of light (usually by 1 or 2 stops) and also getting rid of that annoying harsh glare caused by high-noon sun :-)
and I second the notion that there is no such thing as a bad time to take photos!
Lung Liu Said,
August 13, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
Aside from the shadows (normally not appropriate for portraiture), noon sun is generally avoided for the harsh lighting. A long lens can help soften the light.
Another method of softening the light is to use a long exposure - a 9 stop neutral density filter is sufficient, but if you need to, you can also stack filters on one another.
Andrew Ferguson Said,
August 13, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
@Ed: I was trying to keep things a bit short, but I guess I clipped a bit too much off the end there. Perhaps I should just link to my article on polarizing filters for that.
…Even if I did manage to screw up the physics of it :P
@Lung: I didn’t know about using longer focal lengths for that. I’ll have to keep that in mind. I’ve noticed that I have a bad habit of avoiding anything above 105mm.
Christopher Scholl Said,
August 13, 2007 @ 2:59 pm
Really well thought out article, Andrew. Thanks for that.
It’s been sunny as all get out lately in DC and I’ve too often found myself frustrated by that middle-of-the-day light. You effectively reminded me that there are alternatives. So thanks!
damon Said,
August 13, 2007 @ 3:45 pm
Andrew,
Good article again, but what about us poor souls in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter who leave home for work in the dark, spend all day in an office, and get home from work in the dark?
Maybe night photography is something I might need to explore. Or maybe I’ll just wait for the longer days and daylight saving!
drmauro Said,
August 14, 2007 @ 11:50 am
good article and compliments for your blog!
I’ve got only one advice: never underexpose an image if you can expose it correctly, because it’s in shadows that you have more noise. So, it’s better to do metering choosing to privilegiate lights and increase of 1-1.5 stop for shadows!
Andrew Ferguson Said,
August 14, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
@damon: I thought of writing a winter article like that and decided to shelve it until November or December. I didn’t realize I had such a blatant ‘hemisphere bias’. :P
@drmauro: I agree with you on the point of never underexposing when you can expose correctly. However, it’s a near impossibility to always expose correctly when such a drastic difference exists between the shadow and light. This is one of the problems plaguing midday shots.
Given a situation where I could blow my sky out irrevocably to white and have a properly exposed foreground and one where my sky is blue but my foreground is dark, I’ll take the latter. An underexposed shadow may be noisy, but I’ve found that I can recover more detail from it in Photoshop than I can from blowouts.
Sharon Said,
August 15, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Thanks for the tips and visiting my blog. As I am sure you realise, I am at the very beginning of the learning curve and so really appreciate the tips and tricks. Cheers from the cold, wintery, grey Southern Hemisphere :)
drmauro Said,
August 16, 2007 @ 1:05 am
@ Andrew. Nothing to add, also your way to do will give great pictures!
Link Roundup 08-18-07 | Epic Edits Weblog Said,
August 17, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
[…] How to Take Great Photos at High Noon goldengod.net Several ways you can make high noon work for you and learn to take photos in bright sunlight. Also check out part two of this article. […]
Should You Expose For Shadows Or Highlights? | Epic Edits Weblog Said,
August 20, 2007 @ 7:13 am
[…] You Do It Check out Andrew’s articles on How to Take Great Photos at High Noon — he has some great […]
Matt Williams Said,
September 4, 2007 @ 6:10 pm
Also, take it as a great time to break out the macro lens. The shadows may be a bit too harsh in the direct sun for certain subjects (or great definition for others)…but it may be your only real chance, outside of very expensive ring lights, to capture some of the critters hiding in the shade.
But I guess I’m a bit biased, since I don’t enjoy shooting people for artistic purposes.
Jean Said,
June 8, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
Here’s a summary of the above comments with a few additions:
1. Longer exposure if you can. The light softens out
2. A polarizer can help reduce reflections
3. Use an ND filter if still too bright.
4. Best bet: OVERCAST, or CLOUDY weather
5. Use a reflector. The most powerful tool in your daylight arsenal.
6. Flash fill (use minimally, and with diffuser, to avoid looking fake).