What do you do when the sun is too high?

Quite often I'll get up early and ascend in the dark so as to be on a summit for sunrise then I'll either be walking/scrambling during the day whilst keeping an eye open for photo opportunities or I might descend, eat, relax, possibly sleep then think about being in a good location for sunset and possibly descending in the dark.
 
Go for a walk round the lanes or the local woods. Shades provide good images...
 
Jannyfox said:
Look at Steve's (ST4's) stuff. You can get the camera out when it's not sunrise or sunset.
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I'm not really a fan of sunrise or sunset shots myself but in mid-summer in most situations 10am - 4 pm is a bit of a write off. And when you're out on location and its peeing it down. I find myself just lazing around.
 
Doing landscapes doesn't just mean shooting everything on the horizon. Get close up, low down or shoot from on high downwards. Lots of options.
 
Midday isn't necessarily a write off, if it's a stormy day with interesting weather you can fairly easily shoot all day. If the light is harsh black and white can work well with simple compositions, infrared black and white is something to have a go at too. Otherwise you could go for walks or relax at a pub
 
Urban landscapes and village scenes are often better with light at a fairly steep angle with plenty of contrast. It is more distant landscapes that benefit most from low angled light.
 
I either go to bed as I've probably been up early, or I go and walk around new locations so I'm not trying to find them in the dark.

If there is a nice cathedral near by, I might shoot that. Or an autumnal waterfall if it's an overcast day.
 
Stu Meech said:
I either go to bed as I've probably been up early, or I go and walk around new locations so I'm not trying to find them in the dark.

If there is a nice cathedral near by, I might shoot that. Or an autumnal waterfall if it's an overcast day.
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Some nice landscapes on your Flickr, Stu.... but not that many taken round the middle of the day!
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
Urban landscapes and village scenes are often better with light at a fairly steep angle with plenty of contrast. It is more distant landscapes that benefit most from low angled light.
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Yes I can see what you mean.....fewer intrusive shadows if the sun is high.......
 
cuillinade said:
Quite often I'll get up early and ascend in the dark so as to be on a summit for sunrise then I'll either be walking/scrambling during the day whilst keeping an eye open for photo opportunities or I might descend, eat, relax, possibly sleep then think about being in a good location for sunset and possibly descending in the dark.
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That's pretty heroic! you deserve a good rest during the middle of the day.:clap:
 
jerry12953 said:
Yeah, waterfalls, inside woodland, that sort of thing works well in the middle of the day but not in bright sunlight in my experience. Great subjects on cloudy days.
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Definitely agree. Problem for me is I've worked in the theatre industry for 15 years, and got used to working with dramatic light and angles - daytime light doesn't really do it for me because of that. And I do like my sleep! :-)
 
Stu Meech said:
Definitely agree. Problem for me is I've worked in the theatre industry for 15 years, and got used to working with dramatic light and angles - daytime light doesn't really do it for me because of that. And I do like my sleep! :)
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I've always thought there was a sweet spot about 2-3 hours before sunset and 2-3 hours after sunrise. I'm not a huge fan of actual sunrise or sunset but even so there's a long void in the middle of the day when I just end up slobbing around.
 
I have to admit I rather like harsh light in my landscapes. Particularly suits agricultural subjects.
 
jerry12953 said:
I've always thought there was a sweet spot about 2-3 hours before sunset and 2-3 hours after sunrise. I'm not a huge fan of actual sunrise or sunset but even so there's a long void in the middle of the day when I just end up slobbing around.
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I tend to agree about the sweet spot but the light in the UK during the day can be so variable that there are great shots available all day- light on certain trees or hills . I often see beautiful sights with the light highlighting something at any time of the day- sadly I'm often too busy rushing to my next appointment that I cant stop to take advantage but happy to do so when I have a bit of time- although as my wife says 'when have you ever stopped for 5 minutes to take photos!'
 
I'm more of a sunrise guy personally so when i go out to shoot it usually involves getting up at stupid o' clock. 2-3 hours before sunrise seems a little extreme to me, i find an hour before sun up is pretty nice. I went through a bit of a phase of shooting into the sun. No idea why as it usually caused awful flare and either a f*** tonne of editing to remove it or a bin job. I've changed a little now and try and shoot either to the side of it or away from it, side lighting is something new for me and i want to improve on it. Once the sun gets to high it all becomes a little boring imo, the drama subsides a little and I'm usually knackered so i head home more often than not.

I do think there are day time landscapes that can be shot though but they hold very little interest for me.
 
minnnt said:
I'm more of a sunrise guy personally so when i go out to shoot it usually involves getting up at stupid o' clock. 2-3 hours before sunrise seems a little extreme to me, i find an hour before sun up is pretty nice. I went through a bit of a phase of shooting into the sun. No idea why as it usually caused awful flare and either a f*** tonne of editing to remove it or a bin job. I've changed a little now and try and shoot either to the side of it or away from it, side lighting is something new for me and i want to improve on it. Once the sun gets to high it all becomes a little boring imo, the drama subsides a little and I'm usually knackered so i head home more often than not.

I do think there are day time landscapes that can be shot though but they hold very little interest for me.
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No, that's 2-3 hours after sunrise, 2-3 hours before sunset.

Other way round it would definitely be dark.

That's when I find side lighting is at its most pleasing.
 
I tend to favour shooting around the times of good light, about 1hr before sunrise, sun rise-90mins-2hrs after and 2hrs-90mins to sunset-1hr after sunset.

I don't personally see the fascination with taking images in harsh light just because you are there or just taking images non stop "as you happen to be there". Just hang around a bit longer or get up a bit earlier if you like warm golden light. I kill time by having a great Lunch. You can get nice images outwith these times.

A more cloudy day will lend itself kinder to taking images towards the middle of the day. This was taken around 4pm, sunset wasn't until 9pm

_DSC8784 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

Its not great but clouds can cast interesting shadows.

This depressing number was taken during the early afternoon on a miserable May in France

_DSC2632 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

Around 11am in March

_DSC7736 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

A good 3hrs before sunset this one too

_DSC7629 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

I live quite near to Glencoe etc so I would just drive up early for an AM. Come home, process, crash out for the rest of the day. Or in an Evening go up, take the images and come home again. I tend not to go out for large full day outings unless leading workshops or unless I am over abroad, and then I tend to drive between locations in the day light hours, have lunch, do touristy stuff etc.

I spawned this horror before lunch on a March day

_DSC3117 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr
 
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There's no time of day I won't take a photo that I think may look OK. I simply don't often get a choice about when I'll be in a particular place, so will always try to find ways of making the best of whatever's in front of me. That's not to say that I don't put the effort in to get up early of go in the evening (though so often that's been a waste of time!) but usually it's the company that stops me going places in the peak times.
 
jerry12953 said:
I've never tried IR. There's some very strange colour effects in the windows that image. Is that an IR effect or something funny going on with my monitor?
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The shot was taken at 830nm, which is right at the edge the visible spectrum, so the images are normally mono. However, running the image through Topaz Adjust brought out the colours in the windows.
 
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