5 Photo Tips for shooting photos in the sun

Tip 1 (Look for reflected light): One of the problems with harsh sunlight is that the side facing light gets a sharp glare, while a face or profile in shadow is far more reduced. You can either set up reflectors, or look for a place such as a parking lot or in front of buildings, where there is far more reflected light. This ensures that the images don't have unseemly shadows in some parts.

Tip 2 (Use ND Filters): Using filters can really create some interesting photos with different light affects. These filters help in giving a much bluer look to the photos, with a greater contrast in the photos. You can use a graduated ND filter such as this one - Cokin CH250 P-Series ND Grad Kit

Tip 3 (Use the light to good effect in creating silhouette): The strong light may not help in creating soft portraits, but it sure does help in creating some interesting effects such as silhouettes, when you allow the light to be behind the person. The light creates a great outline of the person, and with some creativity around exposure, you can use multiple people to get some stick like effects.

Tip 4 (Shoot in black and white): With the temptation to get good color contrast, and achieve a high color tonality being difficult in harsh light, the strong light actually aids in achieving a good effect in black and white photos. These black and white photographs are great to emphasize structures, shapes, especially when you are shooting something less curvy, and more stark and sharp.

Tip 5 (Shooting indoors or in areas that typically get less light): There are some advantages to having all that light. There are many places such as small alleys, between tall buildings, and indoors, where the amount of light required for good photos is available only when the sun is overhead, and the light is hard.

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5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Filters): Explore what camera equipment can do for you. For example, filters such as this Tiffen 62mm Graduated Sunrise Filter can help in making some beautiful sunrise photo.

Tip 2 (Use software): This may seem a bit odd, but if you are not able to get the required effect in a natural sunrise, then try going in for using software such as Photoshop CS4 or Photoshop Elements 7. You will be able to tweak your images to get the exact effect you want.

Tip 3 (Sometimes failure is best): It is pretty hard to expect that you will get the exact result every time. What you need to do is to have a feel for the settings (also, the photo captures the camera settings), and review the settings against the photo that you got. This sort of comparison and review helps you get the feel for which settings work to get you the best results.

Tip 4 (Atmospheric pollution): Sounds bad, but sometimes when you have an extra element of pollution in the atmosphere and it is not gone by sunrise, the photos you get have some additional colors in them, or rather, more shades of colors in the same photo. Not necessary to happen every time, and your photo may not have the clarity with distance, but the colors may be better (or atleast different).

Tip 5 (Keep the sun away from the center): Once I was at a beautiful vantage point on a cliff with valleys in the distance. A lot of photos had no detail beacuse the camera was focused on the sun, and settings for exposure were geared on the sun, sometimes involuntarily. Try and take some photos where the sun is peripheral in the photo.