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Archive 2013 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

mirandamember
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Help! How do I adjust for harsh sun before sunset? One example of my problem. Thanks in advance for C&C.

Mark

Sep 19, 2013 at 09:21 AM

Jefferson
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Bring your ISO down... start at ISO 100... stop down to maybe f/8... starting point... look at histogram and adjust apeture first... next to maybe f/4... look at hstogram... (to just right of center)...

Shoot manual exposure mode and adjust as needed...

Sep 19, 2013 at 09:37 AM

Aqualung
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

I dial in -0.3 or -0.66 EV...shooting Aperture Priority

Chris

Sep 19, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Russ Isabella
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Whichever method you choose to set your exposure, a workable approach is to expose for the face, meaning that your goal is to have your subjects' faces exposed properly. Let everything else fall where it may. Based on this strategy, looking at the shot you've posted, I'd say it's a bit overexposed.

Sep 19, 2013 at 11:12 AM

Widgic
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Here are a few suggestions:

Position: either back of facing the sun. That's the only positions that will give you evenly lit scenes. With a very low sun, shooting backlit is going to be more of a challenge and will require more post work... but if you get it right it will give you beautiful results.
Exposue: as Russ said, expose for the faces, and hope the rest will come out right. I personally shoot manual exposure 95% of the time, but this is one case where i think it is almost required.
Shoot raw: I'd also suggest to shoot in RAW, this will give you more latitude in post processing to correct the exposure (and white balance).

Hope this helps.

Denis
www.widgic.com

Sep 19, 2013 at 11:46 AM

Carl Auer
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

For the last 20+ years I have used a hand held light meter and I take an average reading of the shadows and the direct sunlight. I will usually have to underexpose a bit more than the reading, especially for football with the helmets. Another thing to do is attempt to position yourself so the sun is blocked by the player. This will give you some nice rim light. So get low and be as mobile as you can. You can also just expose for the sky and get some real fun silhouettes.

Just note, exposing for the faces when shooting into the sun, will wash everything else out.

Sep 19, 2013 at 12:21 PM

mirandamember
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Thank you very much for all the suggestions. You guys are great.

Sep 19, 2013 at 02:08 PM

Adam73
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

I shoot football every Sunday at 11am and the sun is so harsh. We only can be on the home side of the field and can't shoot from the end zones, so that means we don't have the luxury of positioning ourselves from the sun. Like stated above, meter for the faces. I shoot full manual mode to keep consistent exposures. We shoot from the home side. I can shoot from either or between the 10 to 25 yard line on either end zone. My settings shooting in one direction was 1/1600 of a second f2.8 ISO 400. Shooting from the other end of the field I had to change my shutter speed to 1/2500 of a second f2.8 ISO 400.

Sep 19, 2013 at 03:37 PM

mirandamember
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Adam73, Thanks for the advice. Mark

Sep 20, 2013 at 02:18 PM

Jefferson
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Here's a shot from today... noon... bright sun...
5Dc + Canon 50 f/1.4 @ f/9... ISO 100... 1/250... spot metering... center focal point... manual exposure mode...

http://jeffersonposter.smugmug.com/photos/i-BSQsDhf/0/X2/i-BSQsDhf-X2.jpg

Some stuff that is moving later...

Jefferson

Sep 20, 2013 at 04:03 PM

GeorgeR
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Harsh light before sunset? The low, soft, warm evening light before sunset is my favorite light and light I would never characterize as harsh.

Sep 21, 2013 at 01:39 AM

mirandamember
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Aqualung wrote:
I dial in -0.3 or -0.66 EV...shooting Aperture Priority

Chris

Chris, I have been studying your FH shots for a while. I've also looked at your soccer shots. Are you picking your EV based on location of the sun? Thanks.

Sep 21, 2013 at 05:18 AM

mirandamember
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

GeorgeR wrote:
Harsh light before sunset? The low, soft, warm evening light before sunset is my favorite light and light I would never characterize as harsh.

, You must not live in Texas! Thanks to all for the suggestions. You guys are great.

Sep 21, 2013 at 10:55 AM

Russ Isabella
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Jefferson wrote:
Here's a shot from today... noon... bright sun...
5Dc + Canon 50 f/1.4 @ f/9... ISO 100... 1/250... spot metering... center focal point... manual exposure mode...

Some stuff that is moving later...

