How many times have you gone out exultant with energy on a wonderful sunny day, camera in hand, determined to photograph everything around you, thinking that you could not find a better day, with a bluer sky and a brighter sun above? … and has it been the day that you have gotten the worst images?
Yes, very frustrating, with how pleasant it is to walk under the radiant sun, especially in winter, making us feel spring… Well, the truth is that the more sun, the higher it is in the sky, the harder the light it projects , the more contrast you will have between lights and shadows and as a photographer, you are presented with one of the most difficult scenes to photograph: those with high contrast. If you want to delve into lighting in photography, we have this mega guide with everything you need to know, so you always have it at hand. Now yes, we can continue talking about the contrast.
What is contrast?
Although there are many types of contrast, color contrast, form contrast, even meaning contrast, today we refer to the difference between the lights zone Y the shadow zone in an image.
We say that an image has a lot of contrast, when the difference between lights and shadows is high, that is, we have hard lights and shadows in the same image. On the other hand, a low-contrast image is one where there is little difference between light and shadow, either because the dominant colors do not contrast, or because the light is more smooth.
How do I resolve a high contrast scene?
Not all high-contrast scenes mean that you are going to have a bad day photographically 😉 Like everything else, it is a matter of taking advantage of both your equipment, the stage, and, above all, your good photographic eye.
Accept the limitations of the camera
Photography is so visual that it is very difficult to avoid what we perceive through our eyes. That is why it is difficult for us to learn to “see in black and white” or to be aware of the situations that our gaze reaches but our team is unable to reach (although with this mega guide that we have for you on black and white photography there will be no image that resists you).
For example, the human eye has a Dynamic range (the ability to obtain detail in lights and shadows) much greater than that of any photographic equipment.
That is, what for us is an easily understandable scene, for a camera with a much smaller dynamic range, usually means areas burned or underexposed since it is not able to correctly reach both ends. Often we have to give up one of the extremes to focus on the other; what we call “sacrificing” the lights or the shadows.
To give you an idea, the approximate dynamic range of a camera is 7 stops between highlights and shadows. That is the interval in which it will be able to offer you detailed and correct information of the scene.
Forget the automatic…
…And of the pre-programmed versions of the camera (type the symbol of the sun or beach, etc.). In these types of scenes, the camera is not going to make good decisions, and nobody better than you to take over 😉
It is best to set it to Handbook and that you make the appropriate measurements and tests trying to obtain the greatest possible dynamic range or information within the scene.
where to measure
Obviously it will depend on the results you want to obtain, but the generic way of doing the measurement to obtain the more information tonal is in the brightest part of the image.
The measurement mode most recommended is punctualsince this way you will be sure to obtain the light information of the place that you indicate and not an average that your camera can make.
How to expose
Once you have measured in the clearest area of the image, you must expose so that the area you have chosen is located in the outermost area of the lights but without becoming overexposed.
In other words, looking at a histogram, that area of lights should be located to the right of it, but without going out, since in this case it would mean that you are losing information and, therefore, you are not getting the greatest dynamic range. possible from the image.
Shoot in RAW
If the RAW is usually recommended on countless occasions, this could not be less. Since we are talking about trying to preserve as much light and shadow information as possible, you may have heard that RAW files are those that preserve more information. This is going to be very useful in situations of difficult light since, although it will not save a badly exposed image, it can help you a lot to finish improving the lights and shadows in post-processing.
check the histogram
The histogram should be one of your great photographic allies. In situations where the light is difficult, such as high contrast, the ideal is that you check the histogram after taking a test photograph and through it, make the corresponding exposure adjustments until you get the best result.
Some “classics” of high contrast
- sunny noons: Overhead light, hard, shadows and lights everywhere, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about 😉
- Snow getaway: Snow white is a great setting that will drive your light meter crazy, so pay attention to your histogram and don’t be fooled. Normally it will force you to overexpose a couple of points.
- …Or to the beach: Although it always depends on the type of day (cloudy or sunny) or the time of day (you know that sunrise is not the same as the sun at 3pm), sand reflects light in a similar way to snow, so which can easily require you to overexpose a bit.
Essential material
Or at least you’ll be grateful to have it on hand 😉
Parasol
You already know it, if you want to avoid unwanted light entering your optics such as flares or other reflections, don’t forget the sun visor at home.
Flash
A good way to combat high contrast scenes is flash. If you’re shooting portraits in bright sunlight, it will remove unwanted shadows, and allow you to play with the exposure of the background (eg darkening the scene if it’s too bright or vice versa).
gradient filter
It is widely used in scenery to compensate for example the passage of clear skies to darker areas. This filter is divided into two halves; one that subtracts light progressively or gradually towards the other half that maintains the original light since it is completely transparent.
a gray card
They are very cheap and effective in helping you measure the light of complicated scenes. It’s basically a colored surface neutral graywhich allows you to measure on it to achieve a correct exposure (neither bright, white surfaces nor surfaces that are too dark will fool your light meter like this).
the HDR
The HDR allows through the taking of several exhibitions of an image, get all the light and shadow information. The usual system is usually to take a photograph underexposing a point, another exposing “correctly” and the other overexposing a point (although it could be done in several ways).
Through the union of the different exposures, we will be able to obtain an image with “the sum” of all the information of lights and shadows collected.
Here is a blog article on how to make an HDR easily and step by step through a user friendly program. If you decide to create an HDR on your own with Photoshop, don’t forget the tripod, to have exactly the same framing in all the shots.
Join the “enemy”
Not everything is going to be the need to dodge or run away from contrast or challenging lights. Hard lights, shadows, silhouettes, contrast… Everything is an effect of these types of lights that can give you great images, here are some examples:
- Backlights: If you don’t know how to unleash your imagination with backlighting, take a look at this article 😉 .
- Shades: You can see a complete article on how to photograph shadows here.
- High key photography: And one more here about high and low key photography, not to mention that this blog doesn’t have everything 😉
And as we always say, the important thing is to practiceespecially when the environment presents us with challenges, which is almost always (luckily). That environment that challenges us and motivates us to improve ourselves and be better. It doesn’t matter if you need 20 photos of the same thing to get your perfect image. It doesn’t matter if it takes 2 hours or 2 days or 2 months to understand a concept. Don’t think you’re the only one ;-), the important thing is to learn, at the pace that we feel comfortable with, that overwhelms us and above all, that it doesn’t bore us. The more you practice, the more you will solve until there is no light or concept that can resist you.
So cheers and you know, if you liked it, it was useful to you and you think someone else might be interested in taking a look at this article, please share it 🙂 (Facebook, Google+, Twitter) And as always, thank you very much 🙂