Having problem taking photos in bright sunlight

[Michael_2010]

Were you shooting toward the sun? If you can keep the sun to your back, you should get some very nice shots straight out of the camera. However, most really great shots are taken, when the scene has a tonal quality created by an early morning, or late evening sun. During those times you have to use every tool you have to get the kind of shot you are after and even then you might have to bracket a few shots and blend them at your desk.

There is nothing wrong with using live view with that 500D. Try using aperture priority with a low ISO and make shutter speed the variable. Spin the dial until you find the sweet spot for both the foreground and the background, which will probably be a compromise unless you do bracket several exposures.

[inkista]

Errr, guys, yes, noontime light can be a nightmare, and we all prefer the angled light of Golden Hour, but I think the actual issue here is dynamic range. Expose for the sky (as this shot did) and the trees are underexposed. Expose for the trees, and the sky is blown out. This is an HDR scene, as most backlit situations are. Shooting with the sun at your back tends to be LDR, and that's why we're happier then, but there are other ways of dealing with a scene that has a higher dynamic range than the sensor can happily handle.

My basic take on that original photo is that it's underexposed. Check your histogram. You typically have more room to the right than you think you do. And if you're shooting RAW, remember that your histogram is actually derived NOT directly from the RAW file data, but from the jpeg preview for that RAW. In reality, you have a little more elbow room than you think you do. You actually CAN recover details from blown highlights, despite advice all over the web assuring you that you do not. Just try it and see.

To me, if I wasn't willing to sacrifice one end of the range over the other, and i wanted to cover the whole dynamic range, I'd most likely take bracketed shots and then combine them with Enfuse via the LR/Enfuse Lightroom plugin. You could use Hugin to do the same for free.


50D, EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 II kit lens (non-IS version).
Three shots ±2EV intervals. Combined with LR/enfuse. Curves adjustments.

Obviously, instead of exposure fusing, you could also use masks and layers, or HDR processing techniques (e.g., Photomatix, Photoshop's HDR, etc.) But I like enfuse's default results and I hate tonemapping.

[cristen]

I had the same problem also until a friend suggested a circular polarizing lens.

[navcom]

Originally Posted by cristen

I had the same problem also until a friend suggested a circular polarizing lens.

A circular polarizer will not help with exposure issues. It will help cut down on reflections and can also enhance the color of the sky (depending on your location to the sun) but it can't change the quality of the light or lower the dynamic range. The old saying fits...garbage in, garbage out.

Inkista is right...it's a dynamic range issue. That's why an ND grad or HDR techniques are about the only answer to help with the exposure problem....but they won't help with the harsh light.

[cristen]

I just noticed that after using the cpl, my photos taken during bright sunlight are not so harsh anymore. maybe i just changed settings without knowing. thanks for clarifying, navcom.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by rvpals

The only potential thing I could think of to remedy this problem is to dial down the exposure to -2 at the time of photo taking. Otherwise I am not sure what else I could do.

IABoomer mentions it in the very first post but to be sure the point isn't lost in the HDR conversation... you want to increase the exposure comp, not decrease it. -2 stops would make your original image even more underexposed.