Joe and Mary Ann McDonald's

Wildlife Photography

Bright sunlight is great for maximizing your depth of field but sunlight also creates harsh shadows and extreme contrast between the sun lighted areas and the shadows. Wind, even the subtlest of gusts, can be a factor as well, as your subject may sway ever-so-slightly, perhaps not even noticeably, and create a soft, blurred image.

There are a couple of ways to handle this. Sunlight contrast can be reduced with a diffuser, but one must be careful to not only reduce the contrast on the subject but also on the background. Otherwise the exposure values will be greater on the background -- the background will be brighter, and the viewer's eyes will be distracted and led to the non-important areas.

Reflectors can be used to fill in shadows. This works well, and eliminates the need to worry about having a background that is brighter than the subject. Flash can do this as well, especially when the flash is used only as fill.

However, none of these methods address the other issue -- wind. For this, one must either support the swaying subject -- and a Wimberley PLAMP does this well, or one must block the wind. I've done so with cardboard sheets, with plexiglass, and with clothing, and quite frankly, it can be a real pain in the neck.

John Stanford, who developed the Vested Interest Photo Vest which I endorse extremely highly, has developed a new product to address this issue -- wind and contrast. It's a portable, collapsible, translucent light box that is designed to be placed over the subject. A front window provides open air space for inserting a lens, or for shooting into the box. A rear zippered window can be used in several ways. It can be unzippered so that the background is revealed -- in effect, creating a tunnel, or a background can be inserted against the back wall. This could be a painted background, an out-of-focus photograph, or whatever. That background will be in the same light as your subject and will have the same diffused light quality.

On the left, the contrasty scene before placing the Overcast box over the flower. Note the
harsh shadows on the subject and on the background. Below, the overcast box
placed over a subject, with the guide wires (nylon cords) bracing four corners to
prevent the Overcast box from moving. In the lower right corner is the nylon carrying case.

The Overcast Light Boxes come in three sizes --an 18" box, at $99.00; a 24" box at $119.00, and a large, 30" box at $139.00. All the light boxes come in their own soft rounded cases -- like the round diffusers and reflectors you've seen, and all have pegs and cord to anchor the box securely in case of a stiff breeze.

You can reach John for more information at JohnStanford@VertexPhoto.com (email) or visit his website at www.vertexphoto.com.