Lighting tips: Summer Midday Sun.

Summer Midday Sun.

As a photographer we try to avoid the midday sun in summer but shooting for the local paper I don't have the luxury to pick the time of day to shoot , but with a combination of several techniques we can overcome the harsh midday sun. On a recent Fashion shoot down at Port Noarlunga in the Middle of November these images were a shot between 11am and 2 pm.

The polarizer is evident in the colour of the sky.

 1. Polarizer (or ND) - The Polariser will reduce the exposure by about one stop aiding the ambient to flash ratio in our favour. Sony Carl Zeiss 77mm Polarizer.

2.Elinchrom Ranger Quadra & Rotalux Deep Octa 70cm - this is one of my favourite location combos very portable(no budget for an assistant on this job) and the 400ws handled correctly is enough to overpower the sun. Using the Deep Octa without the interior or exterior diffusor, just the 14cm white deflector to control the hot spot, is very efficient and also produces a crisp clean light.  

Deep Octa on boom stand nice and close to where the subject was .

Rotalux Deep Octa with Pt Noarlunga Jetty in the background. 

 3. Boomstand.- this will help to get the light nice and close, remember the inverse square law from school, getting the light close to the subject really keeps the Quadra performing and will keep the bare Octa soft. Don't forget the weight especially when working down the beach.

4. Sun direction - Keeping what little angel there is in the sun behind the subject help keep shadow and depth on the subject and also eliminates any cross shadows if you can't totally overpower the sun.

 Model:Madelaine Heath

Styling:Mirella Romano

Hair Make up: Mary Calandro