Scared of Sun!

[3of11]

Am I letting the sun cripple me too much? I know the basics of shooting in sunlight; Best times to shoot are morning and night, worst mid-day. Best if you can be in shade. How can you make a good picture at noon in that harsh sunlight if you don't have shade, or can you? Also, it seems that when I take outdoors pictures the sky ends up being white. How do you get blue skies? Is it just by using a gray card? Any technique for shooting in daylight will be appreciated.

 

[Moglex]

Am I letting the sun cripple me too much? I know the basics of shooting in sunlight; Best times to shoot are morning and night, worst mid-day. Best if you can be in shade. How can you make a good picture at noon in that harsh sunlight if you don't have shade, or can you? Also, it seems that when I take outdoors pictures the sky ends up being white. How do you get blue skies? Is it just by using a gray card? Any technique for shooting in daylight will be appreciated.

Mainly practice and see what works and what doesn't for the subjects you shoot.

It may be difficult if you can't find ways of making use of the particular attributes of mid-day sun (e.g. you want more 'classic' lighting), but if you can find a way of making it work for you it's just like having another tool at your disposal.

Try a polariser for getting the sky more blue.

 

[Dao]

If you are taking a picture of an subject in high noon, a Reflector or Diffuser may help. Of course, the subject cannot be huge.


Take Control of Natural Light with Reflectors and Diffusers

 

[Bifurcator]

If you use about 1/3 of a bed sheet to make the diffuser the subject can be full-sized humanoid. Here's a brief schematic:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1296455&postcount=5

And you don't even need the stand if you have an assistant.

 

[3of11]

Thanks everyone for your input. I went out yesterday and experimented noon-day and my fear is definitely lessening.

 

[dEARlEADER]

If you are shooting scapes midday then a Graduated ND filter and Polarizer will help you out. I recently aquired a 2 stop and a 4 stop and use them quite often to tame clipping. A 2 stop Grad ND in combination with a polarizer brings the sky down 4 stops and the land down 2 stops. This evens things out nicely and lets you keep your aperture between f9-11 if your looking for corner to coners sharpness type landscapes.

If you are shooting portraiture than beat it down with fill flash and reflectors as mentioned.