Shooting in woods with streams of light

[teda]

Hi,

Nooby here, first post.

I horseback ride in the woods with friends and on sunny days some of the favorite places to photograph have streams of sunlight coming down into the shaded subject. Mostly impossible to avoid these streams of light. Is it possible to get a good photo in these conditions?

Using Nikon D2x with Tamron 28-270 or Sigma 18-50.

Thanks for any suggestions
Ted

[zona5101]

Sure why not! You can explose for the foliage/shadow and the beams of light will be these huge blinding rays...or expose for the lighted areas and have the remainder go to shadow...might even be a nice place to try post process mergeing two exposures into one capture hdr style

[AgBeard]

Welcome to DPS.

I love sunlight coming thro' trees, it's very evocative - but is often difficult to capture. Part of the issue is the wide EV range that causes the sensor to stuggle. Unlike a landscape where you can use a graduated ND filter to balance things out, there is no easy fix; you might want to look into using HDR techniques that overlay a series of captures (using a tripod) with differing EV settings. You will find plenty tutorials on this & other sites to help you.