How can I reduce harsh bright daylight and fix odd ground colors in JPEG photos?
Asked 6/14/2011
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I took a photo around 9:30 AM in strong sunlight and the light looks very harsh. After adjusting brightness and contrast, the tree looks better, but the ground has an odd pinkish color. I can only shoot JPEG, not RAW. What can I do while shooting in bright daylight, and what can I reasonably correct afterward in JPEG?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
11
Bright daylight is often considered problematic for photography, as it causes harsh shadows. You'll get the best results by waiting for a softer light - a sunset/sunrise or clouds blocking the direct sunshine. If waiting is not an option, a polarizing filter is usually used to somewhat tame bright daylight, as in this example -

Ground color on your photo is off because white balance is on the ground is off - the warm light makes tones warmer (gives a red/yellow hue). Different light shows colors differently. Human brain is somewhat able to adapt perception of colors in different light, but a camera can adjusted for only the whole scene. If you fix the red tint in warm light, the areas with cooler shadow light will show slightly blue. You might like it better (shadows are darker and therefore do not show as well) or not (humans generally prefer warmer tones).
You could try setting custom white balance by putting a gray card or a sheet of white paper in the light you want to appear as neutral and telling your camera "look, this is how white/gray should look like". How exactly to tell this depends on camera model (if you have a user manual, try looking for "setting custom white balance").
You could also adjust white balance in post processing; try sliding it towards blue. Or, even auto levels or automatic white balance would render your example cooler:

Originally by user4390. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4390
15y ago
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Bright daylight is difficult because it creates harsh contrast and strong shadows. The simplest fix is to shoot when the light is softer, such as near sunrise, sunset, or when clouds diffuse the sun.
If you must shoot in strong sun, a polarizing filter can help reduce glare and improve color and contrast somewhat.
For the pinkish ground: that is mainly a white balance/color cast issue. In daylight, sunlit areas are warmer while shadows are cooler, so one global white balance setting cannot make every part of the scene look “perfect” at once. If you correct the warm tint, shaded areas may start to look too blue.
Since you are shooting JPEG, try to get white balance as close as possible in-camera before shooting, because JPEG gives less flexibility later than RAW. Afterward, you can make small white balance and color adjustments, but large corrections may hurt image quality.
In short:
- Prefer softer light when possible
- Use a polarizer in bright sun
- Set white balance carefully in camera
- Expect sun and shade to have different color tones
- Make only modest JPEG corrections afterward
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