Advice for when shooting in direct sunlight

I know that the best time for outdoor shooting is during the "magic hours". However, more often than not I find myself shooting for one thing or another during the middle of the day when the sun is at its worst. I seem to have a lot of trouble getting my exposures right. More often than not they're either too bright or too dark. I understand a little about light metering and often try to meter off the bright sections Unfortunately I still find myself correcting my mistakes in post.

Is there any advice or tricks I can learn to get better exposures?

If your camera can be set to exposure bracketing, that may work.
Check out your manual for exposure bracketing.

Learn to read your camera's histogram. It can help you see if the photo is under or over exposed.

www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm

The meter tells you the exposure settings to make whatever you are pointed at middle gray tone. If you point the meter at something bright, the settings it gives you would result in the subject being darker.

There are ways to improve you photos...mainly by controlling light. For example, if there is bright sunlight, you can use a reflector to bounce some light back onto the shadow side of your subject. The closer the reflector, the brighter the reflected light will be.

Another thing you can do, is use flash to help fill in the shadows.
Whether you're using reflected light or flash, the key is that you are adding light to the shadows on your subject, thus hopefully bringing all of them into your dynamic range.

Pa2tr7 wrote: If your camera can be set to exposure bracketing, that may work.
Check out your manual for exposure bracketing.

I meant to check the manual to see if it does bracketing, because I've wanted to try HDR.

Henry Peach wrote: Learn to read your camera's histogram. It can help you see if the photo is under or over exposed.

www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm

The meter tells you the exposure settings to make whatever you are pointed at middle gray tone. If you point the meter at something bright, the settings it gives you would result in the subject being darker.

Yea I know the histogram is there, but I completely ignore it. lol. I guess I shouldn't.

Kris4pics wrote: There are ways to improve you photos...mainly by controlling light. For example, if there is bright sunlight, you can use a reflector to bounce some light back onto the shadow side of your subject. The closer the reflector, the brighter the reflected light will be.

Another thing you can do, is use flash to help fill in the shadows.
Whether you're using reflected light or flash, the key is that you are adding light to the shadows on your subject, thus hopefully bringing all of them into your dynamic range.

I understand about filling in the shadows, but wouldn't adding more light over expose the areas that is full of sun?

The fill light you end up using will even the overall light.

Kris4pics wrote: The fill light you end up using will even the overall light.

And the fill flash will tend to illuminate the closer areas (more likely to be dark).
There are several ideas of the Articles section of PT.

Baydream wrote:

Kris4pics wrote: The fill light you end up using will even the overall light.

And the fill flash will tend to illuminate the closer areas (more likely to be dark).
There are several ideas of the Articles section of PT.

Thanks. I'll check out those articles.

You can also get panels to soften the light, basically turning the sun into a giant softbox. I've even seen a video where one photographer used a white sheet to do the same thing! I think there are videos for both of those posted somewhere on PT. Of course that's not always possible. But it can work in some situations.

If you're worried about overexposure, you can expose for the background and then use lighting for your model/subject.

Kr15t wrote: I understand about filling in the shadows, but wouldn't adding more light over expose the areas that is full of sun?

The sun is usually still so bright that the light you add to the bright part isn't significant. Particularly if only using a speedlight or reflector.

Exposure is logarithmic.

Henry Peach wrote: Learn to read your camera's histogram. It can help you see if the photo is under or over exposed.

www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm

The meter tells you the exposure settings to make whatever you are pointed at middle gray tone. If you point the meter at something bright, the settings it gives you would result in the subject being darker.

Good tips

I was sifting through my archives the other day after someone was talking about the golden hour. I think I've more good shots outside the hour than in. I think you just grab what looks good for you at the time.

Shooting into the sun:

Bracket. Then bracket more. You can get into a lot of theory about correct exposure and stuff but honestly, the right exposure right whether you've guessed it or based it on the theroy. Shoot right across the range, 2-3 stops either side and you've got everything you want, make your final decisions in post where you've got time to think about it properly. And hold the camera steady so you can use bits from different exposures in the final shot.

Shoot 16 bit RAW. The luminance range direct into sun is way too great for 8 bit and you're going to need to pull shadows and drop highlights.

This shot : Direct into sun, single shot (no comp) 16 bit RAW, picked out of 8 shots bracketed 3 stops either side of the meter ( spot meter reading taken from the rocks in the foreground). I'd have liked to get a bit more detail in the shadows of the cliffs over on the far side of the bay but not so much I could be bothered to grab it from another shot. The sun's just out of shot, I tried a few with it in shot but it blows too much.