What’s your favorite tip for shooting in bright sunlight? Let us know?

"Go to a shady area" I've done that and now i don't have a camera anymore! Thanks Simon 😂

Every day Simon release a video is a happy day!

You're literally giving out a professional photographer apprenticeship for free. Thank you. I love how dense and complex your videos are so no matter what kind of photographer you are you learn something useful.

Man.. I'm always in awe when you show some examples of wildlife, especially those backlight birds. Truly, a master of your trade. Hats off!

Good ideas Simon. I like doing a few of these things: 1. Where the subject is against a bright background, zoom in and fill the frame with the subject and spot meter. Worry less about the blown-out background areas. 2. Use flash to balance - this minimizes dynamic range extremes. But as you said, use just enough and never so much that the flash induces specular highlights. 3. Use ND Grad filters. This helps reduce extremes. I use a reverse ND Grad for sunrise/sunset photography when the sun is at the horizon. 4. Switch to monochrome. Extremely contrast scenes look great in B&W.

Wow!!! Thank you Simon, this video opens a new door for me, since I shoot ONLY in the 'golden hour," a very very narrow window of time, not that doesn't even last one hour LOL My photography has grown since I started following you, and gratitude is owed to you. My warmest regards for you and your loved ones! 🙏

My favorite way of dealing with bright sunlight is shooting the shady side of the subject (which Simon mentioned) and filling with a LED if necessary. I shoot video the same way using LED panels for a fill. A panel that can dial between 2700K to 6000K is incredibly helpful. Getting a halo effect by shooting the shady side is always a classic look. I wish I could add to what Simon said but he covered all of my favorite techniques and more.

Literally you don’t know how much you’ve helped everyone. Like literally you don’t know..and that’s what’s great about you. On behalf of everyone. Thank you!m so much!!! ❤🙏🏻

Thank you Simon, I love your photographs and the information and teaching you share!

Thanks for the book, Simon, and for your amazing tips. I always find them informative.

Yet another GREAT lesson! Thank you!!!

I love shooting silhouettes of birds a lot! I often convert the shots to black and white for a different effect. Thank you Simon for a wonderful channel and great contributions to the photography community!

Simon !! Such economy of words to convey so much detail. When I combine what you presented with the points made by those who leave additional information, your 9 minute video becomes a one to two hour study/practice session. Thanks for all your support and information.

I'll be incorporating these tips, your video's are so helpful and have helped improve my photography. Thank you, merci Simon !!

Thank you, Simon. Great topic. I often have time to shoot landscape during lunch, but the harsh light poses a real challenge. Now I have some new strategies to experiment with…many thanks.

Great information, as an engineer for the railroad I have a hard time getting out during ideal conditions and often have to shoot in harsh lighting due to my work schedule. Thanks for all that you do.

Your backlit photos look stunning. One inexpensive tool that I bring to every sunny photoshoot is a diffusor/reflector combo. I have an assistant hold the diffusor over my model, or bounce light up into the shadows with the reflector. Turns out great!

Simon you are an AWESOME instructor, I love the way you explain your subject matter, very easy to digest!

I like your idea of an almost overexposed, and underexposed shot combinations. I like to backlight my subjects also, it can make for interesting compositions. Thank you for your tips Simon!

I would suggest shooting film in harsh light, it thrives in these conditions since overly bright highlights don’t pose the same problem to a negative that they do to a digital sensor. Great video Simon!

Thank you for all the videos like this. As a volunteer photographer called into action each Summer to catch the action on Lake Banook, your tips have greatly improved the quality over the last couple of years. Midday sun, water glare, fast action, rapid weather changes, moving shooting platforms, and limited time to position all provide for some challenging days to get everything just right. Blowing out the highlights of the water has been a creative decision now and again in favour of getting the detail/sharpness of the paddlers. Keep up the great work, and if you are ever in the area or looking for a field trip idea for one of your classes, let us know!

Awesome information. I just started my journey with photography, and I love it. Thanks for this information.

