When you have kids, life changes. You expect this, of course, but you may still be surprised at just how much. You wouldn’t want life to be any other way, but the things that make up your life have to make room for all of the new things you have to do and the times you have to do them. For me, this has meant that I am rarely outside at either end of the day. Outings and playtimes with my kids are usually in the middle of the day, while mornings are for breakfasts and for getting ready, and evenings are for bedtimes.
This fairly simple change has had a significant effect on my photography. Mornings and afternoons have lovely, soft light and long shadows, with colours and gentle contrasts abundantly available for the photographer’s palette. Midday, and especially midday in Australia in the warmer months, is hotly and blindingly bright. Shadows are unforgiving and the heat of the sun makes careful composition uncomfortable. I am taking fewer photos in pleasant light, and I am often rushing the composition (or just rushing to keep up with my kids). So I have a few observations that are helping me think through how to take photos at midday in Australia.
Light
There’s a lot of light at midday. Urban settings with concrete or stone can look white hot, but any scene in full sun will be really bright. A sandy beach or the yellow-green grass at a park can be an intense light source in a scene that we might unconsciously filter out when looking at the details and framing the picture. The abundant light means that, if you’re using the Sunny 16 rule to gauge exposure with a manual camera, you might have capacity to push the rule one step further, either by setting aperture to f/22 or setting shutter speed one stop faster.
(Full disclosure: I haven’t measured this rigorously, but I get the vibe when metering with my Canon FT QL that there’s more light than the Sunny 16 “rule” usually suggests. It’s really more of a guideline anyway, right?)
Shadow
Because there is so much light, there are strong shadows. Using the shadow as a shape within your image can work well. This can be challenging for me, because the eye can see so much more in the shadows than film can, and I automatically try to get those things in the shot. I need to learn to abstract it out and use the shadow itself as part of the subject, rather than what the shadow hides.
Clouds
It’s sunny a lot of the time in Australia, but not all of the time. Cloudy weather reduces the intensity of the midday daylight somewhat, and even light cloud cover can reduce the contrast between the light areas and the shadows in a scene. This can make exposure a bit easier. And for the times when I’m focused on the detail in the darker areas instead of the shadow itself, I’m actually chasing a lower contrast image. It’s not always possible or feasible to wait for the clouds to roll in to improve a shot, so this is more about just taking any opportunity. Don’t wait for the sunny days, because there are good photos to be taken on the cloudy days too.
Do you have any thoughts on getting exposure right in the bright midday sun? Drop a comment and let me know what you have found.
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