Discover Why Shooting in Harsh Light Will Make You a Better Photographer

Growing as a photographer means finding new and more creative ways to shoot. The best way to do this is to challenge how you normally do things and mix it up with small changes, such as shooting at a different time of day.

Jeremy Payne is an Australian landscape photographer. Often, beginner landscape photographers will get up really early at sunrise or stay up later at sunset to shoot images shrouded in golden glow. This is great advice for someone starting out, as the light kind of just does the work for you.

If you’re looking for a new challenge, though, Payne recommends trying a small shift and shooting in harsher mid-day conditions. This is excellent advice, as it still leans into the strengths you may have already built up shooting landscape but challenges you to look at the same views in a different way.

Payne goes further into how he processes the images once he’s photographed them and offers practical recommendations on how you too can do the same. However, given his experience, he further challenges himself by doing something different from what he recommends as the go-to for most beginners in terms of post-processing (which you’ll see when you watch the video).

Although this video focuses on landscape image-making, the advice that is offered can be applied to any genre of photography. It’s important to practice and grow your skillset. If you find yourself at a place where you aren’t being challenged, making a small change to how you shoot can be a great way to add another layer to your images — in this case, shooting at a different time of day as opposed to what you may have traditionally done or learned.