Sun Light Photography.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 5, 2008 at 5:34pm

Thanks Douglas for your feedback.
Your tip was very important and I will try it next time but there are circumstances when you can not go to some place early or later. Those pictures that I put as a sample I took when I was just passing by on that area and did not want to miss the opportunity to photograph.
In case like was mine, what to do?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 5, 2008 at 9:45pm

Douglas:
About the polarizer I completely agree that it is a great helper in conditions like that. I use circular polarizer most of the time when photographing in sunny days and I adjust it the best possible to lower down the intensity of the sunlight. I realized that it helps a lot to improve color and give a better look for the skies. I never heard about the the GND and it's effects.
Thanks again for your wonderful tips.
Nivaldo

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 10, 2008 at 9:41am

Duglas:
I was reading and looking for a GND filter and I found one with a sample photo showing with and without GND filter. According with the sample, will this filter really create the effect of equalizing brighter and darker areas when adjusted properly?
One more thing: since the filter is half dark and half clear, it will not bring a hard contrast between those two half in the picture?
Thanks.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Scinta on September 5, 2008 at 9:37pm

I have the same problem and have found this advice about the time of day really usefull.Thank you.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 5, 2008 at 10:04pm

Patricia:
Thanks for your comments on those pictures.
On those pictures I used a circular polarizer on a 75-300 MM Canon zoon lenses. I still wanting to know as I mentioned at the begining of this discussion, to get out of the Auto Mode which settings can you suggest me to use in circumstance like that when there are a plenty of sunlight and a large variety of colors and the time for settings are no much or can be time available. It depend where you are and how much time you have to do it. Please let me know what you mean with "shooting as usual" . I will be more than happy if you can share your knowledge with me.
About editing at the present time I do not have any software to do it.
Thank you so much to share your ideas with me.
Nivaldo

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christina on September 6, 2008 at 6:11am

Excellent tip, Patricia. I've used this method often and have found it very helpful as I learn how to handle different light settings.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 6, 2008 at 11:05am

Thanks Patricia.
You gave me a wonderfull tip and I am sure that it will work.
When you say "let in less light" you are suggesting to make the shutter speed a little faster than recommended by the camera?
Thanks again
Nivaldo

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 10, 2008 at 11:33am

Patricia:
This past Sunday I was in a park where is a lot of good subjects to photograph, specially nature.
I could not set the time to get in and out because there are time to open and close.
I took my Canon Rebel XT set to ISO 100 with a 18-55mm lens with a circular polarizer on it.
Based on your tips, I set my Canon to AV (aperture) to f 14 and a the AEB to - 1 1/3 .
At home after many shots taken I found out that many came out much better than in auto mode and other came too dark. There was very sunny and the sky was clear and flat.
For those too dark photos, should I change my AEB settings or what should be done?
Please see those three attachment.
Number 3480 look OK to me but number 3447 look to dark. Number 3389 I used "Fill In Flash" to eliminate the shadows of sunlight on it. What should I change on my settings to go better?
Thanks again.

Attachments:

• IMG_3480.JPG, 1.9 MB
• IMG_3447.JPG, 2.1 MB
• IMG_3389.JPG, 1.4 MB

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by rob jillson on September 6, 2008 at 9:58am

couple of things - can you insert the photos next time rather than making them attachments - it can let us see them when replying without having to open multiple windows.

your 3 photos are very different from each other. 1st, I like Patricia's suggestion of under exposing. I shoot most of my stuff RAW and under exposed by 1 stop. In general I find that while shooting in bright sun it is easier to blow out the highlights than to loose detail in the shadows. Even in RAW, if a highlight is blown out, it never looks greats even when you recover it through RAW. I do check my histogram when shooting to make sure 1 stop under is correct.

The house - under exposing by one stop would greatly help the house shot. Although you are shooting it in the middle of the day - the sky is giving you some shadows - under exposing will help. Also - composition is a big thing in this photo. I know your question is about camera settings - but, that bush is competing with the house. I would move to the left - don't know exactly where but I would start walking towards the rounded corner of the porch. I would be looking for compositions with the 2 peaks of the house and the curves on the porch. With the clouds and the blue sky, I think you could get a rocking photo with that light.

The flower - I like this shot and don't really have any suggestions. It is nice even light all the way around. The shadows aren't harsh and you aren't over exposed anywhere. FYI, many times when people are doing up close work on bugs or flowers (macro usually) they use a ring light - this is to give them nice even light and that's what you have. i think this photo moves to the next issues which is composition and what you want to "say" with it. Do you like the way it is cropped with the flower in the middle or do you want the white peddles to one side and the shadows of the green leaves to another. How much beyond the flower do you want to show? Do you want to crop in on the right and so make it more of a dialogue between the flower in focus on the one out of focus in the background. Cool stuff....

The river - it is over exposed - back to the shoot 1 stop under. also,try darkening this photo and turning it to black and white....? You would need to use a channel mixer in photoshop - but, I wonder what it would be like if you made the blue sky go dark and the foreground green go light - could be cool.

The river photo also raise another issue - sometimes pictures aren't meant to be taken. Kinda goes to what Douglas is saying - shoot it in the morning or afternoon. Sometimes I look at something and say "how totally cool but it is never going to turn out as a good photo" Sometimes that's just the case. The more you shoot the more you will be faced with that.

cheers and good luck.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nivaldo on September 6, 2008 at 11:12am

Rob:
Your comments were very good and with many details on it.
I agree with you that many times even something looking great for our eyes will not generate a great picture.
About your comment: can you insert the photos next time rather than making them attachments - it can let us see them when replying without having to open multiple windows , can you please tell me how to do it when there are more than one picture to be added to the subject?
Thanks for all your explanation.
Nivaldo

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by rob jillson on September 6, 2008 at 11:18am

sorry - don't know about how to do that. i am new to this site and just getting my feet wet. I will have to post my own photos. I am organizing my database while I make selections so it will probably be a few days.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gabriel Catalin on September 6, 2008 at 11:23am

Fully agree with both Rob and Patricia. Most of the times we are forced to use the sun light as it is, for various reasons.
My advice is to make the most out of your polarizer and to use manual controls together with histogram assessment before AND after the shot. Definitely you should lower the exposure time (both with aperture and shutter speed) whnever you can, shooting underexposed. A GND filter is more powerful than the polarizer, it lower the exposure with about 3 full stops or even more. As far as I know, it produces a certain gradient exposure , therefore you can set it up so that the greatest effect is on the part you fear to burn in the shot (as the sky and brightly lit areas) and the least effect in the areas you expect to be normally exposed. The result will probably be a more equally exposed image.

As for your photos, I think for the house with a stop under exposed would be fine. The second - just use Photoshop or whatever postprocessing to darken and you will probably make it look less washed out. The third looks prety fine to me.

▶ Reply to This

• 1
• 2