Thanks. I will try these ideas, especially when I travel. When traveling, you don't always get the time to wait for the ideal conditions. When I find myself in these situations, I try to under expose and then hopefully do something magical in Lightroom. Your tips are always awesome, and I always wait till the very end. Have a great week.

Good day Simone, thanks for another great video as always. I'm eagerly waiting for that video on tips for shooting fireworks!

As ALWAYS Great Advice!Thanks!

Thanks for this one! For many hobbyists and beginners like myself, "shoot during Golden Hour" is nice advice but not always useful. My own approach to harsh light thus far is your first one: seeking shade, whether it be via buildings or trees (forest light in mid-afternoon has its own magic, I've found). I also love reflections off water or glass, so I like to make use of those effects when I can. Finally, looking for places of high contrast make for a nice opportunity to do some more abstract photography.

Thanks Simon. Very interesting as usual.

Stand in the shadow of pole, sign or tree trunk. Makes things a lot easier and reduces flare. Thanks for another useful lesson.

This is exactly what I needed. I have a client who wants me to shoot a group photo down near the beach in midday. Thanks for the video Simon! Have a great weekend.

Just thinking of finding a video on this and you delivered.

Always detailed and very helpful. One way I deal with things is to practice. We all have a spare hour here and there so I take my camera and practice something. By doing this I am not trying to get it right when I need to....but rather learning how to on mundane subject. For bright skies I took a lot of photos of the chimney on my roof. It is dark against a very bright sky so gave me a good subject to try and balance things. But having your tips and experise that you so willingly share really does help. Thanks as always.

Merci Simon.

Ty simon. Love ur videos

You’re awesome, Simon 👍

Thank you very much 🙏🏻 I am learning a lot from your videos. Lots of love and blessings from India ❤

Awesome! Love your videos Simon 🙂💫

Thankyou Simon for the Advice for a novice like me

Sintice of the steel photography❤

Great lesson. Thank u so much

This is the first time I've seen any of your vids. Out of all the UKposts tutorials I have seen, yours is the most simplistic and informative. I'm going to subscribe to your channel. Thanks!!

These tips are amazing as always, thank you Simon! I like to shoot gritty urban environments, train tracks, graffiti, etc, then apply a contrasty B&W process to it in lightroom. Also works well for freeway underpasses, the shapes and the shadows are fun to play with as you mentioned.

Simply impressed how great this channel. Thanks a lot Simon!

Another great video Simon! I live in the tropics of north Queensland Australia. My best way to deal with midday sun is to get up early shoot for a couple hours, go and get a coffee, maybe go to the gym, download my pictures in the morning, do little bit of editing, have lunch, have a nap, and then go out for a late afternoon photo shoot. I appreciate your points, but man the sun is tough here and the heat haze makes bird photography atrocious in the middle of the day unless it's cloudy.

As always..this is another great video that you put out to help the photography community.

So many great tips. Thank you! I can’t wait to put them to use. That said, this video would have helped me this past weekend when I shot a family’s portraits outside at two locations they had chosen. By the time we got to the 2nd venue it was close to noon… and it was crowded with people. I did get some decent shots but the majority were throwaways. It’s frustrating, tho, b/c I still have trouble just deleting, and spend too much time trying to salvage “garbage” (i.e. GIGO). 🙄 (insert kicking myself emoji here) Thank you, again, sir! 👍🏻

Thank you for these excellent reminders! I especially appreciate the idea of using harsh light to your advantage. Backlighting can be challenging, but can also be an opportunity for dramatic shots.

Thanks, Simon, for sharing your expertise! Limiting your sessions/shooting to only golden hour is ...well limiting! Learning how to work with the light you are "given" is freeing and just smart. Love it!

You are my favorite photography teacher on UKposts. I'm also Canadian but moved to Thailand a decade ago. I'm just back from climbing Kilimanjaro and a 5-day safari where I took incredible wildlife pictures! The sun was very harsh and challenging at times especially at the Ngorongoro Crater where there is no shade at all. It's best to take photos early in the morning or late in the day but not always possible when traveling on a tight schedule.

