How to balance very harsh California sunlight?

Caduceus · Nov 7, 2010

Hey, I've been wondering what's the best way to balance direct harsh sunlight. What settings would be best for the camera so that the light is captured and still looks natural?

Ub3rdoRK · Nov 7, 2010

whats the subject? person? landscape?

Caduceus · Nov 7, 2010

Ub3rdoRK said:
whats the subject? person? landscape?

Landscape

Overread · Nov 7, 2010

For landscape you've two options depending on your budget, scene and wants.

1) filters -

a) you can use ND (neutral density) filters to lower the overall amount of light entering the camera. For landscape its good when you want to make a longer exposure in given light without having overexposure problems

b) ND Grad (neutral density graduated) filters are like the above, but only lower the amount of light entering the camera over half of their surface. This lets you split the scene into two - say you have a bright sky and a dark, shadowed ground. The ND Grad would slip over and lower the light from the sky and thus let you expose more for the ground.
There are two kinds of graduation - hard, where the line of change is very abrupt - and diffuse, where the change is more gradual.
Note that ND Grad come in two kinds - screw in filters and sheet filters that go in a filter holder. The screw in a very limiting as they put the point of change right in the middle of your shot - whilst those that fit in a filter holder let you slide the filter up and down to choose the point at which the change takes place

2) Circular Polarizers - these work rather like the ND filters in reducing the overall amount of light entering the camera (somewhere around 1.5stops, but it varies), but also help to cut down reflections from none-metalic surfaces. They work best when used at 90degrees to the sun and can be rotated to increase or decrease the effect.

3) HDR - take a series of shots in the camera, varying the exposure time (whilst keeping aperture, focus and ISO the same) so that you get a series of shots of the scene that, when combined, expose each area of the shot correctly. This is a good method also even if you have filters, since they tend to work best when you have a flat line of change (eg seascape) but if you have trees, mountains or other obstructions rising up from one exposure zone to the other the filters can cause oddities. Whilst multiple exposures won't.