There are few basic steps for taking high impact shots on bright summer days. These summer photography tips will steer you through every aspect of shooting outside in bright light by using raw format and saturating colours for a little contrast. Keep reading to discover how you can come up with outstanding images when the light is strong.
Summer photography tips: 01 Fewer colours
Colours are quite punchy and saturated when juxtaposed against an expanse of white. Try to find some white surfaces and partner them with subjects that feature primary colours.
It may sound counterintuitive, but you can create the most impact in your shots by reducing the number of colours in your image.
Summer photography tips: 02 Shoot in raw
Even though noontime summer sun is as neutral a colour temperature as you can get, shoot raw files so that you can alter the white balance and you’ll be sure of maximum saturation.
If shooting raw images isn’t an option, take a custom white balance reading for JPEG images.
Summer photography tips: 03 Polarising opinions
To make skies really blue and increase contrast, fit a polarising filter to your lens. If you experiment you’ll see a massive leap in the colour reproduction in your images.
Polariser filters are also great for shooting water and will give you punchier lakes and seas.
Summer photography tips: 04 Check your histogram
Clear skies allow for scenes with wide dynamic ranges, so be sure to meter carefully and refer to your histogram. Spot meter if necessary and think about bracketing your photos. Blend images afterwards.
Summer photography tips: 05 Saturation
Change the Levels on all your images using your image-editing software. Curves can also increase impact. Create contrast in the shot by saturating a single color.
Be careful, however, of chroma noise appearing by turning up the saturation levels a bit too high.