Too much light is rarely a bad thing when it comes to digital photography. However, harsh summer sunlight can blow out the color in your images if you’re not careful. Fortunately, there are many ways to manipulate light with your Olympus digital camera.

Beach Scene Mode
Shooting a landscape of the beach? Usually bright sand is a challenge to the camera’s automatic Program or Auto mode. Try using your camera’s [Beach & Snow] Scene Mode to capture true-to-life images at the beach. With this setting, the exposure is automatically compensated to represent the true tonality of bright sand. If the same image were shot in Auto or Program the image would result in a darker representation of the sand since the camera’s exposure system attempts to create a mid-tone exposure.

If you don’t have the [Beach & Snow] Scene Mode, try manually adjusting your camera’s exposure compensation. The basic rule of thumb for manually adjusting exposure is (-) exposure compensation darkens the image; (+) exposure compensation brightens the image. For example, if the sand looks darker then it is, try setting the exposure compensation to the (+) side. Take a few at different (+) settings to ensure you get the results you want. If recreating the true shade of the sand is not the issue and some of your images just look too bright, adjust exposure to the (-) side. If you’re not sure how to access the exposure compensation feature on your camera, check your owner’s manual.

Exposure Compensation + Fill-in Flash
Once you’re comfortable adjusting exposure compensation, you may want to experiment by adding fill-in flash to your exposure adjustments. While exposure compensation can help brighten shadows or minimize overexposure, it won’t completely eliminate the harsh shadows that sunlight can cause. Set your flash so that it will fire, and the splash of extra light will eliminate unattractive shadows on your subject’s face.

Metering Modes: Settings for SP, Stylus, and C-Series Owners You can often counteract the effects of bright sunlight and shadow by trying different metering modes. Most Olympus cameras provide at least two metering options, ESP and [•]. ESP/Digital ESP: Meters the brightness at the center of the monitor and the surrounding area separately to capture an image with balanced brightness. When taking pictures against strong backlight, the center of the picture may appear dark. Spot Metering [•]: Only the center of the monitor is metered. Recommended for taking a picture against strong backlight. > Read this article for more information about metering modes.