Any tips for shooting in broad daylight?

Michael Solomon

Michael Solomon

Well-known member
I'm working on a project that's going to call for us shooting out in broad daylight on a pier. Since were shooting, ahem, without a permit, there's no way to set up any grip gear and we'll be shooting with a very very minimal profile.

I was hoping there were some little tricks out there to getting the best image possible. For example, if you've watched Vincent LaForet's Mobius the shots are gorgeous, especially given that it was shot in what appears to be extremely harsh desert sunlight.

Stuff I've shot in the past without diffusion, shades, etc. in broad harsh daylight has come out, well, less than aesthetically pleasing. Harsh hot spots on the skin, very unflattering, etc. Are there some simple tricks to improve quality? Maybe filters that I haven't explored etc.?

Would love to hear your guys advice and what you do when you're shooting out in the open.
 
Having an experienced crew, the proper gear, and a good budget like Vincent did sure helps in making gorgeous images. When shooting outdoors like that I find having both ND and ND grads along can be helpful.

Good Luck!

Dave
 
If you are going guerrilla, without permits, then you are going to need to shoot under the best lighting conditions possible, and for my money that is early morning or late afternoon. Shooting at those times of day gives you VERY little time to get your shoots, so there is that. If you go that route, you may want to set up several days to shoot over, shoot your establishing shoots and long shots (The beauty shots) with the very best light and then get your closer shots using ND and ND grads, like David said above. Use color grading in post to tweak the shots to match. If you HAVE to shoot in mid day... guerrilla... wow.... Ok, ND, ND grads, post grading. Set your camera's picture profiles to maintain the widest dynamic range as possible, don't clip your highlights. If you think that it might pass, maybe get a BIG golf umbrella to use to block some light, and get something to use as a reflector, even if it is just an 8" X 11" piece of foam core or paper. Something to throw a little bit of soft light into the shadows.

Also something to remember when shooting outdoors is the orientation to the sky, and how that effects the lighting. The most consistent light during the day is the light from the north sky. The most direct sunlight shines from the southern sky, but this light changes minute to minute based on the movement of the sun. To this, then if you can set up your scenes to face the north sky, and you can block off the direct sunlight, you can shoot with consistent, relatively pleasant light for a relatively long time. In your guerrilla scenario that you face, orient your scene (Medium or close shots) to face the north sky (If possible of course) and maybe block the direct sunlight with a couple of folks holding big golf type umbrellas as parasols and you might have quit a bit of control over the look.

The last suggestion is to never put your talent into a situation where they are squinting in the daylight. You see that in a lot of outdoor shot low budget films. It looks bad, IMHO.


EDIT: The lighting orientation above is for the Northern Hemisphere.
 
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Michael Solomon said:
Very helpful advice. Thank you guys!

When you say face north, camera facing north or talent facing north?
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Talent facing north. You want the light on the talent FROM the north sky. Now, I know that with your pier scenario, your scene orientation is going to be pretty established by that location. However, for future reference I would learn to think about that orientation.
 
Michael Solomon said:
For example, if you've watched Vincent LaForet's Mobius the shots are gorgeous, especially given that it was shot in what appears to be extremely harsh desert sunlight.
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He really has set the bar for shooting in direct sunlight! Something about it so perfect.

Ironic that it was done with a camera that is getting such a bashing.
 
Searcher said:
He really has set the bar for shooting in direct sunlight! Something about it so perfect.

Ironic that it was done with a camera that is getting such a bashing.
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Yeah, that looked very good. I also liked the day light exteriors in the Canon C300 flick XXIT... The ending scenes are outstanding. The C300 delivered some of the best daylight exterior images I believe I have ever seen from a digital video camera. Daylight exteriors are very had for digital cameras to reproduce, IMHO. Those films just blew me away. Of course, they were made by VERY talented filmmakers, with a VERY good camera and with a proper budget.
 
Don't shoot on a semi-cloudy day! The constantly varying lighting will drive you nuts, trust me :(
 
Lots of great suggestions.

I am not sure if you have shot yet, but I thought that I would mention being very aware of the suns position (any number of phone apps available). Right now the sun maxes at about 41º (near the summer solstice the sun will max at around 84º. If you are shooting with the sun behind you your shadows are going to spread long (north half of the ground) for most of the day. Sometimes I forget to watch for shadows and lose options in editing.

Maybe you can share some of the stuff that you encounter/ resolve . . .
 
Definitely will do. Scouted my pier today. (Obviously) they will be facing either east/west as they lean on the rails. We're hoping if we shoot an hour before and into sunset we'll encounter less problems.

Going to rock a few 42" reflectors and see what magic we can make.
 
Michael Solomon said:
Going to rock a few 42" reflectors and see what magic we can make.
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I generally dislike using reflector because they almost always look like there's a reflector being used. The reflected light is too bright and too "spotted" to look natural. Ideally the reflected light should be shot through a silk or some other kind of diffusion material to soften them and make them less sourcy. When outside I prefer to position the actors such that the sun is rim lighting them, and use nets to control the intensity of the light. If there is a rental house in your area, nets aren't expensive to rent at all.
 
Huy Vu said:
I generally dislike using reflector because they almost always look like there's a reflector being used. The reflected light is too bright and too "spotted" to look natural. Ideally the reflected light should be shot through a silk or some other kind of diffusion material to soften them and make them less sourcy. When outside I prefer to position the actors such that the sun is rim lighting them, and use nets to control the intensity of the light. If there is a rental house in your area, nets aren't expensive to rent at all.
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Those concerns about reflectors are legitimate. What I am trying to learn is how to properly use "Negative fill". I have gotten very good results the very few times I have used it outdoors, and is a great way to help mold the light. I want to experiment much more with negative fill before I offer any suggestions about how to use it though, but it might be something to keep in mind when shooting outdoors. The best description for its use is by Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC in his American Cinematographer article about shooting "Tree of Life". He uses negative fill to eliminate what he calls "Lighting Pancakes", which is ugly double lighting from both sides of the subject.
 
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