Actually this situation right now is kind of funny and indicative. Currently I‘m on a multi-day photography trip in Austria‘s easternmost national park. To deliver this article in time, I have to work on it during my stay here. Although I’m honored and excited to write an article for the Nature Photographers Network, I have to admit it‘s also a little tough, because I‘d rather like to explore and take pictures in the national park right now. A few years back, it would have been quite easy for me, because it‘s around noon at the moment, the skies are clear, the sun is high up and the light is pretty harsh. I‘ve learned that it‘s much easier to create appealing images, when one avoids these kind of light conditions. So, right now, as I sit here, it‘s probably this time of the day, when most nature photographers take a nap or work on an article. But nowadays, I can hardly find some time to rest, because I got also very attracted by hard sun light and the mesmerizing sceneries and promising opportunities these conditions can offer.
I can still remember very well, when I started taking pictures. During my first few little adventures, the skies were always overcast and the sun wasn‘t shining. I complained about that, because I wished for „beautiful“ weather and „good“ conditions. It took me some time to realize, that harsh sun makes the creation of proper photographs much harder. But, as I mentioned, today, I see things different once more. And, beside the facts, that there‘s hardly any „bad“ or „good“ weather, climate change should have taught us to embrace rain and I‘m very grateful, that nature photography taught me to appreciate all kinds of conditions, I‘m also eager to shoot around midday under sunny skies.
In my opinion, taking decent images in hard light is way more challenging, as it is on cloudy days and in soft light, and basically I return with just a very few images but it can definitely pay off. Actually I think, the results can be much more exciting and mesmerizing and beside that such photographs are rarer and can be quite surprising.
When ever it makes sense to me and it’s possible, I prefer shooting towards the light instead of having the sun behind me. And mostly, I also follow this approach in midday light. Nevertheless, at least for me, when it comes to wide angle landscape photography, harsh light is not my first choice, especially when I look towards the sun. The magic of hard light often lies in pretty small, intimate sceneries. The harder the light gets, the smaller the scene in my frame gets. So, most of the time, I grab my macro or telephoto lens under these circumstances. But, of course, there are always exceptions, like photographing a sun star in the woods or a back-lit bird in its habitat, for example.
Very high dynamic range is often seen as an issue in photography and, of course, it can be indeed. But, the fact, that high contrasts can appear even higher in camera, than seen with the naked eye and the human ability to adapt to these conditions, may result in extraordinary photographs. To free oneself from the aspiration, that all parts of an image have to show textures and shall not be completely white or black, can be quite rewarding.
The big difference in brightness between the very bright and the very dark parts of such settings helps to visually separate them easily. Both parts may exist on the same object and close together, like on water surfaces for example, but they can also be apart and on different elements, like a sun-hit animal in front of a shady backdrop.
One very entertaining benefit of hard light also is, that it reflects on a wide range of different natural objects and surfaces. So the light can actually come from different directions. The main element, I’m personally looking for here, is water. It can be found rather easy out there and its different surface movements may also provide lots of different light situations and reflection patterns. As I already mentioned, mostly in pretty small areas. If you look at the entire surface of a lake at noon, it can be rather boring, but as soon as you start to take closer looks on the movement in narrow frames and the ways it changes with the winds, the waves and the position of yourself and the sun, you’ll discover mesmerizing textures every now and then.
But also a wide range of other surfaces my create lovely reflections. For example, leaves, insect wings, ice, wet rocks or wood and so on. And some of them can also break the light in different ways and colors. This may be water droplets, dragonfly wings, spider webs, dust particles or pollen on the water. And beside that, nature also offers numerous transparent structures, which can be brought to light when it pierces through. This might also be insect wings, feathers, leaves and more. Some of them are very transparent, like dragonfly wings, and some of them need pretty hard light to bring out all the hidden colors and patters, like bird wings or larger leaves. So, for example, if you’re going for an image, where you use some blurry foreground vegetation to cover up parts of the scene, bright light will also help to bring out all the colors in the leaves. And also water, for an other example, lightens up and reveals hidden insights, as soon as it’s flooded by hard sun light, which can bring out perfectly the colors of lakes and rivers.
Aside from the obvious fascinating patterns, structures and light displays, which just want to be discovered, photographing in these kind of conditions also pays off in terms of equipment and techniques. The bright light during a sunny day, will mostly result in very fast shutter speeds. You won’t have to carry your tripod and you won’t have to worry about blurry images due to movement or a lack of depth of field. Just yesterday, I took an image of a super fast little sparrow, trying to bring out the colors in its wing feathers, almost straight towards the hard sun. The settings were ISO 250 at f/14 and they resulted in a shutter speed of a 1/5000 sec. Just as an example. So, a rather longer or macro lens and the camera body is all you’ll need. And since I really don’t like to be busy handling my equipment, going out with just my camera in hands, is super delightful and relaxing.
Every now and then, under the bright sun, I go for rather white high-key photographs, but actually most of the time, I’m mainly thrilled by the little magics in the brighter parts of the sceneries. This means, that the majority of these images are rather dark and often large parts on the pictures are just black, in order to avoid an over exposing of the alluring lights and to lead the viewers attention on the main elements. And this also means, that the shutter speeds will mainly be super fast and easy to handle. To bring out all the interesting high contrasts, inconvenient techniques like HDR are simply no issue and rather counterproductive. And the less time you spend handling your gear or behind your computer, the more time you can spend on exploring, experimenting, developing and enjoying authentic nature photography in the field. All the images in this article are simple handheld photographs without the use of any special equipment, techniques or artificial light. And, when it comes to harsh sun light and for your benefit, you can also follow this approach, when you simply cannot manage to be there during the early morning or later evening hours, due to restrictions or longer hikes, for example.
So, all in all, I definitely recommend to pay lots of attention to smaller settings, high contrasts, reflections and glittering around midday or just on sunny days. But, in terms of compositions, perspectives, subjects and the use of sunlight, I won’t give much tips on how to create an image, because I think, this is super subjective and even more, this has to be a creative process. And creativity is actually the opposite of following (photographic) traditions or “rules”. Enjoy!
