Harsh Light

“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being photographer”
― Walter De Mulder

This past weekend, I had a wonderful time exploring the Beaufort, South Carolina area with dear friends and fellow photographers.  There are so many wonderful places and things to photograph while in the Beaufort area.  Among these are church ruins, plantations, shrimp boats, and forts used long ago.

Whenever I am photographing during the day, I often find that my best photography happens

during overcast conditions.  Overcast days lead to an overall soft light on subjects such as the gorgeous trees on a drive leading to a plantation.  Bright, sunny days lead to harsh, high contrast lighting conditions.  Although these bright days abundant with sunshine are very pleasant, they can make photographing more challenging.

This past weekend I will refer to as the weekend of  three clouds.  I refer to it as such since my friends and I only saw three small clouds in the sky the entire weekend while we were out photographing.

It is so important to always make the most out of your photography outings.  When you are travelling, you cannot predict the lighting conditions that you will find.  You may only have one opportunity to photograph in a location, so you will need to find out how to make the most out of the conditions that exist.

I have just recently started photographing using a camera that has been converted for infrared.  I have heard that this camera is ideal to use when the light is harsh.  I chose to use my infrared camera to photograph most of the time last weekend.  The image I have used as my featured image is one of my favorites from the trip.

Here are two more infrared images taken last weekend.

While photographing the drive of a well visited and photographed plantation, I saw the image in color.  Although I knew I would not like the straight out of camera image with the harsh light, I saw what it would look like if I applied a filter from Topaz Impression.  Once I got home, I was able to achieve what I was envisioning.

The next time you are out photographing, think about the best way to use the light that is available.