Sunlight problems, was Floral visitors of Crocus, and more

Rodger Whitlock totototo@telus.net
Wed, 18 Feb 2015 14:19:46 PST
On 18 Feb 2015, at 11:51, Travis O wrote:

> I've not yet figured out how to take good macro pictures in full sunlight... 

Bright sunlight often causes for outdoor photographers, whether they use a big 
ol' press camera, a 35mm film affair, or a digital one. The difficulty is that 
the contrast between light and shade is too great.

[Incidentally, lighting is the key to good photography far more often than you 
might think.]

If your camera has a flash (most do these days), fill flash can help a great 
deal by throwing light into the dark shadows, reducing contrast and bringing 
out details otherwise lost in the murk.

Another strategy is to use some kind of reflector to throw ~diffuse~ light into 
the shadows. A matte white surface may work, or even crumpled aluminum foil.

Yet another approach is to put some kind of diffuser between the subject and 
the light source, in this case the sun. A scrap of translucent Coroplast might 
work. This can be combined with a matte reflector if you like.

Or you can simply wait for a dull day, but then the crocuses might not open and 
the bees might not be on the wing. And the color temperature of natural light 
on a cloudy day is very high. If your camera has the flexibility, you can 
compensate for that high color temperature in-camera, but if not, some post 
processing using Photoshop or any other decent photo manipulation program will 
be necessary.


-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate



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