The golden hour is probably the time when most of us would choose to take photos. But, there will be times when you’ll be forced to shoot in a harsh midday sun, for one reason or the other. You can bring reflectors, strobes, or try to find or make a shade. But in this video, Manny Ortiz will give you some quick tips on how to embrace the direct sunlight and turn it into your advantage without any gear but your camera and lens.
Four ways to make the best of direct sunlight in your portraits
Even though harsh midday sun is far from an ideal lighting situation, sometimes you’ll have no other choice. In this video, Jay P. Morgan shows you four ways to make the best of that direct sunlight and turn it into your advantage. He demonstrates three setups that only use the sunlight, and the fourth one adds a strobe to the equation. But in all cases, you’ll end up with great portraits even in the otherwise unflattering direct sunlight.
This is how to “photograph” with the sunlight by scorching wood
I have been interested in building a device that would record the intensity of the light from our sun for a while. This past month, a colleague of mine brought to my attention a simple way to do this. Professor Michael Peres was working at his desk on a Sunny day in January with the sun low in the sky; He started to smell something burning. After hunting around his office, he discovered the sun was imaged by one of the large decorative lenses on his window. The sun had been focused onto the wooden side of his wooden desk. When he showed the burn marks to me it was obvious the desk had been smoldering for several months. The pattern burnt into the side of the desk was a record of the intensity and path of the sun.
5 tips for shooting portraits in harsh midday sun
The midday sun isn’t really photographers’ favorite time to shoot portraits. But, sometimes you’ll be forced to do it, for one reason or another. Photographer Kayleigh June says a lot of her portrait shoots take place at this time of day. So, she shares five helpful tips to make the best out of the unfriendly midday sun.
These are NASA’s mind-blowing photos of 2017 solar eclipse
The solar eclipse is over, but the hype isn’t. As a matter of fact, some of us living far from North America are even more hyped after the eclipse – because now we get to see the photos. And where can you find lots of awesome photos of space? In NASA’s image library, of course. They have published the images of the 2017 solar eclipse right after the event, and as you can expect – they are simply stunning.
How to melt your camera sensor shooting the eclipse
You know how a tiny, toy magnifying glass can burn little pieces of paper? Well, the camera lens is a not a small, toy, magnifying glass by no means, it is a powerful well-polished tool of optics and using it in the wrong way – say to photograph the sun during an eclipse – can be devastating to the camera sensor.
The team at Everything Photography did a little experiment and showed what an unfiltered six seconds exposure would do to your sensor. TL;DR – it fries te sensor.
NASA to chase the eclipse with jets to capture “clearest images of the corona to date”
Well, it looks like the best view of this year’s eclipse on August 21st is going to go to NASA. They recently announced that they’ll be chasing it with WB-57F jets. For most of us here on planet earth, the eclipse will last around two and a half minutes in total. You can see here how to capture it from the ground. For the NASA scientists aboard the jets, though, it will last over seven minutes.
They’ll be following the shadow of the moon as it moves across the USA. Observing with twin telescopes mounted to the nose of the jets. Their aim is to capture the clearest images yet of the Sun’s corona. But that’s not all they’re looking for. They’ll be recording the first ever thermal images of the planet Mercury, too.
This Moon Terminator Illusion explains why light can appear to bend the wrong way
And no, the Moon Terminator is nothing to do with Arnold. The “terminator” in this case is the line between the lit and dark sides of the moon. During those times when the moon and the sun are in the sky together, there’s something odd about it. The line defining the lit side of the moon doesn’t line up with the sun, the thing that’s lighting it.
This video from YouTuber Vsauce attempts to explain the phenomenon of the Moon Terminator illusion. A camera is used to explain some of the various principles involved. It’s well worth watching, as it also goes some way towards also explaining some of the issues photographers hit regularly. Understanding the causes of them can help us to resolve them.
How to shoot amazing portraits in midday sun with only one light
Harsh and bright midday sun is definitely not the ideal time of day for portrait shots. However, you can even out the light and avoid the unflattering shadows using only one light. In his latest video, Manny Ortiz shares a quick tutorial how to do it and make stunning portraits even in the bright sunlight.
The new Godox AD200 flash takes on the bright Texas sun and wins
The Godox AD200 is the newest flash in the Godox line up. Around the world it’s sold under various brands. In the USA it’s the Adorama eVOLV 200. Here in the UK it’s the Pixapro Pika 200. Whatever it’s called, it’s been getting a lot of attention since it was initially announced. Last month we showed you Robert Hall’s quick hands on review.
Now, they’re out in the wild, shipping and being delivered as I type. One photographer who’s got his hands on one is our friend Francisco Hernandez. Francisco lives in South Texas, where the sun’s often brighter than average. As a consequence, he’s a big fan of high speed sync. So, he put the Adorama eVOLV 200 against the bright Texas sun to see just how well it performed.
