An Email from Greenland

I have read your rather excellent online guide and though generally a good piece of work, it does have one flaw.

In you photography in sunlight section, it is mentioned that people living to the north will need to take pictures on clouded days as well.
Living in Nuuk, Greenland and having shot quite a few pictures both here and further to the north I disagree with you, the lightning conditions up here are widely different from what I know from anywhere in Europe.

Due to the lack of humidity in the air sunlight up here is extremely bright, a side effect of this is that you are able to see much further than normal. The negative side effect is that even on cloudy/overcast days light is so bright that I have to under expose my pictures to avoid burning out the sky, On a sunny day I will have my exposure set to like –1 or –1,33 depending on the time of day.
An overcast day anywhere between –1/3 and –1.

My point is that up here it is often easier to shoot pictures in overcast weather, because of the strong light and still get a vivid picture.

I do by no means try to lecture you, that would be disrespecting you and that is not my intention, I am only an newbie and learning every day.

Take a look at the two examples on the right. The first one from a sunny day and bear above mentioned exposure values in mind.

Thanks for listening.

Kind regards,
Thomas Bojer Eltorp

Back to Photography in Sunlight

Sermitsiak on a sunny afternoon.