Taking pictures in bright sunlight – Daylight

Taking pictures in night or low light is difficult however it’s also tricky if you are taking pictures in bright light because it might not give the excellent color details you want. There are tricks that you can follow to avoid harsh colors in your pictures.

Few camera settings can be considered before taking pictures in sunny or bright day light. I would recommend forgetting the Auto picture mode for a while. Auto picture mode works great in most situations in day light however you should try using it only in emergency situations when you don’t have time for manual settings such as family snap shot etc.

Few important things are mentioned below

Less Shutter Speed

It will help less light to enter into shutter thus making the picture bit softer.

Small Aperture

Try using small Aperture value like F11 or F8 or test different smaller apertures to get desired results. If you are using higher aperture values like F4.0 or F2.8 that might make the subject foreground and background blur, use small aperture in day light specially when you want a big area to be focused. If the aperture value is higher more light will enter, it’s good for close-ups or people photography for making the background blur however for nature photography in daylight you should avoid it.

Low ISO

Most important factor to consider is setting low a ISO that will make excellent quality pictures. Mostly cameras have lowest ISO 100 or sometimes 80. Setting a higher ISO will result in grainy pictures even in day light.

White Balance

White balance also plays an important role while taking picture, mostly the auto white balance works great however it’s better to chose a relevant white balance option on your camera. For sunny day select sunny day or there might be a sign of a “sun” that reflects what white balance setting is this. In digital SLR cameras while taking pictures in RAW format, white balance can be adjusted later however if you are taking pictures with point and shoot digital camera then it’s better to consider correct white balance setting and get use to it.

Use a polarizing filter

if you can and have an option in your camera then you must try using a polarizing filter, it makes the picture and the sky softer.

Subject Facing the sun

If you are taking picture of a person or a subject then you can select a place where the sun is at your back and the subject is facing it otherwise you might get your subject really dark. Sometime using a flash in daylight help in this situation however when sunlight is available try using it instead of the artificial lights.

Avoid using LCD screen

Try to use viewfinder as it will clearly represent what will be the result of your picture, LCD becomes very dull or sometimes hard to see in sunlight so it will be a good idea to see the viewfinder.

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