Bad Light doesn’t have to mean bad images
If you are a travel photographer, you know that having quality images of your travels is important. However, getting great shots can be challenging because many times Mother Nature does not want to cooperate with our plans! Here are several tips for taking beautiful photos in less than ideal conditions.
I like to think of harsh light as a challenge. When you go out for scenic or landscape photography, it's easy to forget the sun rises earlier than most people would imagine during summer months so we have to get up a half past silly to get the blue hour. You can still make great photographs happen; this is when creativity comes into play! Use your skills and creativity when out in harsh light to transform traditional landscapes shots into those amazing images that you know you can make. Just remember to stay creative and you can make great images no matter what sort of circumstances are thrown against you!
Big Wilson Falls - Guilford, Maine
Switch to Black and White Images
You may even want to go as far as temporarily setting your camera to shoot in a B&W profile. This will help you to see shadows, patterns or interesting texture. Of course you are shooting in Raw as well and have the color file, but I have found that going to B&W can save an image with a great subject and composition, but crappy light. Try this simple experiment: Go out this weekend to your local town square or other place of interest. Change the camera to shoot in both raw and jpg. Set the profile to B&W. Also mix up the aspect ratio. This will help you visualize the final image. If at the end of the day, the image looks better in color or a different aspect ratio, you still have the raw file.
Egg Rock Lighthouse, Bar Harbor Maine
Crop or Zoom Your Image
By bringing a 70-200, or in my case a 100-400 zoom, I can walk around and isolate specific elements. A subject may not look good surrounded by poorly lit foregrounds and backgrounds, but if you can isolate it? Of course, you can always crop in post-production, but you risk getting the exposure wrong and you lose the ability to measure the histogram for your subject. You (or better yet, your customer) also may just want a wall-size print later so always try to fill that sensor with your subject. If you don’t have your zoom, don’t forget that you can usually zoom with your feet! Any focal length from 35MM-85MM will work by simply moving closer.
Coney Island, NY
Get Really Close with a Macro
You can’t control the light for a big sweeping landscape, but you can control the light for a macro shot. Try this - next time you go out in harsh light bring a macro lens or just some cheap extension tubes and a 5 in 1 small reflector. If you pull off the cover, you have a nice light diffuser. Look around for interesting macro subjects. It could be slugs, bugs, rusty chains, even that gross black gum stuck on every sidewalk in every city. Just find something different. It may take some practice to hold the reflector and compose the shot, especially with a macro lens where depth of field is so critical, but take lots of shots, dare I say “spray and pray”. You will be amazed at what you come up with.
You will take great landscape and travel images with or without the right light, but taking a few minutes to think outside of your comfort zone can lead you to more fantastic, and sellable photos. All that time spent on traveling is worth it if you end up doing something different than what's expected anyway!
Marshall Point Lighthouse - It almost never looks like this!