settings for beach

[Mile]

Hi all, i always seem to have trouble getting good shots in the middle of the day on a nice sunny day. they seem to get too much exposure. im going to the beach 4x4ing tomorrow and would like to get some good shots.

1.what settings would be recomended for taking a pic of a 4x4 tring to get up u hill on the sand on a bright sunny day?

2.what settings for capturing still car shots or ppl at a bbq?

tips much appreciated, i use manual settings, what exposure, F number and ISO number would i use. thankyou.:)

[ricktas]

Australia is a bad place for midday sun. Our sun is very harsh and you are experiencing the results of that. My recommendation would be to get a polariser to stop some of the glare.

Your settings will need to be what you need under the conditions. You will need to change settings for car shots as opposed to people, but I would stick to ISO 100, there is no need to increase your ISO for these shots. For portraits try between about f4 and f8, for the car shots, depending on what you want f16 is a good place to start. Shutter speed? well that depends how sunny it is. There is an old rule called "sunny 16", look it up and it might help

[Mile]

Australia is a bad place for midday sun. Our sun is very harsh and you are experiencing the results of that. My recommendation would be to get a polariser to stop some of the glare.

Your settings will need to be what you need under the conditions. You will need to change settings for car shots as opposed to people, but I would stick to ISO 100, there is no need to increase your ISO for these shots. For portraits try between about f4 and f8, for the car shots, depending on what you want f16 is a good place to start. Shutter speed? well that depends how sunny it is. There is an old rule called "sunny 16", look it up and it might help

Awsome thanks Ricktas, that give me some idea where to start. If i get some good ones ill post them up for feedback. Midday shots is something i want to definatly improve on.

[Danielle10]

Oooh very helpful. I'm going on a cruise in December and was worried about the harsh light. I googled sunny 16, will need to have some practise and a play withsome settings. Thanks Rick

[Dirkbox]

Not heard of sunny 16, thanks for the info.

Was trying to take some shots of surfers at the beach today and had trouble with light. I'll Have another go tomoro.

[kiwi]

Don't confuse over exposure with brightness guys. Your meter if in matrix should easily cope with a sunny day. Check your LCD and "blinkies" or histogram and just dial in some -ve Ev to knck down the highlights a bit

The only trouble you should have is if you are shooting in apperture priority with too big an aperture so you max out the shutter speed and error

[Darey]

I cannot guarantee the following but I find it works for me.
I use Bryan Peterson's "The Sky Brothers technique" (Page 124 in his "Understanding Exposure" book) the technique paraphrased is: " with the camera in Manual exposure mode point the camera at the sky just above the horizon (suggest ISO 100 and f 16 aperture) adjust the shutter speed for correct exposure, re-compose for the shot maintaining the resultant exposure setting and shoot."

Why does this work? The camera is set-up to meter exposures correctly for the 18% gray setting but sand and snow are brighter (1 to 2 Ev brighter than 18% gray) therefore you need to overexpose to get the correct exposure for a subject which is brighter than 18% gray.
I hope that makes sense to you.

I wish you good shooting and good luck.

[Bennymiata]

In my personal experience, if I'm taking shots outdoors on a bright, sunny day, I find that using a polarising filter is a real must.
It cuts back the glare quite a lot, and brings out the true colours of what you are taking.
You can also use neutral density filters, but these just darken the image rather than bring out what you really want to see.