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If you asked me what my least favorite sort of light is for wildlife photography, it would be midday sun. When the sun is high in the sky, all sorts of problems occur. You get harsh shadows on the animals, harsh light in the background (translating to distracting bokeh), reduced sharpness due to heat distortion, unwanted highlights… and excellent motivation for staying indoors and buying camera gear instead! But it’s still possible to get decent photos with midday sun, and in this article, I’ll tell you how.
1. Find Some Shade
Even with the sun high in the sky, if you can find animals under the cover of a large tree, you can still get some interesting lighting. Moreover, bright light can actually help you here, because you can keep your ISO lower than usual for the shade.
Shade will soften the light a lot. And if the shade is patchy, it can create opportunities to photograph unique conditions that spotlight your subject. The key is to control your light by looking for just the right amount of shade. Animals with bright fur or feathers, such as white birds, can work nicely because you can use the massive difference in luminance between the animal and its surroundings to create a more dramatic effect.
Relatedly, if there are a few clouds in the sky, some may pass over the sun, giving you a temporary relief from the harshest light. Then the light can quickly turn from harsh to pleasant. Keep an eye out – look for subjects when the light is harsh, and then wait for clouds to appear to actually shoot them.
2. Shoot High or Low
If the light is coming from directly overhead, it stands to reason that shooting straight down or straight up will produce front and backlighting respectively. This is more in line with what you would expect during golden hour. True, you won’t get the same warm color as a sunrise, but you can still eliminate some of the harshest textures on your subject this way.
For shooting downwards onto your subject, look for higher vantage points. For shooting upwards, search for birds flying in the air overhead. That’s how I photographed the anhinga in the photo below during midday sun. The wispy clouds in the background helped me avoid a plain blue backdrop.
3. Shoot Through Leaves
I’m a big fan of shooting through leaves. Actually, this technique can work well any time, but it produces a very nice effect when the light is harsh. In particular, you can use it to hide or soften otherwise hard-edged backgrounds or bokeh. With this technique, you can produce relatively soft images even in the middle of the day.
It doesn’t need to be leaves, either. This technique also works well through grass if you are shooting at a very low angle. The very close blades of grass can provide a softening effect for any distracting out-of-focus elements.
4. Find Subjects that Work Well in Harsh Light
Not all subjects will look the same in harsh light. Animal faces often will look strange because of how the shadows fall on them. The resulting effect can be quite unsightly in some species, especially when there aren’t any catchlights in the eyes. But what if your subject doesn’t have a typical face or body?
Some subjects, like dragonflies, work pretty well in harsher light. Their eyes point upwards so that they often still pick up catchlights from directly overhead, which is very different than with most birds. In fact, insects in general can look pretty nice on a sunny day. So, it might be a good idea to find a place for macro photography and try that instead.
5. Emphasize Texture Rather Than Detail
In soft light, you’ll often get beautiful detail and color in your photos. But harsh light often hides low-lying detail, so it’s better to go with the flow and emphasize texture and form. Look for very distinct shapes and work with the light rather than against it, using the extra contrast to bring out the textures and forms of your subjects.
In the following photo, the sun was so strong and backlit that the Black Vulture was almost completely in shadow. Rather than trying to force the light by unnaturally raising shadows, I worked with the light and kept the near silhouette. And along with that, I used the shooting-through-leaves technique to add some mystique.
6. Post-Process
Even with all the techniques above, harsh light still can result in some unwanted textures and distractions in your photo. Post-processing can be a tool to minimize these distractions without taking away from the reality of the scene. Here are some basic ideas to approach post-processing in this manner:
- Bright elements can be softened by using a local soft mask to decrease contrast. Look for bright reflections off branches, leaves, and water that can be softened in the background. The same goes for harsh bokeh.
- Gentle vignetting is another way to draw focus to your subject. Use a very soft vignetting mask, and remember that it just takes a slight reduction in brightness to produce the best effect. If you can tell that vignetting was applied, you usually went too far.
- Look for compositions that work well in black and white. Color can be a distraction in some photos, especially if the green colors of plants have gotten out of control in harsh light. If your goal is to emphasize texture and form, black and white looks great, too.
Although there’s so much that can be said about post-processing photos in harsh light, that should get you started. The basic ideas is to tone down the distractions without working against the light. Remember, you can improve a photo a lot by subtle adjustments, but you’ll never make the light look like the golden hour. Instead, harsh light needs to be processed for what it is.
Conclusion
Harsh light is not ideal. It doesn’t feel as effortless and beautiful as soft overcast light, or the liquid gold of an uninhibited sunset. Nevertheless, harsh light is not worthless. It can even be friendly, too, if you learn how to get past its initial prickly and grumpy demeanor.
I took all of the shots in this article on the same sunny day with the sun always high in the sky, just by following the six tips that I discussed above. So don’t lose hope. If the only time you’ve got is the middle of the day, there may still be a hidden gem or two waiting in those dark trees. Just remember to bring a hat!