Photographing in Harsh, Bright Light

Putting my eye to the viewfinder and composing the image I wished to take, I snapped the picture and smiled. Got it,I thought to myself. The children laughed and I loved how the extremely bright sun bounced off the cement bringing the light back into their faces. Many would rather not photograph in such direct bright light...but I have learned to love it. It's crazy because I often get requests from my family to photograph in such bright conditions and I used to get annoyed because they wouldn't understand I would rather pull my camera out 2 hours before sunset. By then, they were in no mood to be photogenic. So I finally gave in and decided to work with such harsh light. I found myself playing with the light and learning to control what came in through the camera's sensor...

 

That's my bunny. Yes she used to be called "the boi" ( I thought she was a boy) so if you think she looks familiar (I blog about this furball alot too)...well that's her.  Anyways back to the topic. ;)

This picture was taken in harsh lighting. Don't believe it? The sun is directly behind me, hitting the deck. It caused the light to bounce onto her (see the brown highlights just a bit on her fur?) and highlight her furry features.  It brings the detail out on her whiskers and shape of her head. When I saw, what I could do with bounced light and natural reflectors I pretty much felt like I found a key to harsh lighting.

Picture 1 SOOC

 

These are my lovely friends, Christina and Jenn. :) They were so nice to let me have a photoshoot with them. We went on this day, practically in the middle of the day to a park...I was a bit worried about how the shots might turn out but I finally concluded, I would rather have tons of light than no light at all.

Picture 2 Processed

The first above picture is SOOC (straight out of camera)...this one here I edited and I was able to bring some light back into the picture. In Picture 1, my camera's sensor darkened their facial features a bit but not too much because thankfully, I counted on the sand they were standing on to bounce the light back up. And it did. However, I did have to bring some more light (you can't do everything in camera...but I try to) so in Photoshop Elements, I adjusted the levels, brought the details back and adjusted the saturation so the color wasn't lost. Obviously, I cropped it because I found the dark line in the horizon a bit distracting.

So here is my two cents in photographing in bright light. Am I still learning? Yes. I don't claim this is the way to go when it comes to photographing in this kind of light. It is what works for me but I know there are better ways...like I said, I'm still learning. I hope this helped. It's been awhile since I actually anything photography...Have a blessed day!