in less than too-much light. Broad sunlight is blinding and pretty-
much unworkable for me. That is why I depend on diffusers and
reflectors, but mostly diffusers. On a bright day I need something
between the sun and my subject. That is why early mornings and
evenings are best. However, I am usually too tired to do much in
the evening so as summer comes on I like to get out there earlier
and earlier each day to catch the light and the coolness
Light and Shadow
I do a lot of photographing in the woods or in places where
shadows and light come together in the same photo frame. Often
when under a canopy of leaves there may be a shaft of pure
sunlight piercing the shade and striking the plants on the forest
floor. This makes for a fine photo but more often than not the shaft
of sunlight
is too bright (by contrast) with the softer shadows and it is very
difficult (often impossible) to balance the lighting later in post-
processing. Somehow the sunlight has been too blown out to really
bring back into line.
It is at these times that I use a diffuser and place it in the path of the
sunlight and above the subject on the forest floor. And I tend to use
not your standard Photoflex translucent diffuser which is too
opaque for my tastes (unless you are in full sunshine) but rather my
own home-brew diffuser made of some gauzelike fabric that filters
the sunlight and tones it down rather than removes it. The effect is
more like one that we would get if we used a standard window
screen to filter the light.
Luckily these little diffusers easily fold down to something that fits in
my kit or even into a pocket. Most commonly I use a 22” circular
diffuser, but I also have 12” and 32” diffusers that I sometimes bring
along. You would be on point to ask me where do I get the third
arm to hold the diffuser when I am focusing a stack with my left
hand and clicking the remote trigger with my right.
Well I have done just about everything you might think of when it
comes to this issue. I have lodged diffusers in trees, in windows,
propped them up with sticks, hung them by hooks and threads –
you name it. And I have alternated holding the diffuser by hand with
focusing and triggering the remote, which much resembles juggling