By Jim Zuckerman
Very few landscapes can be photographed at mid-day when the sun is harsh and still look good. In my courses Mastering Light and Perfect Digital Exposure, I discuss this at length. In scanning some old slides last week, I came across this graphic landscape that I took in Spain in 1989. I was struck by how good it looks in spite of the overhead sunlight. You can determine from which direction the sun is coming by looking at the shadows of the trees – they are directly beneath the branches. In my entire photographic collection taken over the course of 37 years, I can only think of two other landscape photos that look good with lighting like this.
Would this scene have looked better at sunrise or sunset? I’m sure it would have. But in this particular case, the simple, graphic design – and those contrasty shadows are part of that design – works well.
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