When it comes to photography, the sun is your friend. And when summer is here, you get a whole lot more creative. In the warmer months, you have an abundance of light to play with. Still, you need to learn the rope if you want to take that unique summer shots.
Now, follow these easy summer photography shooting tips to improve your shots and avoid problems that may arise. The good thing is you don’t need to carry tons of extra tools with you.
Master the timing
Many photographers enjoy taking pictures during the golden hour because it’s too easy to shoot magical photos. That being said, you don’t always need to aim the period just after sunrise or just before sunset. Mastering the timing is more than that.
Let say you want to picture a specific exotic place. It’s best if you plan ahead and figure out where the sun will be at any given time. Knowing the direction the sunlight will fall can make or break your chance of a lifetime.
Leave the reflectors at home
In the summer, you can do away without reflectors. Anything from walls, cars, and any kind of brightly-lit surfaces can become substitutes. These surfaces can provide ample bounced light to give the tone and atmosphere that you desire.
Use a polarizer
Using a polarizer is a simple yet effective way to bring out the colors in otherwise dull pictures. You get all the vividness and contrast which is quite important when you shooting under the sun.
A polarizing filter is incredibly useful when you want to darken skies, suppress glare, and dealing with reflections. Since the sun is out and about, there could be too much unwanted light to deal with.
Shoot in monochrome
Summer is full of colors, but restricting yourself in monochrome allows you to focus on the action and the message. Shooting in monochrome is also excellent when you miss the golden hour and the sunlight is just too harsh to get any decent colors.
You can shoot monochrome by setting the Picture Style on your camera or do it on post processing. If you prefer to do it in post, always shoot in RAW. Shooting in JPEGs is fine and all but you will have much more room to play with when you shoot RAW as all the details are there. Once you’re done touching up those summer pictures, you can go ahead and convert it to any image format you like.
Play with flares
Shooting flares is a must for summer photography. Flares can add drama and beauty to your summer photos. With Mr. Sun out longer you have ample chance to play with flares or sunbursts.
To shoot sun flares, try various aperture settings. Use a wide aperture, such as f/5.6, to get soft flares and use a small aperture, such as f/22, to get stronger ones.
Remember to partially hide the sun behind the object you’re shooting to give that artistic touch. And try to shoot during different times of day to get all kinds of different flares. It’s going to be fun.
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OK, that’s all for our short list of useful tips for better summer photography. Remember to be safe out there. Wear light clothes, sunglasses, and be sure to apply sunblock liberally. Now, go out there and start shooting.
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