out shooting in the harsh sunlight.
There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself; for what we see is what we are.
Ernst Haas
I admit to getting a bit of perverse enjoyment out of strolling along, tripod in hand, in the heat of the day with sun overhead.
I see the looks and can almost hear the thoughts…poor girl, she doesn’t know that this is the worst possible light to shoot under. Hasn’t she heard about the golden hour?
But when I start to lose that glorious low angle light of winter I switch it up and pull out the infrared; and for that the light could not be better!
Composition is very critical in these shots and that is something that I am always playing with. I use a hoya filter, not a converted camera to capture these shots so they do require some planning. Most of them are shot with exposures of around 30 seconds.
These shots capture the light that is not visible to us: it is the near infrared. I always shoot in raw, although jpeg may be a little easier to edit especially when starting out.
Focus is a bit of a challenge as it is not the same as visible light. I focus and compose without the filter and then adjust the focus after attaching the filter. Likewise white balance is tricky and I create profiles to use in Lightroom for the imported raw infrared files. These profiles create a good starting point with more room for adjustment.
Lastly there are options for creating “false color” by swapping color channels but for me more often the beauty of infrared lies in the black and white conversion.
Ultimately this is about keeping your options open and seizing each opportunity to photograph.
Develop some skills to cover all light conditions. That way when you have the time to shoot, it won’t require that you wait for the perfect light.
it's (almost always) about the water... 