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Bright skies on the Sanibel Island causeway; Gulf of Mexico. March, 2016. By Paul Goldfinger.  Click for the details.

By Paul Goldfinger,  Photography Editor @Blogfinger.net

Beaches provide major challenges for photographers.   Did you ever aim your cell phone camera at somebody at the beach on a sunny day?    Unless you are paying attention, your subject will be all black.  That’s because all light meters read brightness, and your camera doesn’t know that you are most interested in the cute baby drooling on himself  (no I don’t mean your husband.)   So the meter will read the brightness and shut down the light entering your camera.  The result is the sky looks great, while the people look like characters from The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The beach above offers some shade in the form of trees and bushes along the back edge, unlike Ocean Grove where you need umbrellas.  But for this photo, there was no relief in terms of the bright sunshine.

The picture above required some careful metering and bracketing, and then post-photo fiddling around on the computer.  But the software cannot give you something that the camera doesn’t have, such as the facial details on your subject.  Sometimes you just can’t get a good shot on the beach or in the snow, for that matter.

But, wherever I am, I always prefer photographing in the shade if possible.   If you can, place your subject in the shade and you will love the result.

—-Paul

JOHN LITHGOW AND FRIENDS:

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