Bright Sun, Harsh Light – What do you do?
Golden hour is a dream for photographers — soft, warm light and beautiful shadows. But in the summer months, sunrise can be 4.30am, sunsets can be 9pm and real life doesn’t always let us hang around for these times.
So, what happens when you’re stuck taking photos in the middle of the day with blinding sun and harsh light? Can you still take great photos? Absolutely — if you know a few key techniques.
This guide walks you through how to turn bright sun from a problem into an asset, using a real shoot in London as an example.
Work with What You Have
On this particular shoot, I was in London around 4–5 p.m. in the middle of summer. I couldn’t wait for golden hour. I had to get back to prepare for a training course I was running the next morning. The light I had to work with was harsh and the sun was high so it wasn’t perfect, but it was workable.
The trick: use the conditions creatively rather than fighting them. It’s a mindset shift every photographer should practice. When you can’t control the light, control how you respond to it.
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Before
After
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Tip 1 - Use a 10-Stop ND Filter
One of the simplest and most effective tools for handling bright, midday sun is a 10-stop neutral density (ND) filter. A 10-stop neutral density filter works like sunglasses for your camera. It cuts down the light entering your camera so you can use longer exposure times to:
blur moving clouds.
Smooth out water for a sleek, glass-like effect.
Camera with 10 stop ND filter
Even in bright sun, combining a small aperture (f/16), low ISO (50), and the 10-stop filter gave me 30-second exposures. This added atmosphere and interest that you simply can’t get from a straight snapshot.
Learn more about ND Filters here: ND Filters – In Depth Guide For Beginners
The beauty of this technique is that it gives interest to the picture. You are not used to seeing streaking clouds in the sky or water looking smooth as glass. Those features stand out in an image and draw attention from the viewer.
Before - 1/200 sec
After - Using a 10 stop ND filter - 30 sec
If you want to learn about Long Exposure Photography in depth, click here.
Tip 2 - Think in Black & White
When the midday sun is blazing, colours can quickly become your enemy. Strong light has a way of washing out subtle tones, oversaturating certain hues, and casting unwanted colour tints into your scene.
This is exactly where black and white photography becomes your best friend. By stripping away colour completely, you’re no longer battling white balance or washed-out skies. Instead, you can focus on what midday light does give you in abundance: contrast, shape, and texture.
In black and white:
Harsh shadows become a design element, shadows start carving dramatic lines across the frame.
Bright highlights pop with intensity, giving the image a sense of sharpness and clarity.
Textures — whether it’s rippling water, weathered stone, or steel architecture — take on a tactile quality that colour sometimes hides.
The trick is to shoot with black and white in mind from the start. Pay attention to tonal contrast as well as the subject. Ask yourself: where’s my brightest point? Where’s my deepest shadow? Where can I find contrast in this scene? Can I use that to lead the viewer’s eye?
When you stop thinking about the colours you’ve lost and start seeing the shapes you’ve gained, bright midday light goes from frustrating to inspiring.
B&W
Tip 3 - Composition is King!
Technical tricks like ND filters and black-and-white conversion are powerful, but they can’t save a poorly composed image. Composition is what turns a technically correct photograph into one that grabs the viewer’s attention and holds it.
When shooting in harsh midday light, composition becomes even more important because you can’t rely on soft light or rich colours to carry the mood. You must make the structure of the image do the heavy lifting.
On my London shoot, I focused on a few key compositional strategies:
Strong diagonals — The Millennium Bridge provided a perfect, sweeping diagonal that sliced through the frame and naturally led the eye toward the Tate Modern in the background.
Foreground interest — Weathered wooden posts along the riverbank acted as anchors in the scene, giving depth and a sense of place before the eye travelled further into the shot.
Balanced elements — I aligned the Shard, so it sat neatly beneath the bridge’s arc while the Tate Modern tower played balance to this on the opposite side of the frame. This gave visual stability to an otherwise busy scene.
Use of shadows — Harsh sunlight created a bold, geometric shadow shape on the Thames. Instead of avoiding the harsh light, I waited for the right moment to capture this shadow and added it as a compositional element.
By being intentional with composition, you take control of how the viewer eye moves through your image. You’re essentially directing their gaze — where to start, where to pause, and where to end.
What is Composition in Photography? Learn more here
Carefully composing your photography can make all the difference.
Tip 4 - Edit to Enhance
Clearly editing plays a big part in any photography and that is the same here. With pictures like this it’s about putting balance into the exposure of the image and enhancing that contrast you purposely included during your picture taking. I’m doing my edits in Adobe Lightroom Classic but you can adapt these skills into any program.
Here is my workflow for harsh light:
1. Convert to black and white straight away
The first step is to remove colour distractions and focus purely on tonal values. Harsh sunlight often creates high contrast and strong shadows that work beautifully in monochrome.
Converting early lets me see where the light and shadow interact, which guides all subsequent adjustments.
2. Start with basic pane adjustments
Exposure: Slightly adjust to balance the midtones without losing highlights.
Highlights: Pull down to recover detail in bright areas like reflective surfaces or the sky.
Shadows: Open them just enough to reveal texture in dark areas, such as under bridges or alleyways.
Whites & Blacks: Fine-tune the extremes to ensure the image retains depth without clipping.
3. Add an S-curve for punchy contrast
I apply a subtle S-curve in the Tone Curve panel. This deepens shadows while boosting highlights, giving the image dimension and a sense of three-dimensionality. It’s particularly effective for architectural shots where structural lines need to pop.
Learn more about using curves here.
4. Use the Black & White Mixer panel
The Black & White Mixer lets you adjust the luminance of individual colours. For instance, increasing the blue channel darkens the sky, creating drama and separating it from the clouds.
Similarly, adjusting reds or yellows can subtly emphasize or de-emphasize buildings, streets, or water reflections.
5. Apply subtle vignetting
Adding a soft vignette draws the viewer’s eye toward the centre of the frame.
I keep it subtle — just enough to focus attention without making the edges feel artificially dark.
6. Mask selectively
Target specific areas using, linear, radial, brush and object select masks. For example here I brighten the underside of the bridge, increase texture and lightened the tone on building façades.
Masking allows localized adjustments that help balance the exposure of the scene. Check out our Masking in Lightroom Tutorial here.
Masking can transform a flat shot into something dynamic and balanced.
Strong knowledge in editing can make all the difference.
Key Takeaways for Photography in Harsh Sun
Use a 10-stop ND filter for creative motion effects.
Embrace black and white to work with contrast instead of fighting it.
Look for shadows, contrast and lines to add visual drama.
Composition is key — foreground interest, leading lines, and balance are essential.
Edit with purpose — enhance strengths, mask weaknesses.
Conclusion
Bright midday sun is challenging, but with the right skills, you can produce images worthy of your portfolio.
So next time you’re in the middle of the day with no golden hour in sight — don’t pack up your gear. Use the light, shape your composition, and let your editing polish the rest.
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Marc Newton