Jefferson

Jefferson:
This doesn't quite make sense to me. Why are you noting your use of spot metering if you are in manual exposure mode? Are you simply indicating that you arrived at your manual exposure settings by relying on the camera's spot-metering? If so, why would you need to be in manual exposure mode given that you are trusting the camera's spot-metering reading? Why not just shoot in one of the automatic modes (which I assume you were in to take the spot-meter reading, unless you're just dialing up and down in M mode until you get the indicator where you want it on the scale, which is in effect the same thing)? Same difference, right, as long as you are letting the camera determine the exposure settings? Again, for me there is a disconnect between stating your camera's metering mode and also stating that you are shooting in manual. I understand the potential benefits of switching to manual once you have taken your reading (in an auto mode) using the camera's spot-metering system (such as avoiding changes to the settings in auto mode based on reflected light that won't affect the actual exposure), but those would require some explanation in order for this to be of any use to someone asking for help. Either that or I'm missing something obvious. (It also would be helpful to know where in this image the spot-meter reading was taken from, since different spots (sky, canopy, fog lamp, windshield, front hood of car) would have led to different readings.

Sep 21, 2013 at 11:58 AM

Jefferson
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Russ Isabella wrote:
Jefferson:
This doesn't quite make sense to me. Why are you noting your use of spot metering if you are in manual exposure mode? Are you simply indicating that you arrived at your manual exposure settings by relying on the camera's spot-metering? If so, why would you need to be in manual exposure mode given that you are trusting the camera's spot-metering reading? Why not just shoot in one of the automatic modes (which I assume you were in to take the spot-meter reading, unless you're just dialing up and down in M mode until you get the indicator where...Show more →

Didn’t mean to confuse you… but now that I have…

I use the center focal point… and for a shot like the 356, my “metering” or actually my reference point that I use to adjust my settings … is in the center of the shot… only trimmed some off the edges in this shot to get rid of a person standing to the right and some off the left side for framing … I already have a general idea of what I want my settings to be before I shoot… I use the meter display to get my rough… but in the ballpark adjustments… I might stop down some, I might be happy where it is… if I’m close to center on the meter…

Then I’ll snap a shot and look at the histogram… I’ll generally adjust shutter speed if needed at this point… then check the histogram again… to get where I want…

On this shot… I am pretty much already set up… previous method… and after a few shots.I’m where I want to be and I put the center focal point mostly… depending on helmet… windscreen… etc. … between the eyes…

http://jeffersonposter.smugmug.com/photos/i-cM7CXmD/0/X2/i-cM7CXmD-X2.jpg

Works for me...

I hope this has been some help to you in your understanding of the way I shoot…

Jefferson

Sep 21, 2013 at 02:20 PM

Jefferson
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

... focal point on the eyes...

http://jeffersonposter.smugmug.com/photos/i-VcGHCFm/0/X2/i-VcGHCFm-X2.jpg

....

Edited on Sep 22, 2013 at 09:19 AM · View previous versions

Sep 21, 2013 at 07:59 PM

Jefferson
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

... pissing contest... I'm gonna go take pictures...

Said with a smile...

Edited on Sep 22, 2013 at 09:18 AM · View previous versions

Sep 21, 2013 at 08:56 PM

gschlact
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Mirandamember,
Most people dial in some EV to correct a fixed amount of offset based on a commonality a meter reading will have in one of the Auto Exposure modes for your subjects. Say you are shooting a game with very dark uniforms (Aqualung recently shoots the dark maroon), the auto exposure typically will add some Exposure to move the dark toward grey. So I. This case shooting this game, you would dial in some negative EV to bring the uniforms back to dark color. This lets you stay in some Auto Mode (shifter or aperture priority, and on non-Canons Manual with auto-ISO with shutter and aperture set).

This is actually One why there is the need to stay in Shutter or Aperture priority on Canon is this fact that EC is not possible in Manual+Auto-ISO mode.

Let's see you next outing posts. also, if you use LR, raising shadows and then pulling black back to black will hel with shadowed faces that used an average of dark shadow-sunny for the exposure where the shadowed face still often is darker than desired. That's why Russ suggests exposing for the face- let's you not have to PP unless you want to tame then the highlights

Guy

Sep 21, 2013 at 09:21 PM

Jefferson
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

... Gone to take more photos...

Jefferson

Sep 22, 2013 at 09:20 AM

Russ Isabella
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Help needed. Harsh sun before sunset

Jefferson: Beautiful examples of perfectly exposed images, especially the first two. Thanks for filling in the gap between the camera's meter reading and your decisions about final settings. Of course this is where your skill, knowledge and experience come into play, and there are no simple recipes for that.

Sep 22, 2013 at 11:43 AM

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