Natural lighting

Last month – January – saw the start of a new series all about lighting. I discussed a specific camera angle of view to achieve a vibrant, punchy colour of blue water in the tropics (or green water in the UK). Don’t take this as a negative, but this month I need to discuss one particular angle to avoid, or at least to be aware of, particularly when shooting wide angle.

Shooting directly into the sun
Digital camera sensors still struggle to handle the overpowering brightness intensity of the sun and in places like the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, with clear visibility and high light levels, when you point your camera upwards, the sunlight just burns out the picture.

Now I’m not going to suggest for one minute that you don’t take the shot, that’s nonsense! When a turtle or a manta swims overhead, of course you’re going to shoot, shoot, shoot! Some of your frames will be too bright, others you’ll get away with and if you’re quick enough with a camera that has manual exposure control, you may be able to reduce the exposure to compensate for the sun’s intensity, but in a spontaneous opportunity like this, anything can happen.

The straight answer is: “You cannot prevent the sun from over-exposing, but you can try to manage the consequence”.

Planning for the sunburst shot using wide-angle lenses
If you practice pointing into the sun, you will achieve some great shots with impact - here’s how to go about it.

Adjust Exposure If you have a camera with manual exposure control, first ensure you set the lowest ISO. Now increase your shutter speed and try 1/250th or even faster. Also try to reduce the size of your aperture, so instead of using the ‘catch all’ f 8, experiment with f11, f16 or even f22.

Hide it. This is my favourite trick. When shooting upwards I try to block out the sun-ball behind the background reef or seascape. I also try to compose my wide-angles with the sunbeams in the frame but the circular, white blob of the light left out of my composition.

Timing Another tip when shooting moving subjects is timing. I time my shot so that the subject is in-between me and the sun-ball, in much the same way you would shoot a silhouette (more about this in the next couple of months).

Time of Day I love to shoot wide-angle sunlight just after sunrise and just before sunset. At this time of day, camera sensors can cope more easily because the intensity is reduced due to the sun’s position in the sky. But I do appreciate that dayboat dives are usually conducted when the sun is high in the sky. Great for water clarity, but problematic when you point directly upwards (more about this also).