My wife loves me taking portraits in outdoor areas, but I can never get her out there any earlier than about 11:30 or so, so high noon to 2:00 pm is a usual time. So besides the great advice on shade, that circular polarizer has saved more portraits than I care to admit. In bright conditions it will help out enormously. So for shooters that don’t have one, it’s worth the investment. It’s like sunglasses for tour camera…….🙂📸

great video as always :P This morning in Quebec, we had our first snow. These tips are very useful as the snow makes create harsh light quite fast, but i still have difficulty to properly expose the subject. Especially when its gloomy, it is a weird combination of soft light and harsh contrast. A video about gear precaution and how to shot in the winter would be very welcomed :)

Great stuff. Thanks!

Interesting tips Simon. A lot of them I follow or have been following (case in point: as recently as last Saturday) but on auto pilot. I used to think I was the one that was facing all these problems and was wondering how pros like you overcome them. Now that you have given me this tip I can be more mindful of these tips and apply them meaningfully or whenever its extremely bright outside. Thanks a ton for these tips!

Thanks, Simon, your tips and your photos are first rate.

I love to take lots of shots at a few exposures placing the subject in a few areas since Im new to increase my chance of a keeper. Good tips

Simon you are worth more than gold. Thank you for your insights and for sharing your real and repeatable experience! You are an inspiration, brother!

This is the most helpful video I’ve watched in years!

Great video. Thank you for posting. I do a lot of walking in the day and always carry my camera. I pick small details rather than big scenes and use my sun hat a lot to provide shade for plants etc. Sometimes using my hat to partially cover a shot gives an interesting effect. Recently I have been seeking very bright days and embracing them as I have taken up infarred photography. As I use a filer (only got it 3 weeks ago so I am newby) and dont have a converted camera I need to carry a tripod.

nice haircut! thanks for the tips!

Don't worry saw it. Thanks

im from israel and i love you so much, you help me past those thoughts thank you

Thanks, Simon. I'm a big fan of you.

Thx for the tips

Thank you. Your tips are brilliant. And your great talent is that you don’t just repeat “truths “ learnt from others but understand the rationale behind them and are able to pass that on.

Love the explanation you led with.

Another great video full of information…thank you

You just earned a new subscriber. Really useful video. I didn't know about Highlight alert. I just checked on my camera, and I already had it enabled.

You are so good with explaining things, great video thx. I use shadows and trees

All great tips! Thanks Simon! I had completely forgotten about circular polarizers. Just went out and played with mine and was able to bring out clouds in a dramatic sky that I actually couldn't see with my eyes. So cool!

Thanks so much for the free ebook!! My wife bought me a camera last Christmas and I've absolutely fallen in love with photography. I love your channel and have learned a lot from your videos. Thanks so much!

Good advice!

My favorites are wait it out, use exposure bracketing and negative exposure correction.

