settings for bright sunlight

<p>Dear Mentors and photo experts!</p>

<p>I was just at my communities' parade, and it was HOT! It was so bright outside, and I tried desperately to shoot on manual but got so frustrated. I am not sure what exposure to use with extremely bright sunlight. I got a ton of shadows and blow outs. UGGGG!! I feel like I try so hard to understand exposure, but I fall short. I am very frustrated, and want to be a good photog, but I can't seem to grasp it. I thought I should use fill flash, but couldn't figure out how to change it on my sony A77. Some words of encouragement and help would be great. Thank you so much. Jolie</p>

<p>Try aperture priority, ISO 100, lens at f/8. Not much can be done about harsh shadows.</p>

<p>Rest assured Jolie, that the problem is not a lack of experience or knowledge on your part but rather the state of technology. The camera's sensor simply cannot record the entire range of values between a white shirt in bright sun and a black shirt in deep shadow.<br /><br />Under controlled circumstances you might choose to add light to the shadows or to shade the highlights but in your parade situation your options are limited. You might look for a place where the parade passes under the shadows of buildings or tall trees. You can narrow your vision to more closeup shots and learn the judicious use of fill flash.<br /><br />There are other options available and I'm sure some more experienced and talented photographers than I will be along to explain them to you.<br /><br />In the end, though, creative expression begins with learning the limitations of your chosen medium and, through experimentation, learning to exploit those limitations to best fulfill your artistic vision.</p>

<p>First of all, sunlight is exceptionally bright and your camera's flash is a wimp. What I am trying to say is, using your built-in flash as a fill-flash is nearly futile. Exceptions are portraits provided the subject is close. Anyway, a built-in camera flash is only good out to about 10 or 15 feet. Flash is better indoors because in most situations the light from the flash reflects off nearby walls and ceiling, outdoors no such boost.</p>

<p>That's being said, likely the auto metering system of your camera will trump your ability to manually set the camera. However, I applaud your desire to do-it-your-self. Mastering exposure is the keys to the kingdom.</p>

<p>OK, what you need is called the sunny 16 rule:<br>

First a digital cameras can be set by the user to most any sensible ISO. For film cameras we choose film based on it's ISO. ISO, an acronym for International Standards Organization. The ISO value tells us how sensitive the film or digital chip setting is. A high value is desirable when working under low light conditions. Now, lower values deliver best quality and are suitable for bright sun so please use 100 or 200 etc.</p>

<p>OK; its bright sun and you have set the ISO to 100. What next?<br>

We set the shutter speed using a unit that is a fraction of a second (a fast blink). <br>

Write the 100 ISO using a 1/ (one plus a slash) as a prefix. This becomes 1/100 of a second. If the ISO is 200 then the shutter is set to 1/200 sec. If your camera does not have a 1/100 of a second setting, then use one that is close such as 1/125. Slight variability away, will not matter.</p>

<p>Now set your camera's aperture at f/16 (the f/number). Thus the setting for bright light with 100 ISO is 1/100 sec. @ f/16.<br>

Recapping:<br>

ISO 100 --- use 1/100 sec. shutter speed.<br>

Set aperture to f/16<br>

If your subject is in motion you will need a faster shutter speed. Move the shutter to 1/200, this cuts the exposure time in half. Under exposure will result unless you compensate by opening up the camera aperture. The next larger f/stop as to light gathering is f/11. If you need a still faster shutter to freeze action, set your camera to 1/400 sec. Now you must open up the aperture to f/8.</p>

<p>If you follow this explanation, you will realize you need to study the relationship between shutter and aperture. This falls under the heading of photography 101. Look for a basic textbook --- read and study. </p>

<p>Curious why you would bother using manual control if you do not have a good understanding of how a camera works. Would have been a whole lot simpler to just leave the camera on Program and let it make the decisions. You pay a lot for the extensive automation in modern cameras, it might be an idea to use it. When you do indeed have a great knowledge of a camera's working, then there are some instances where manual control could or should be used. Keep it simple - let the camera do the work.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>While all of the above information is good, I think this is yet another good example of why a photo or two from the OP is important. All we can do is "guess" at your problem Jolie until we "see" a photo. Reading between her lines, though, I "think" Bob is on the right track. Somebody has misled her into believing FULL manual is the only way you can take great photographs...even if you don't understand exposure!</p>

