Help ! Need tips for shooting the parks in that bright, Florida sun

[jcvalenti]

I've been shooting with my 5D for less than a year, and still have basically no clue what I'm doing (though I'm having a blast learning).

I noticed with some of the shots I've taken in the last year in sunny locales (Napa Valley, a summer carnival, etc) that the colors in my pictures often seem very washed out and "desaturated", often blending skin into bright, backlit backgrounds.

What are some of the best tips for taking vibrant snaps in overpowering sun ? What modes do you use, what ISO, do you check histograms after the shots, do you fire continuously or single shot, do you alter the exposure settings, do you use auto whitebalance or sunny settings, etc.

In 8 days, I'll be in the Magic Kingdom snapping away like a mad fool at noon in the hot Florida sun, and I want to make sure I get the best possible snaps. And since my 2 year old doesn't sit still for long, I need to be on my game on the first shots.

 

[Roger]

I take it that you haven't accidentally moved the exposure dial in the back when the switch is to on-unlock? It's easy to do with a Canon. Do you have examples? In high contrast large tonal range scenes you will always have to compromise something unless you are doing HDR, which is basically not going to happen with a 2 year old!

I also noticed that Canon's exposure meter isn't as smart as it should be at times; perhaps use center-weighted metering for the important scenes and then adjust exposure on the fly? or use lots of fill-flash?

 

[Tim]

outside during the day, i use aperture priority and iso 50-400 depending on the situation. use the exposure comp to make fine adjustments and be sure to meter off midtones.

 

[Scottwdw]

I read this in a book and recently did this at midday at a nearby beach, use a circular polarizer when the sun is directly overhead. The polarizer will eat up about 1 to 1 1/2 stops and bring out color in very bright sun. Of course, with digital, you can turn down your EV and work with White Balance settings. If you have time, I'd do some testing of each of the methods mentioned above or try out a polarizer.

Here's an example:

Taken at 1PM on a sunny day on a beach at 1/80s, f/11, ISO 200, +0.3 EV and polarizer.

 

[Tim]

of course, you must remember that a CP will only polarize at 90 degrees to the sun otherwise its just an expensive ND filter.

 

[Scottwdw]

of course, you must remember that a CP will only polarize at 90 degrees to the sun otherwise its just an expensive ND filter.

Yep, but another tool for combating midday sun. I'm not very sure how practical a CP would be at WDW, however, I intend to have one on a 50mm on my next trip to put on when I see a good opportunity to use it.

In these days of digital where cameras have programming for D-Lighting and White Balance settings, not sure how useful a CP is anymore but I found it very easy to use and got good results.

 

[Tim]

its great for popping colors or making clouds jump out or reducing glare on water so you can see the fish but i find them to be annoying to use when the lens hood in on... which is all the time at WDW since the sun is so strong and you never know who is going to bump into you.

 

[zackiedawg]

I generally use the lowest ISOs for the richest colors, make sure to get the white balance right (I like to manually white balance before shooting, several times a day), use smaller apertures, and don't be afraid to dial in -1/3 EV. Especially during the heat of the noon day, when everything is at peak brightness and no shadows, underexposing by as much as 1-stop will keep you from blowing highlights and still get plenty of shadow detail.

If using automatic metering, I'd go down to either a center weighted or a spot metering, rather than a multi-point - there's far too much contrast in a Florida daytime scene for a camera to get it right - force the camera to meter off the subject that matters the most.

I've used CPs and NDs at Disney - but have also shot plenty without them in mid-afternoon - they are not necessary to get properly metered scenes with good color. In general, I'd advise that when in doubt, underexpose...there's still plenty of shadow light and detail, and recovery in post would be fairly easy...but blowing highlights is far too easy in Florida sun.

 

[WillCAD]

I haven't had many problems shooting in the sunshine, even without any kind of polorizer.

I generally set my ISO to 100 or 200 and shoot in P mode. Of course, I use a petal hood to prevent glare, and I'm careful not to shoot directly into the sun, but aside from that I don't use any special precautions.

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