Today I got to put a couple of lessons I've learnt into practice with some landscape photography. These lessons were:
- Photographers Capture Luck
- Photographers Capture (and see) Light
- Photographers Capture these things with Cameras
The luck component, mentioned by David Oliver in a talk I attended earlier in the year, usually comes from being in the right place at the right time. Today's opportunity came about on a trip back to Auckland from a location scout in the Coromandel. Out of the corner of my eye, on the side of the road, I spotted something that I quite liked the look of, pulled over, and found the right spot for what I felt was the right shot.
The seeing and capturing has two parts to it. You have to be able to appreciate what light does and recognise when things are going to look pretty - this enables you to recognise the lucky combination of subject and lighting when it occurs. This sounds simple but is actually something of a stumbling block. I have included 2 images below to make the point that without the light the image isn't anywhere near as interesting. This image needs the contrast that the sun punching through the clouds to the left of the frame provides. When the sun is fully behind the clouds the light is flat, even, and uninteresting. To make things worse in order to compensate for the reduced light in the second image the exposure must be increased. Regardless of how you do it you end up blowing out the sky and losing some of the clouds and the blue of the sky.
Finally perhaps the most important component of the bunch is the fact that I actually had a camera on me. Having your camera on you as much as possible (preferably at all times) is a lesson worth learning. Think of all the photo opportunities you will be able to snag.
Just stumbled on your blog today, some very interesting posts, this one is a particularly good example. The photos you've used are excellent to demonstrate your point, as we need shadow a well as light to bring out structure and detail, even forgetting about blowing out the sky which could perhaps have been fixed by using an ND filter. I am guilty of leaving my camera home too much, more so since I upgraded to a 5d II last year as it's just a bit cumbersome but nothing truer said, it should be on us at all times!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to going through your posts, I've bookmarked! Rob.
Cheers Rob. This blog's a little eclectic in terms of content and quality bur I'm working on improving on both fronts. Hopefully you continue to find it interesting and useful :)
ReplyDeleteFor the benefit of other readers a standard ND (Neutral Density filter) probably wouldn't have helped much as it cuts the intensity of the light evenly across the lens/image leading to knocking the foreground into darkness. Think of an ND filter as a standard pair of sunglasses for your camera. It makes the world darker and that;s about it.
On the other hand a graduated filter (sometimes called a graduated ND filter) would've worked a treat in terms of bringing back the sky while leaving the foreground bright but wouldn't have brought in the shadows we see in the first image. A graduated filter can be thought of as an ND filter that fades to clear glass. Result wise imagine the sky of the first image with the foreground of the second. Sunglasses on for looking at the sky, off for looking at the foreground.