<p>I would suggest you forget your idea that working in manual is the sophisticated professional way and use PAS modes, with emphasis on A mode. Have the camera set to under-expose by one stop to reduce highlight burn-out and get an editor with tone mapping. With time you will maybe learn when you need to work in manual but most of the time it is quite needless with modern equipment.</p>

<p>The short vesion of the Sunny f/16 Rule:<br />Set ISO at 400, shutter at 1/500, aperture at f/16. In bright sun, with sun over your shoulder and hitting the subject, anywhere from about an hour or two after sunrise to an hour or two behind, this will be the correct exposure that will work in 90 percent of situations.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>“I am not sure what exposure to use with extremely bright sunlight.”</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Just making sure you understand that -<br>

The “F/16 Rule” as explained above is for the SUBJECT being illuminated by the direct BRIGHT SUNLIGHT.</p>

<p>A sample image to discuss specifically would help, ever so much.</p>

<p>WW</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>I tried desperately to shoot on manual but got so frustrated.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Just curious, what <em>advantage</em> are you getting from shooting manual?</p>

<p>It's as Bob says. If you would start with P or Aperture preferred, <em>and observe what the camera is doing </em>[e.g., what shutter speed and what aperture for a given ISO], then you'll be in a better place to start taking over control of speed and aperture to give you more shadow detail, more depth of field, or <em>whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish</em>.</p>

<p>"Manual" is not a state of ritual purity, but a tool toward some desired end. If it isn't working, start with something that does work and work your way back to appropriate manual controls.</p>

<p>Where has this idea crept from, that manual exposure mode is some sort of magic route to getting good results? I've noticed a number of posts where people seem to think that manual mode is the place to be.<br>

What is needed is an understanding of how the different modes work, and in what situations they are appropriate. Aperture priority for controlling depth of field, shutter priority for controlling the depiction of movement, program mode when you are in a hurry and just need results. I use manual mode when using studio flash, or in difficult lighting situations where I'm trying to balance ambient with flash, for example in a dimly lit music venue.</p>

<p><<<<em>Curious why you would bother using manual control if you do not have a good understanding of how a camera works.</em>>>></p>

<p>I can only answer for myself remembering back to when I was a beginner and noting why I use manual exposure now. When I was a beginner, I used manual to learn the ins and outs and nuances of exposure. Now I do so to take advantage of the ins and outs and nuances of exposure. I still learn and experiment, but much has become second nature.</p>

<p>Yes, I flubbed some shots for a few years as I was learning, and still do now and then. It's been worth the relatively few losses to get some of the more difficult exposure shots I attempt and to use lighting and exposure flexibly and creatively.</p>

<p>It's not necessarily for everyone but I understand and applaud Jolie's desire.</p>

<p>One thing to keep in mind, Jolie, is that it's easier to lighten up shadows in post processing than to recover blown highlights, so yield more emphasis to getting your highlights, in most cases. There are some cases where a couple of blown highlights can be expressive, so there are no universal rules.</p>

<p>Bright sun with strong shadows can be tough, so don't despair. Something to consider is what you're going for. If faces are important, figure out the light the faces are in and maximize that zone of lighting. If overall composition is more important, use a balanced approach, again yielding a little more weight to the highlights so you don't completely blow them. Good advice above in utilizing buildings and trees for more consistent lightly-shaded lighting, but don't avoid the drama of strong sunlight . . . embrace it and experiment with ways to be creative. </p>

<p>When I started everything was 'manual' and I remember when I obtained my first AE camera ... that was just AE and everything else was manual ... the wonderful feeling of liberation to concentrate on the subject matter instead of the technicalities of taking the photo. That was a long time ago and now with digital I revell in having a camera that does most of the thinking for me and SO WELL with most of the time my just setting the aperture ... usually not for the subject matter but to maintain the 'sweet spot' of the lens.<br>

That is not to say you should not learn about what you can do in 'manual' <strong>and the situations were it is needed</strong> ... that is the skill you need, not just using M mode.<br>

There is a world of difference between the measured approach of studio work with everything under your control and the hurly burly of street situations.</p>

<p><<<<em>There is a world of difference between the measured approach of studio work with everything under your control and the hurly burly of street situations.</em>>>></p>

