Working with High Contrast Light                                      

High contrast light can sometimes be a real problem, especially at festivals. On a very sunny day you may be trying to photograph a group of dancers in a courtyard surrounded by high buildings so that the performers are half in bright sunlight and half in dark shadow. Our eyes can manage this but cameras cannot!

Some solutions include:

• Move to one side so that you are making images of just the sunny side or just the shadowed side. Problem: sometimes you can’t move for the crowd or the place where you want to move to is off limits.

• Use a gradient filter. Problem: only works if the transition zone is in a more or less straight line that often is not the case in courtyards.

• Focus in close on parts of the action that is all in shadow or all in sun. Problem: long lens needed.

• Use raw capture and try to recover lost highlight detail and fill in shadow in post-production. Problem: if the range is very high it will be only partly successful.

• Use fill flash to compensate. Problem: can be intrusive and you may be too far away from the action to do this adequately. Also, if you plan on using this strategy you need to carry additional flash equipment and know how to work with fill flash!

• If you are lucky it may be possible to get posed shots of performers in more even lighting conditions or on their way to the performance areas. This is more likely at smaller festivals. This is where the right guide or tour may help.

• If all else fails relax and enjoy the performance and make memories instead.

Remember this is a real event in a living culture and you are a guest, so it is up to you to make the best of the opportunity without being overly intrusive. At big festivals you can be caught in a crowd in hot sun with no hats allowed, so keep water with you and spare cards and batteries on you.

Useful Links

Bouncing off Camera Flash onto a reflector by Kim Walker (has examples from Bhutan)