攝影提升 【中字】理解光線 | 如何在午後的強光下拍出好照片？

Harsh light has a bad reputation. Ask any photographer and they will tell you to avoid midday harsh light and to only shoot at sunrise or sunset, also known as the golden hour. Well, that's all well and good for the privileged photographers who do have the time and the energy to wake up for sunrise every single morning or stay out till sunset, especially in the summer months. However, for most people, this is simply not an option. Maybe work, family, kids, even if you don't have those things, you might not be a morning person and then waking up in the morning, you just feel a bit crappy for the rest of the day. What I'm getting at here is that for most people, shooting at golden hour is just not realistic and they end up shooting during the day. Take me for example, around 90% of all of my photos that you've seen online are not during golden hour. They're not sunrise and they're not sunset. Now, sure, some of my best photos are by all means, but the majority are taken outside of those golden hours. So with all that said in this video, I want to share with you a few suggestions as to what you can do to improve your chances of getting good photos when shooting in harsh midday light. Also, this video is sponsored by Squarespace, but more on them later on. Let's start with contrast and exposure, arguably the most important aspects of this video. When shooting in harsh light, you will typically come across two different scenarios. The first one is a high contrast scene. This will typically be when you have, let's say, a sliver of light going through a set of buildings and then some of the image falls to almost black, whilst the other, the highlight area is perfectly exposed. So that's your high contrast scene. And then you will have that typical washed out midday sun low contrast scene that you would get if you're shooting in a more open area that is getting uniform light. Now, the first thing you want to avoid doing is trying to make high contrast scenes appear low contrast and vice versa. You don't want to be taking a low contrast scene and thinking, you know what? It's a bit washed out. Let me push up that contrast because in most cases, you're going to end up with a rather unpleasant result. Equally, if you take a high contrast scene and try to make it low contrast, then you're going to end up with a bit of a muddy image. So rather than fighting against how things look naturally, try to work with them. If you're shooting a low contrast scene, then try to make that image work in low contrast. Perhaps you make the contrast even lower. Perhaps you boost the saturation or perhaps you play around with the tone curve to get a more filmic type look. Equally, if you're shooting a high contrast scene, just work with that high contrast. This is where you might want to go for that highlight and shadow look. Maybe you want to make the image black and white. Maybe you want to really make sure the highlights are perfectly exposed and everything in shadow can completely fall into black and be more of a fine art type of image. Having to deal with harsh light straight away means that your image is not going to be very soft because you don't have that soft light. Also, it means that if your image is very detailed, it's going to actually look a little bit more cluttered than it otherwise would because of the way the harsh light interacts with everything in the frame. So avoid adding to the issue of making the image more cluttered by having loads of stuff within your composition. Instead, try to have the most simple, clean compositions possible. Think minimal photography. Now, in some cases, that would mean using a longer lens because perhaps using a wide lens in that particular environment is not going to yield those results. So I will save the wide lens for later in the day when the light is softer. And when it's harsh, I will be shooting with a longer lens, let's say 50mm, 85mm, even a 135mm, full frame terms here. So if you're struggling with that, then try to use a longer lens and try to simplify your composition. And you will probably have a better time and better, cleaner results at the end of it. Unless you're shooting black and white, pay attention to colors within your frame and use them to your advantage. Now, two things can happen with colors. The first thing is you can have an imbalance of colors. So you've seen that where you have a pretty, let's say neutral subject and neutral scene, yet the sky is bright blue and overpowering. That's where you might want to adjust the sky. You might want to reduce that contrast, reduce a bit of saturation and even maybe add a little bit of teal to the sky. And then that will sell the sky a bit more and kind of marry it more to the scene without it looking out of place. Also try to find brighter, vibrant colors. Because as I've said earlier, if you're shooting in an open area that is getting hit by that harsh midday sun, more than likely it's going to be a little bit washed out. So if you find bright, vibrant things to shoot, you're probably going to end up with a better result as opposed to just shooting neutral stone colored things. Now, appreciate not every location will give you that, but just do your best and I'm sure you can find some colorful things to add into your frame. Now, if you're shooting black and white, that's a good way to get around this issue of lack of color. However, still keep an eye on the overall tonality of the image. You might find that the sky rather than being too blue is actually too dark and you might want to mask the sky or select the blue elements within the frame and make them a little bit brighter. Again, rebalancing that image. Another way to deal with harsh light is to shoot either reflections or find diffused light. So reflections could be mirrors, it could be windows, it could be just shiny surfaces, anything where you can have a reflection. When you're shooting a reflection, the light typically diffuses a little bit and you can go for a more abstract high contrast look where it would actually work and look natural as opposed to just shooting the scene. By adding that extra element, it removes the appearance of horrible lighting and instead gives you a bit more creative freedom and a bit more of an artistic photo. And when you have an image set from a particular location, having a few reflection shots in there definitely adds to the overall quality of the work, in my opinion. As for diffusion, try to find areas where the light diffuses. Now that could be, let's say, a tarpaulin that's hanging on the side. It could be a cloth top if it's like a tent maybe or something in those lines. It could even be something as simple as windows, as frosted windows and you're shooting on the other side. It could be light reflecting off something and bouncing. So you know when you have, let's say, the light hitting a skyscraper and then it bounces off the skyscraper and hits, let's say, the pavement. That's reflected and diffused light that will be a little bit softer than it would be straight from the sun. So try to find these things around the city or whatever location you're in and that's a good way to diffuse some of that light. If you take all of these elements and use them as and when you see fit when you're out shooting, you will more than likely end up with a few more keepers when it comes to harsh light photography. I personally love shooting in harsh light because it just gives me more freedom in terms of when I go out to shoot. Okay, that's all very quick video today and I hope that you've managed to take away a few points. If you do have any questions, please leave them in the comments down below. Or if you have your own ways of dealing with harsh light, please also state those below because maybe I can learn something new and everyone else who's reading your comment can learn something new as well. For now, I'm going to leave you to it. Thank you ever so much for watching my videos, for reading the blog, buying all the products and all of that good stuff. So thank you again and I'll see you in the next one. Bye. I want to take a moment and thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video. I've been using their services for over five years and I couldn't be happier with what they have to offer. I use Squarespace to publish my travel and photography blog where I write about gear, travel, photography and more. I use them for my online store where I sell my presets, travel and camera guides. Squarespace is my photography portfolio where I showcase my best images from all of the travels and locations. All of this is under one roof with a great web interface and mobile apps to keep on top of everything regardless of where I am. If you're looking for the best all-in-one solution, then I can honestly recommend Squarespace. Please click on the link in the description and use the code RomanFox for 10% off. Thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring and thank you for watching.