TOP TEN TIPS FOR OUTDOOR PHOTOS WITH A DSLR

  1. The golden rule for shooting outdoors is to make sure the sun isn’t in front of you. Having the sun in the frame would give a completely bleached out image. The great thing about digital is, you can preview your results immediately. Go ahead and shoot photographs, keeping the sun in various positions with respect to the subject and camera, you will soon see what works best.
  2. Generally the best time to shoot outdoors is early morning or late evening when the sun isn’t too high up, this eliminates the chances of hard shadows under the eyes. Also the quality of sunlight at this time is warmer, which works great for portraits.
  3. A variation of rule #1, you could position your subject in front of the sun, which would stop the overexposure and silhouette the subject (if you take exposure from the sky). Silhouettes work great at twilight with a colorful sky(see the image attached to this article).
  4. Have you ever thought of using a flash in daylight? Take an exposure reading from the background (maybe the sky). Use a bright flash to illuminate the subject, so that the subject requires two stops more of exposure than the sky. This makes the sky a little underexposed, and gives marvelous saturation to the background. That’s how they get the sky a dark blue, like in calendar photographs. That, and the next point.
  5. When the sun is right above you, it’s really bright (at noon), and more often than not, you would get a bleached out lifeless sky. Use a polarizing filter at times like these. This filter blocks out light coming in from 90 degrees to the lens, therefore making the sky a great, saturated blue, and it also makes the clouds more prominent.
  6. There are a range of color filters you could use. For example, a yellow or red filter could accentuate the feel of a sunset. With digital this can be added later on computer as well.
  7. A great way to take photographs outdoors on a rainy day – take a plastic cover, and wrap the camera securely in it. Make a hole slightly smaller than the lens diameter, in front of the lens, and screw on an inexpensive filter such as an UV filter on the lens, sandwiching the plastic.

  8. While shooting outdoors it is critical to take the exposure reading from the right area. Light can vary hugely outdoors. How often we see a portrait with the person in darkness, and the sky lit up?  To avoid this, zoom into the person and take the exposure reading. Zoom out; reset your frame keeping the same exposure.
  9. When shooting outdoors you may want to carry an additional memory card, to avoid disappointment.
  10. The lens – it is good to carry a zoom with a large range of possible focal lengths, for example the 70 to 210, rather than carry a number of block lenses.

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