Photography tip: Use blue filters

This scene in South Korea was too good to pass up, but conditions were less than ideal. It was noontime with direct and very harsh sunlight, and 40 degrees celcius! I knew that the only way to get a good shot out of this was to put a blue filter on the lens and underexpose to mimic the look of moonlight. This trick has saved many of my travel photographs, as there are times during traveling where you can’t wait around for beautiful golden hour sunlight.

If you are a digital photographer and you don’t have a blue filter, you can do the same thing by using the indoor light (incandescent) white balance setting. Often this setting will be indicated by a lightbulb icon on your camera dial. Luckily after your shot you will be able to preview the image, and decide if the photo needs more or less blue color cast. If you can adjust contrast within your camera settings, higher contrast will mimic the look of moonlight better than normal contrast settings.

Thanks to professional photographer Mark Hemmings (www.markhemmings.com) for writing this photo tip.