Midday Struggles: Shooting in the Harsh Light Everyone Tells You to Avoid (Fujifilm X-E5, July Set 6 of 15)
Updated: Jul 28
Set six of fifteen. Back at the lake, in the middle of the day, in exactly the light every guide tells you not to shoot in. Here's how I made it work with a small flash and a pair of
sunglasses.
Every photography rule tells you the same thing: don't shoot at midday. The sun is directly overhead, the light is hard and unflattering, and it carves shadows into all the wrong places. And every rule is right. But sometimes midday is when you're at the water, so midday is when you shoot, and "avoid it" stops being useful advice.
This is the same lakeside spot from Set 2, the one where the waves once took the pier off my shot list. This time the water behaved and the sun was the problem instead. Here's what harsh overhead light actually does, and the two things that saved this set.
The full breakdown is below for subscribers: exactly what overhead sun does to a face, the flash power I used to fight it, the recipe choice that kept the contrast civilised, and the no-effort fix for when you don't feel like fussing with settings. If you ever shoot outdoors when the sun is high, this is the one to read.
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What midday sun actually does to a face
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