Shooting in bright sunlight

ToddnTN · Sep 23, 2013

I took pictures at my daughters first HS marching band contest, so far I have only shot the band at night at football games and have been pretty happy with the results. This time I was shooting at 2:00 pm in very bright sunlight and I am not sure I am happy with the outcome. Everything looks washed out to me. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong?

The best shots are in the following flickr set.
Hendersonville - a set on Flickr

Thanks

ronlane · Sep 23, 2013

Todd, I looked quickly at the pictures on Flickr. They don't look that bad for being taken at 2:00 pm. That is a tough time of the day. You avoided the sky so it doesn't look blown out.

The exif information showed on the one I looked at as set at f/4.5. You could have used an ND filter or a CPL. The ND would have allowed you to open the appeture and kept the shutter speed the same. I honestly think that the CPL would have been the way to go and helped cut some of the glare.

Tinderbox (UK) · Sep 23, 2013

They are a bit overexposed, the whites are blown out, if you shot in raw dial down the exposure a bit in PS or similar.

Next time try reducing the exposer compansation a notch or two, i always prefer to be slighty underexposed than overexposed.

John.

cynicaster · Sep 23, 2013

Tinderbox (UK) said:
They are a bit overexposed, the whites are blown out, if you shot in raw dial down the exposure a bit in PS or similar.

Next time try reducing the exposer compansation a notch or two, i always prefer to be slighty underexposed than overexposed.

John.

If you like the underexposed "look", then I think the better practice to achieve that in the OP's high contrast situation is to maximize the usage of the camera's dynamic range when taking the shot, then darken it to taste in post.

Braineack · Sep 23, 2013

I'd say they are pretty successful considering...

I see you shot in Manual. Would have been curious to see what the camera would have chosen for settings had you spot metered on the faces. Possibly going to f/8+ in a few of the shots.

cgipson1 · Sep 23, 2013

Considering the harsh light at that time of day, you did pretty well! If you have the RAWs and are handy at photoshop, you could clean minimize the contrast a bit ... but probably be more work than it would be worth.

Stolarczyk · Sep 23, 2013

They really don't look bad to me considering the time of day you were shooting. I think for these type of photos that are for the most part documentary, having them a little on the brighter side is fine. Your quality of light is going to be giving you hard shadows because the sun is such a small light source (Ironic I know), but for this situation there isn't much you could do about it. Depending on how close you were to the subjects you could have fill flashed a little bit just to even out the light, especially under the large hats, and the eyes. Properly balancing ambient light with a dash of flash can have some pretty nice results.

Gavjenks · Sep 23, 2013

There's not much you can do about bright sunlight in situations where you don't have permission or close range to use a flash.

The_Traveler · Sep 23, 2013

They seem to be nice and sharp and not blown out.
A bit of editing can change things a lot. - in a good way.

9886726224_763160a540_ollll.jpg~original

ToddnTN · Sep 23, 2013

Thanks for the feedback everyone, good to know that the conditions were not in my favor.

minicoop1985 · Sep 23, 2013

They do look pretty good to me (I was in marching band for probably 8-10 years), but I'm gonna jump on the polarizer bandwagon here. They make such a HUGE difference.

kay1547 · Sep 25, 2013

The_Traveler said:
They seem to be nice and sharp and not blown out.
A bit of editing can change things a lot. - in a good way.

i like that you cropped out the speakers, but that buss went from yellow to orange.
personally i would have used spot meter and aperture priority, then adjusted in lightroom to tone down the highlights.

The_Traveler · Sep 25, 2013

kay1547 said:
i like that you cropped out the speakers, but that buss when from yellow to orange.
personally i would have used spot meter and aperture priority, then adjusted in lightroom to tone down the highlights.

I don't care much about the bus; it is a distraction anyway, I should have darkened it more.

I steer away from complicated bit-level changes in LR because they aren't as easy for me to control.

Perhaps you could try editing the image as shot in lightroom and post the result?

kay1547 · Sep 25, 2013

The_Traveler said:
kay1547 said:

i like that you cropped out the speakers, but that buss when from yellow to orange.
personally i would have used spot meter and aperture priority, then adjusted in lightroom to tone down the highlights.

Click to expand...

I don't care much about the bus; it is a distraction anyway, I should have darkened it more.

I steer away from complicated bit-level changes in LR because they aren't as easy for me to control.

Perhaps you could try editing the image as shot in lightroom and post the result?

my apologizes, my intentions were not to get anyone even a tiny bit upset, its just what stood out to me.
photo processing is subjective to your own taste, this is what works for me.
you can still tell it was shot in the most harsh time of day for light, but this is what i would accept for a jpeg.