<p>There definitely is. I'm not recommending it for anybody who doesn't want to shoot manually. I'm one who believes that whatever works for you, works for you. No two photographers need to employ the same methods or square to a standard. But I do know many street photographers who only shoot manually. And I shoot on the street a fair amount, though I don't consider myself a "street photographer" per se and still use and prefer manual exposure most of the time. I've learned to anticipate, judge lighting when I turn onto a particular street, often preset manually to meet my needs so I'm ready. I can manually adjust in a flash when I'm in the zone. I find I like the flexibility but, as I say, to each his or her own. I was just offering Jolie and others who asked some reasons why I shoot manually and did so from the beginning even when a camera was pretty unfamiliar to me, certainly not trying to convince anyone it's better or they should do it that way.</p>

<p>It came to me on another thread today that the best advice to Jolie and others at her stage is to trust your camera until you have practiced on non important things when and how to over-ride the camera. This way with a sensible adjustment of her EV to say minus one stop she would avoid undue burning out of highlights, and my second original suggestion was to employ tone mapping to reveal detail in the shadow areas of high contrast subjects. You can mention the danger of noise in lifted shadows that people go on about but I have never noticed in practice. Could be as an ex-film photographer noise/grain has to be serious to be noticed, as when I shot at 6400 ISO recently :-)<br>

A third would be to get past the stage of judging things as they come out of the camera but rather after post processing, and practicing ones editing with a good editor so PP can be a meanful tool and process in ones work.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>You can mention the danger of noise in lifted shadows that people go on about but I have never noticed in practice.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You shouldn't get any noise in shadows shooting at low ISO in broad daylight exposing for highlights. Camera's need photons or else their electronics fill in the rest with noise and you can't find more photons than sunny outdoors. </p>

<p>I just tried out the excellent two recommendations suggested by Craig's "Sunny 16" settings of ISO 400, 1/500 (mine had to be 1/400), f/16 and JC Uknz minus 1 stop EV on Program/Auto mode, pointed at noon sunlit scene of shaded trees, pastel brick wall, blue sky and white billowy clouds and each put cloud highlights right around 1/4 off the right side of the histogram. The image was somewhat dark with shadows looking black but lightening the image on my computer brought out plenty of sharp, clear, noiseless shadow detail. </p>

<p>I think JC's method works best because it maintained constant overall exposure pointing the camera in lighter mids compared to shaded portions. A constant Sunny 16 made dominantly shaded scenes seem too dark even though they lightened just fine in post.</p>

<p><<<<em>It came to me on another thread today that the best advice to Jolie and others at her stage is to trust your camera until you have practiced on non important things when and how to over-ride the camera.</em>>>></p>

<p>This is one person's advice, JC's. It is NOT the best advice. The best advice is the advice that Jolie or someone else feels in their gut is the right advice FOR THEM to follow . . . with the caveat that Jolie's and anyone else's mind may be open to changing once whatever advice seems best is tried, should it not be working for them. Depending on a camera to make my decisions for me was never my way to go about things, and was not what I was advised to do by long-term successful and artistic photographers when I began. Having said that, I'm sure many people have learned well using JC's method and I can assure you many people learned very well by doing things manually from the get go.</p>

<p><em>Best</em> is completely subjective here.</p>

<p>Early on in my digital experience I read that article "exposing to the right" [ of your histogram] but since I don't think I had one of those in the camera of that time, the logical solution was to first deliberately under-expose by one stop and watch for 'blinkies'. If there were too many of those, in places were I wanted detail, then I resorted to manual overide of what A mode was giving me. It is I guess a rough and ready approach by somebody who used manual so much I love the camera doing it for me. And definitely not what somebody doing precise 'commercial' work should adopt but for coverage of a public event as the OP was engaged in I think a very suitable approach.<br>

Very recently I have discovered tone mapping which from the little I have used it at very moderate strengths seems to solve the the dark shadow problem though needs some subsequent curves adjustment. The algorithims are completely beyond my understanding but the results seem to be useful in contrasty situations where one want to somehow expand the range of tones ... or rather compress what you got into what the monitor will display.</p>

<p>I remember when I was just as confused as Jolie, but once I understood that all three settings, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed share one thing in common: changing the light level, things started making more sense.</p>

<p>I invariably begin with the ISO, since that is the easiest decision to make. I'll usually just keep it low as possible because low ISO avoids a grainy picture.</p>

<p>Then I decide if I want some kind of depth of field effect. If I don't need something like that, then<br /> I think it's good practice to keep the aperture somewhere around f4-f8 or so, but f-22 in bright sunlight can work in your favor.</p>

