Direct sunlight conquered

Here’s an ambient lighting nightmare for you: Three vehicles, with next to no space to move and extremely harsh, bright, direct winter sunlight pointing straight at you. Oh, and the whole thing is time critical. What to do… Well, you’ve got little option but to try and reverse the light. As a general rule of thumb, throwing as much (or more) light at the subject than God’s throwing at you, and the job’s a good ’un.

Here’s the (basic) technique:-

- Camera on a strong tripod and locked securely
- Test shots and/or light meter readings to gauge exposure
- Three main exposures, one with each vehicle lit individually
- Dark exposure for the sky and foreground
- Back in the studio, comp the four images (i.e layers) together

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