How to shoot in bright sunlight

[arunap]

Here is my problem; my pics come with a washed out sky during afternoon shots. Subjects shot with the sky in background are the main candidates. I used a polarizer and cut my exposure by 2-3 stops, still the sky was washed out. All shots were taken on 18-55mm canon kit lens in aperture priority mode of 8.

I am always hesitant to take pics during afternoons; i rarely do; but if a situation demands it how is the best way to shoot against a bright sky?

Was the sun too bright to get any cloud details during afternoons?

I tried an exposure lock on the subjects face; the camera compensated for the skin; but overexposed the sky again.

hooo boy... wht do i do do now? . Here is my poor photo


Any help would be useful.

[CaptainTom]

Are you turning the polarizor so it is in its most effective position ???

You can see this in the viewfinder as you rotate the lens.

[arunap]

Tom, i did turn the ring, but yes i was not always a 90 deg from the sun. That could be one problem.

[CaptainTom]

oops

[CaptainTom]

Another option would be to take two identically composed photos and expose one for the subject and one for the sky. Combined them in PP and you have solved the problem.. But, it does take some practice, and you need to plan ahead.
You could also use a graduated filter to darken the sky.


Mid day sun is a real pain, and should be avoided if possible.

[Daylon]

Meter off the sky, lock your exposure, then recompose and shoot...

[Paulo]

Will shooting 'spot' metering in conjuction the polarizer and underexposure help in this situation? I haven't tried it but I've seen manuals suggest 'spot' metering when there's a lot of contrast between the subject and background. Specifically pointing out bright sky background in the examples.

[Wendyp]

Originally Posted by Daylon

Meter off the sky, lock your exposure, then recompose and shoot...

But then the subject would be underexposed.

I think the approach you take depends on the subject. the airplane subject is large, so the only option is to expose it correctly and let the sky fall where it may. If it is important enough to work on in post, do as Tom suggested and do two exposures and combine later.

For people pictures use flash to balance the subjects exposure against the sky.

The first is with flash and the second without.

[arunap]

ok, i will take 2 shots with 2 separate exposures and create separate layers and merge them in PS.
Since i got just one pic this time; i might have to lower the levels to get the details(of the sky); make a separate layer out of it and merge the original one as Tom suggested.

[TXhummer2]

I've noticed this on my non-SR CCD Fuji's so this is good info. Ones like this taken with the F700 SR Super CCD camera are highly ajustable without creating multiple merge layers.


I just did some "fill light" to get the tree from near black to normal. I'd really like to see some mid-day shots from the new Fuji S5.

[tommas4]

Shooting small subjects, fill flash is way to go. I don't do people (often), but some landscape/city.
Show you one example how do I try to beat the dynamic range of those sensors.
Picture below was taken yesterday, around 3pm with quite harsh sunlight. Sun is to the left on this image, you can make it out from some shadows left there.
30D/17-40L/hoya cpl - 1/250,f8,iso 160, evaulative metering (whole scene) of the sky.



Now, when I open it, the sky is light/low contrast, but not blown, rest is slightly underexposed. Tried metered only for skies, but getting horrible noise in the dark areas (duh ). Metering for subject blowns the sky beyond repair.
I'm not fan of this, like more sooc, but unless there is some super sensor . . . .
Anyway, shadow/highlight tool in CS2. Interesting is approach of setting highlight amount to 100% and radius to 2500 pixels, (reveals the sky, BUT) adjusting shadows accordingly and then this horribly oversaturated image make to perfection with hue/saturation and contrast settings. Nice for this part is filter from NikColorPro.

Try it, might as well work for you, but no warranty on this
But telling you, nice light is nice light
30D/70-200 2.8 sooc at iso640,1/500, f3.2



Tomas

[arunap]

Nice work tomas. You have certainly got back the details.
I have used the Burn tool in elements to some success.

[Michael Lyons]

nice pix ARUNAP, I think I saw your out there on Sat. I will post some of our pix as soon as I get some time

[arunap]

oh Micheal, i was there at hooks airport around 12pm and BOY it was harsh sunlight. I saw a few other pics put up by Robert; they too seems got a blown away sky.
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=43079

[CaptainTom]

it won't load, so never mind....