<p>Lastly, I change the shutter speed. If anything, (even wind) is moving something, I need a higher speed. In my experience, faster shutter speeds also help to cut down on washed out highlights in skies.</p>

<p>And tone mapping software? Ugh. I don't think that is very good advice for someone trying to understand the manual mode of a camera. A technique called bracket and blend can help you repair or enhance some shots with unbalanced exposure, all without the need for stinky tone mapping software. (requires multiple shots though)</p>

<p>Modern camera exposure systems are wonderful. They will give you a good exposure about 90+- percent of the time. But the other 10% may present problems because of strong back lighting, high contrast, dark back grounds, or extremely bright (snow) or dark (night) scenes. To use manual control (and exposure compensation) effectively you need to understand how camera metering systems work. Basically, any metering system will produce a good exposure of a scene that is of "average" reflectance. What's average? That means the scene is reflecting on the average 18% of the light falling on it. If the scene deviates from that, or there are extremely bright or dark areas in the scene, automatic exposure systems may have a problem with under exposure or blown highlights. That's why there is an exposure compensation control on advanced cameras. </p>

<p>There are many tutorials on the web for learning how exposure works. Googling "digital camera exposure" will produce numerous web sites that explain how it works.</p>

<p>I use manual most of the time because I mainly photograph things that don't move, so I usually have time to spot meter the scene carefully. However, in a situation of fast action and wildly changing light (bright sun to deep shade), Program, Aperture, or Shutter priority will be much easier to handle.</p>

<p>Here's another thought. If you're really befuddled as to what exposure to use, set your camera to burst mode (continuous shooting) and set auto exposure bracketing to +1 and -2 stops. Then rip off three quick shots of each scene, then later pick the best one. Jay Maisel uses this technique.</p>

 

Hey guys!

 

So i dont want to stir anything but im a newby myself and taking it super serious like im loving photography more

everyday. As a read books, magazines, forums and every photo realated thing that i can find to make my hunger to learn

bigger i ve found that mostly everyone tells me to shoot and learn manual mode from the go. And i got my camera a

month ago and havent shoot but in manual.

 

Now i read this thread and Im hearing a lot of let your camera do it for you instead of the other way around. ;( im confused

right now but willing to learn everyday. Can someone please point me to the right way of making this passion of mine

bigger :)

 

Thanks and sry if misspell something not my native language :)

PS: i find myself in the same position as Jolie here... Very confused :)

<p>From my point of view, all serious photographers should learn the ins and outs of manual camera control. This method provides a great learning experience. Master manual camera control and you will have gained an understanding of the relationship of lens aperture and shutter speed and ISO etc.</p>

<p>Now I draw the line when it comes to demanding that a newbie shoot only in manual mode. I think this is a recipe for failure. It takes lots of reading, instruction, and self-motivation to master this stuff.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, camera technology moves ahead. Let's face it, a modern camera with it's software is hard to beat even by an experienced pro. What I am saying is, I believe you can achieve your goals staring in auto and then venturing into manual from time to time should photography become your passion.</p>

Thanks a lot!

 

When you say auto you mean auto auto or switch between A / S / P? I have a nikon... 3100. Im beggining a course this

august in wich they say they will guide me tru manual mode...

<p>Taino,<br>

Alan said it very well. I shoot canon equipment, so I'm going to assume your A is aperture priority, S is shutter priority and now I'm really guessing (consult your manual) P is program and if it is that's full auto. The camera will select all settings it thinks is correct for the scene. Most of the time it will do a very good job. A and S is for when you want to take a little more control of things. In A you select the F stop you want to use and the camera selects the correct shutter speed. In S you select the shutter speed and the camera selects the correct aperture. Think of them as semi auto if you will. 95% of the time "I use" aperture priority. Why? Because controlling what's in and or out of focus is what's most important for most of "MY" photographs. But I also know and understand why I need to use shutter priority for some photographs and go full manual for others. My honest opinion is, learn everything you can about light and exposure! There is a lot of info on the internet and here on photonet up on the "learning" tab at the top of this page. While you are learning about those two interconnected subject USE A, S and P and take note of what your camera selects and you'll be on your way to understanding why it selected those settings. When the time comes to over ride what the camera wants to do, you'll KNOW it and you'll know how to do it! </p>