Take Photos in the Morning or Evening during Summer in Palm Springs

 by Lisa Pell

With its, “Sizzling Desert" landscape, Palm Springs offers an opportunity for photo enthusiasts to capture a variety of native low desert plants and expansive desert vistas. Shooting in the Sonoran Desert offers some challenges such as the heat which reaches an average high temperature of 108.1 degrees in July and a record high of 123 in July and August. One way to beat the heat is to schedule time in the early morning or the evenings to take your photos. The advantages of taking photos at these time is in the light. Finding out what time the sun rises and sets will make it possible to take advantage, not only of cooler temperatures, but also making the most of the lighting conditions. Also keep in mind that the quality of natural light varies not only during the day but also throughout year which can add variety to your work.

Evening doesn't come until 7 pm

Temperature and Color: The Basics of Setting Your White Balance
The temperature of color has a wide range between the early morning and late evening. The average noon daylight temperature is 5000-6500k although a clear cloudless sky can reach temperatures of 10,000k. Morning and evening light can vary between 3000-4000k. It is important to understand that that the color temperature varies because getting the white balance right can be a challenge when working with a digital camera. Setting the white balance correctly on your camera will make your colors look the most realistic, allowing you to capture the nature beauty of the sometimes subtle other times dramatic variations that natural lighting can present. Color temperature is often referred to as warm and cool and if it isn't adjusted for properly can result in unnatural blue, orange and sometimes green hues in photos. Whereas a 5000k temperature creates a neutral light, a 9000k temperature will result in more blue wavelengths, while a 3000-4000k temperature will produce an orange hue. A good way to remember this is that as the temperature rises, the color hues tend towards the blue end of the spectrum. Think for instance of a fire, where the hottest part of the flame is the blue at the center. Most digital camera have a white balance preset which makes the selection of an appropriate color temperature easy. What you may not know is that using the auto white balance offers a limited range between 3000/4000 to 7000k. Using the Kelvin option will allow you to select the temperature you need manually over a much broader range. The other setting available, such as tungsten, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy etc., offer an approximate value for the lighting conditions under which they will produce the best images.

Advanced Techniques – Capturing the Best Color and Insuring your Work Against Loss
Another option is to set a custom balance on your camera. This setting provides you with the most control while insuring the best results for your photos. You will need to invest in a 50% grey reference card which is available at most camera supply stores. Using this card you simply take a picture of the grey reference under the particular lighting conditions. This way the camera can set the white balance using this information. The first few times you might need to keep your camera manual on site as there are a few steps involved in programming the camera to use the data. Although a bit more involved this is the best way to ensure you get just the right balance of color in your shot.
While there is also an option to adjust the color balance afterwards using Photoshop, you want to avoid this if at all possible as it can reduce the number of colors in your image. This is known as bit depth. Bit depth is a term that describes the number of 0's and 1's otherwise known as “bits” that hold information about the colors in your image. The selection of standard file formats can will impact the number of bits available in your image. For example, a jpeg file uses 8-bits, while a TIFF file can capture 16-bits per channel and RAW give 24. Setting your camera for 24 bits per pixel (bpp) will give you the best possible color results. The JPEG setting produces 16 million possible tones, which is 6 million more than the human eye can detect, so it is perfectly suitable for most shots. However, it is when you start adjusting your photos on Photoshop that you will be thankful that you've used a higher setting. Even it you are simply adjusting for brightness and contrast, you may find that the colors begin to separate. This can be seen for instance in a blue sky which can begin to show patterns of uneven gradation, known as posterization. Shooting in a RAW format will give you way more room to work once you've brought your image home. Once you've made your adjustments you will need to consider whether to save your image as a 16 bit or an 8 bit file. If you are sure that you've made all the edits your going to make then go ahead and save as a smaller file. If there is any chance however, that you might need to go back in the future then you will want to select the higher format to protect your work and ensure the highest possible quality. Now that you've got all the information you need to secure the quality of your images you may also want to make sure you have the most up to date protection for your equipment. For many photographers, protecting their equipment from damage or theft is just as important as protecting the quality of their images when it come to long-term planning.

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