Shooting In Bright Sunlight

[lmwalker]

I frequently find it difficult to arrange the schedule to provide the best times of the day for photography when traveling on family vacations. Which means I sometimes find myself only having the opportunity to shoot certain subjects in the middle of the day. Other than leaving the wife and kids at home, does anyone have any recommendations, tips or tricks for getting the best results in harsh mid-day sunlight. Let's say for example, shooting the Acropolis in Athens?

Filters, settings, post-processing techniques, etc.?

I have a Canon 5D, and I would typically carry a Canon EF 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 L IS USM as a walk around lens for this type of shooting.

Thanks in advace.
Mike

[ride_the_spiral]

First of all I'd use a circular polariser to "darken the sky, remove reflections from water, and make foliage appear less shiny. Colour saturation is also significantly enhanced."

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/polarizers.shtml

Secondly, Cokin graduated neutral density filters are great for darkening the sky and brightening the foreground. I'd use these if I was shooting a building like the acropolis. http://www.cokin.fr/ico15-A.html

Here is an photo I've taken where I found this system invaluable...



In this instance the clouds were very bright and would have otherwise been distracting and 'blown out'.

Thirdly you can try a technique, such as HDR (high dynamic range) which I use a lot in my landscape work. More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging and I have plenty of examples in my gallery.

Good luck

Tim

[lmwalker]

Tim,

Great information!

Thanks,
Mike

[andrys]

And that picture above is a beautiful illustration!