A very good set of tips. My first photography related job back in the early 70s was assisting wedding photographer Monte Zucker where I learned his technique of using a flash over the camera for fill with a second overlapping off camera flash to record a full range of detail by matching lighting ratio to range of print or digital sensor. I’ve used the same dual flash technique ever since, always carrying a pair of Canon flashes in my bag. Outdoors for human portraits my I use white and black towels on a stand were the subject will stand to set exposure, using the direct sun as a back rim / hair light but keeping the white highlights illuminated by the sun below clipping. Before flash is added the front of the white towel (or a white wedding dress) will be middle gray and shadow detail lost in the black one. The next step is to adjust fill flash power until the shadows lit by north sky + fill flash have the desired detail in the darkest parts of the black towel, then add the off axis key light to bring the highlights in hits on the front of the white towel up to where they need to be, which is 240 - 245, slightly darker than the 250 sunlit white fabric, which is slightly darker than the 255 rim lit areas creating three levels of tonal separation and texture in the highlights. This becomes very predictable and repeatable if flashes on are used at the same power and distances. A old pro trick is to tie a string with a knot at the correct distance to the base of each flash a be able to repeat the same exposure. Something to be aware shooting faces outdoors the high angle of the skylight will cause the brows to shade the eyes. That is remedied by having the subjects look up above the horizon 20 or so degrees to get the skylight into the eyes then shoot from a short ladder to keep face parallel with sensor and create a slight, flattering foreshortening of the body. The sky light from the north will also have direction and create shadow so to avoid a muddled lighting pattern on the face I’ll first pose it to the light as I would if using a north facing window, then place the off camera “key” flash so it hits the face at the same angle creating the same modeling. The results look similar to a key:fill:rimlight studio lit shot. Fur and feathers have millions of flat facets which are what creates the illusion of texture when they reflect specular highlights. While direct sun in the face makes humans squint to doesn’t affect animals and flat sunlight hitting fur and feathers and creating those highlights will add texture and detail. Adding flash to back lit shots has the same effect. Even if the flash is too far from the subject to affect exposure it will still add those texture revealing specular highlight clues.

Great video! When I shoot in harsh midday light I like to consider black and white edits, sometimes the extreme contrasts work better that washed out colors. Also if a subject is agains the sky like birds flying during the middle of the day black and white can make the photos more interesting as well.

Thank you as always Simon 😁

What a great simple tutorial 👏

Outstanding video. Great advice as always

You are amazing, and your content is top notch as always.

I will remember the HDR trick+ Lr, that's a good point, thank you!

My tip is to play around with angles and try various perspectives to shoot from, like above from a rooftop, or below from the bottom of a staircase, taking advantage of shadows and the angle of sunlight instead of seeing them as a detriment. Obviously depends on what genre and subject you're shooting, but I always find looking for creative perspectives to be the most simple way of taking more interesting and unique photos, and also having fun.

Usually I tend to use your last tip. Thanks for the video, it was very helpful 👏

Great tips!! Thank you!!!

Some more great tips Simon.

I hate shooting in direct light! Your tips really help!

Great video! I could have needed it a few hours earlier, just came home to find some poor pictures I took against the sun today, haha. You are a great teacher, thanks a lot!

Gracias

ty simon

In harsh bright light, I often set my composition with a 'film noir' feeling in it. The subject matter is not always important, I pursue the 'style' of the photograph as my aim often in harsh light. Thank you for your tips.

Good Tips! We were just on vacation in Sicily and there were day when I shot one stop under and adjusted in post. It's a no easy and a circular polarizer is not always the answer

Thank you for the tips This video is very much helpful for me🙏🙏

Nice information.

Great video :) I guess my biggest thing, is shooting at 2/3rds to 1 full stop under, most of the time. I can always pull up the shadows, but once the highlights are blown, the shot is wasted. Its funny, I shot bracketed exposure sets for basically ALL of my landscape shots for 13 years ! I have known that I could shoot bracketed sets for birds and wildlife, in certain situations, but almost never think to do it. I need to train myself to try this more often. I mean, if I've already taken several single frame shots, and my creature is still there, why not ? Thank you for the reminder :)

Very nice tutorial. Thanks

Thanks for another great video. I use a circular polarization filter or neutral density filter.

There is not that much sun in Wales, so I have fewer problems with too much light. Great advice, thank you.

Your videos have been really informative! It has helped me rekindle my interest in taking photos :-)

And bonus tip! 🎉😊

This is a great video. Very helpful. I understand the polarizing filter better. I try to get out are the golden hours of the day but there is lots of time in between and now that I'm retired I get out walking a lot. I'm enjoying ever though I'm a 50 year veteran of photography 📸 📷 learning more.

I love my long exposures, but making them in the middle of the day is a challenge. You get some great detail and different textures that simply are not available when shooting in low light situations. For this reason, my neutral density filters are probably my most used filters in my camera bag.

Oh, I didn't know that you should reduce the brightness of the exposure when the histogram indicator blinks. I'll try that. Good teaching.