Chapter 5-Daylight Photography

Many of your photographs will be taken using daylight settings. It is important to be able to use

this type of lighting correctly.

During the course of a day the lighting may be harsh, soft, direct,

subdued, bright, dark, etc. The type of lighting during the day is as

varied as the subjects you take.

Daylight-used outside and inside

Seeing the light vs. Seeing the subject

• Light has a huge effect on how a subject looks in a photograph.

• Light can compete with the subject if you are not careful.

• Light can also complement and support the subject.

• Learn to use light correctly.

Daylight

• What it is: Daylight is any light that originates from the sun and occurs naturally during the day.

• What it does: Daylight is the primary and most popular light for photography because it illuminates subjects and their environment in ways that meet our expectations for light.

• Where it is found: Daylight comes directly from the sun, diffused through clouds, reflected from the sky, reflected from bright surfaces (such as a wall), and so on.

• What types are there: Daylight can be harsh or gentle, warm or cold, flat or directional. It has many variations.

Learn to take your pictures at the time of day in which you want the lighting affect to show in the photograph.

The best time of day is early or later, not the middle of the

day.

Types of Daylight

Bright sun on a clear day: Sun is shining and the air is crisp and clear you get he best type of daylight. Great subjects for bright sun:

Landscapes (early or late in the day)

Beach and snow scenes

Architecture

Travel Photography

Challenging subjects for bright sun:

Portraits, flowers and wildlife

Types of daylight Open shade: Open shade is the condition of light

you find in shade that is open to the sky on a sunny day.

Open shade is much softer than bright clear sun and has gentle highlights and shadows.

Great subjects for open shade: Portraits, groups, flowers, E-bay photos,

Waterfalls Challenging subjects for open shade: Architecture, sand and show scenes, and

landscapes

Types of daylight

Hazy sun: Produced by clouds in a bright sunny sky.

Good subjects for hazy sun:

Travel, Wildlife, Sunrise and Sunset scenes, Colorful outdoor events

Challenging subjects for hazy sun:

Portraits, Landscapes, and Architecture

Types of daylight

Cloudy bright light: Clouds completely cover the sun but it is still very bright from the sun.

Good subjects for cloudy bright conditions:

Portraits, Highly detailed scenes, Markets filled with competing color and textures, Fall color scenes, Scenes inside a forest

Challenging subjects for cloudy bright:

Architecture, Strong forms in landscapes, Anything that has important textures.

Types of daylight

Heavy overcast: Heavy overcast sky with the sun completely covered by clouds.

Good subjects for heavy overcast:

Not many except for rainy day images.

Challenging subjects for heavy overcast:

Most images taken on this type of day will have problems.

Light Direction

Daylight photography has the following light conditions that affect all images taken in this type of light.

Direction-How the light strikes the subject as you see that subject from the camera position.

Shadows-Shadows have a key role in how light direction affects a subject. Where they fall affects what is seen and emphasized in the photo.

Light Direction Form-Light affects the form and shape of an object, the three-

dimensional qualities of a subject and scene. Texture-Texture appears when light hits the raised parts of a

surface and shadow appears in the low parts. Color-Color is strongly affected by the quality of the light

(bright sun gives brighter colors than dark clouds), but it is also affected by light direction because color is different in the bright areas compared to the shadows.

Pattern-Color and tonal patterns in a subject need to be illuminated by light in order to be seen.

Separation-Some light directions help separate a subject from other elements in a scene or the background.

Depth-Depth in a photo comes from the appearance of the changes from the foreground to background. Light direction affects depth by creating planes of light and dark, separation or even atmosphere in the air itself.

Light Direction

Light can come from the following directions determined by where the main light source is in each image you take.

Front Usually the type of lighting you will have in most

daylight images if you keep the sun behind you.

Side Can give very interesting images.

Back Must meter carefully or use a flash or reflector

3/4 Front Good lighting for portraits

¾ Back Can again be tricky

Top Be careful on the subjects

Bottom Very seldom used, very rare outside

Reducing light contrast • Use a flash-Called Fill Flash or Environmental Flash.

The flash unit on your camera can be used to give light to a subject that is in the shadows or has strong backlighting.

Image with the subject too dark because of the strong backlighting.

Image with the subject correctly exposed using fill flash to compensate for the strong backlighting.

Reduce light contrast • Wait for a cloud-you can use clouds to block the

harsh sun when outdoors.

• Block the light-you can use a reflector to block the sun coming from a certain direction.

• Use a reflector-you can purchase commercial reflectors to be used for this purpose.

• Diffuse the light-use a diffuser that can be used to reduce the amount of light hitting the subject.

• Shoot backlight-move so that the light is doing what you want it to do in the pictures.

• Look for another picture-do this when the light is read bad.

A reflector can be used to remove shadows and give more even lighting to outdoor photographs taken in daylight.

Time of Day • The time of day has a big effect on light and how

the light affects the subject.

• The following elements of an image are greatly affected by the time of day an image is taken.

Color-This is the most obvious part of an image affected by time of day.

Direction and dimension-Light is more directional in the early and late part of the day. You need shadows for dimension.

Crispness-Light tends to be at the crispest and sharpest first thing in the morning.

Light and White Balance • You can adjust the White Balance settings on

your camera to match the type of daylight you are shooting in. Average White

Balance setting Bright Sun Open Shade Cloudy Sun These are all White Balance settings that can be adjusted for daylight images.

Experiment with your daylight photography

• Try different White Balance settings to match the lighting conditions.

• Try taking the same subject at different times of day to see how the lighting changes.

• Use fill flash on outdoor subjects especially portraits.

• Have fun using the best type of lighting, daylight.

Use open shade or trees to take pictures when the sun is high in the sky.

Early sun light is great plus there are few people around to get in the way of your photographs.

Early or late sun is best.

Cloudy with no

direct sun can

produce some of the best

pictures of people.

In direct sunlight, objects can look hazy in the distance.

Backlighting produces flat, hazy subjects. Here the balloons are

almost silhouettes.

Direct sunlight pictures produce some of the best photographs.

With outdoor pictures when the sun is behind the subjects, use fill flash to get rid of the shadows and produce a more even lighting effect on your subjects faces.

Move to open shade to protect from bright sun during the middle of the day.

Direct sun through a stained glass window can produce a neat photograph.