Strong sunlight.

[Athas_orm]

Hi,

Is there anything I can do to compress the exposure when taking photographs of subjects in strong sunlight.

Will a filter reduce the contrast between shade and the light itself. I mean Its usually fairly bright where I live currently and I find I'm missing a lot of details. Exposing for the objects or exposing for the background is both wrong.

Would a Neutral Density Filter or a polaroid filter help?

Wes

[teaking]

You could combine exposures in PP, use fill flash to try to brighten up the subject, shoot in shade, have the sun at the back of the subject and have a stylized kinda back ground sometimes its ok to have blown out highlights im sure theres more options there just the first few that come to mind.

[Athas_orm]

Okay good advise. So I guess there no way to compress using a filter.

Oh well.

[teaking]

You can use a polarising filter but this will knock a few stops off your exposure, it will stop the reflections of light and usually darkens the sky as the light from objects are not reflected back into it so maybe it will give you some play but not sure it will give you enough. The other choice is a neutral density filter thats usually graduated as in it has a gradient from light to dark these work best with landscapes so you can separate the sky from the ground and may not be too good with subjects as they will be in the sky part and your trying to separate them. Hope that helps.

[Athas_orm]

Okay thats great. Thanks teaking.

The pp option is probably best but its difficult with moving subjects. Shooting in shade isn't always possible. If your subjects in the sun.

Wes

[PWhite214]

You probably want to check out the COKIN filter holder and filters. Welcome to COKIN.COM The square, graduated ND filters with the holder allow you to position the filter for best results. Might be hard to use with moving subjects, but worth looking.

Phil

[Athas_orm]

Okay I'll take a look. Thanks.