 Donna Rowley |
How do I shoot into the sun? Hi Everyone, I shoot equestrian events (as might be obvious from my gallery!!) and am entirely self-taught. But I've only had a camera for a little while so have heaps to learn! Basically at some of these events I have no option but to shoot with the midday sun behind the rider. I usually set my camera to Shutter Priority, 1/400 to freeze the action. This gives me a good depth of field too so everything is in focus. I try to keep the ISO to 100 or 200. When I set up like this (for shooting into the sun) the sky completely whites-out and light areas on the horse/rider disappear too. How do I keep shots in focus and avoid whiting out everything? I don't know what to do to avoid this! I use a 400D (think it's called a Rebel in the US), 70-200mm IS f2.8 canon lens, hand held. Thanks in advance for your advice!!
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Bob Cammarata |
A washed-out sky will almost always occur when shooting toward the sun. Your in-camera meter will read the light falling on your subject and the brighter background (..the sky) will over-expose. Can you change position to shoot with the sun behind you?
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- Usman M. Bajwa Contact Usman M. Bajwa Usman M. Bajwa's Gallery |
Good suggestions by Bob. However, if you are not able to change your position or get to higher grounds, I guess the only option left is to change the sky afterwards using some post processing softwares like Photoshop, Elements, Corel, etc. Hope this helps. Usman.
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- Dennis Flanagan Contact Dennis Flanagan Dennis Flanagan's Gallery |
If the sun is hitting your lens, you get lens flare. That said, a good lens hood is important. And as Bob said, try to find angles you can shoot don't require straight into the sun. If you can't put the sun at your back, can you at least position yourself so the sun in front of you is at an angle? A coupld other suggestions is to set your camera to overexpose by a stop so the shadows come out better. And another is to zoom in close to the riders to eliminate the bright background.
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Donna Rowley |
Hi Everyone, thanks so much for taking the time to help me out here! I often have no choice where I stand so moving isn't an option. I use the lens hood that comes with my lens so hope that's adequate - wouldn't want ot have to try another one! I guess I'm going to have to learn how to photoshop better or figure out some place better to stand (without being trampled to death!). I'll try to adjust the exposure settings too. Fingers crossed!
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