Hi Alex,
I live near the equator, where we experience very strong sunlight. I'm looking for recommendations on how to take a good picture in this environment. Harsh sunlight can often create harsh shadows and make it difficult to get a flattering photo. Do you have any tips or suggestions on how to overcome this challenge? Which part of the picture profile should I care about?
I've recently purchased your Sony Film Simulation Recipes bundle. Are there any specific film simulations within that bundle that you would recommend for shooting in harsh light conditions?
Heihei!
Welcome to the community. If you want to get smoother transitions and retain more detail, try using recipes which are based on Cine1-4, S-Cinetone, S-Log, or HLG Gammas. These have soft gradations with the highest dynamic range.
Or if you have a favorite recipe but which is based on higher contrast gammas, you can customize it, replacing the Still gamma for example with Cine gammas to make it softer. Then work with the black level and black gamma to push or lift the shadows, depending on your need.
Remember to overexpose S-log by at least 1 stop to get a proper image. I usually like to go around +1.5 +1.7 overexposure to retain details in both shadows and highlights, but if the subject is underexposed severely, I will also go over +2 exposure to properly expose the subject.
After you try some recipes, you can also post a couple images and I will try to help you further.