09.06.11
Your Ultimate 2011 Technique Guide: Landscapes
James tells you how to manage extreme colours in your images.
INSPIRATION
Many photographers struggle to get good shots of woodlands and forests, myself included. I have perhaps three or four images that I am proud enough to put my name to. This is in complete contrast to the hundreds of coastal landscape images that flood computer screens each night. The reasons are simple enough, and come to the very core of the thinking behind good landscape photography – that very often it’s more important looking at what you are leaving out of the image, rather than trying to fit everything in. Or, to put it differently, ‘Music is the silence between the notes’. I decided to see if I could capture some silence.
GETTING THE SHOT
It is the dense nature of forests, the lack of open space and clear views, or order and simplicity, that makes woodlands difficult to photograph well. Most of the time, what you see through the lens is a tangled mess of branches and patches of random light. Leaving elements out can become near impossible without having to resort to single-tree images. Sometimes, however, you come across a particular patch of woodland that just sings out to be photographed. This patch was just such a spot, at a place called Watersmeet, a few miles inland of the north Devon coast, near Lynton and Lynmouth. Free of the usual undergrowth, due to the emerald carpet of moss, the ancient trunks were clear of obstructions from root to branch. I had been photographing a nearby stream that flowed through a wooded valley, but decided to explore higher up the slopes to see if any new opportunities existed. Only a few hundred metres up the slopes, still climbing, this glade of older trees suddenly opened out in front of me. The view and realisation literally stopped me in my tracks. This was everything I had dreamt of in a woodland image – not only was the line of sight clear and clean, but further into the distance, up the slopes, a thin layer of mist was drifting through the trees, and the sun itself, rising above the lip of the valley, was slinking down between the branches.
TECHNIQUE
Opportunities like this get me really fired up – there’s no waiting for the light, no pacing about for hours or days hoping for the right conditions. It is right there and then, and you have to get into it fast, as these moments can pass all too quickly. I certainly didn’t see the mist hanging around too long – as the morning was advancing the air was warming, and soon no doubt it would burn off now the sun was blitzing through the trees. I knew I wanted in this case to include all the specific elements – the sun, the mist and the trees. I also knew I wanted to go for a panoramic approach – the trees were short and stunted, and would suit the wide format far better than me trying to compress them into a 3:2 format. So it was a tripod set-up, shooting at around 100mm between f/14 and f/18 to get the star-like effect of the sun glinting through the branches, and for once was entirely unfiltered. I simply had to choose a spot where everything clicked into place, in terms of the relative positions of the various tree trunks, and then take a number of manually-set exposures, all to the same value. I also opted for a few straight-up 3:2 shots, as I like to see the end result there and then, rather than having to play with it later on a computer. I chose to shoot at a relatively telephoto type of distance as it helps compress the view, adding strength to the shapes and lines of the various tree trunks.
POST-PRODUCTION
Back at home it was simply a case of letting Photoshop stitch the thing together for me while I checked for discrepancies and did some fine-tuning. As mentioned, the exposure itself was already fairly balanced. Contrast was also good; the darker foreground trees setting against the distant sunlit mist. Consequently, the only post- processing needed, once the image was stitched, was to very lightly use the dodge tool to lighten the darker trunks, and then apply a low-level ‘unsharp mask’ to the image to ensure a slick final print. The finishing crop was done to make use of the two slightly out-of-focus trees as goalposts that allow the viewer to see that the scene extends beyond them, but also keeping the focus within their frames. They balance each other out nicely. The fallen branch on the ground in the middle is perhaps a little central, but not everything can be perfect. All of the other successful images that I have taken of wooded scenery work for the same reasons – the rare simplicity and clarity without undergrowth, in panoramic format, using a telephoto lens, coupled with special lighting conditions. Simple and eye-catching, and not just a mess of tangled branches and haphazard obstructions!
.jpg)
INSPIRATION
Sometimes it’s fair to say the strength of simple elements, such as light, in a photograph are enough to carry it from being a simple snapshot into something far more powerful. This image is perhaps a good example of this. I’d been taking photography seriously for little more than 18 months when I undertook a one-month trekking and hitchhiking trip around southern and central Iceland. I could probably summarise everything I knew about photography in a few short sentences. But I was very driven to learn at that point, and very keen to experiment. When I look back through the images I captured on that trip, most are unusable and very clearly, with hindsight, short of doing justice to the scenes I had in front of me. A few, however, turned out well and are good enough for me to still want them in the public domain. This image is one such example.
GETTING THE SHOT
I shot this from the peak of Kristinartindar; a mountain that sits at the head of the Skaftafell National Park in south Iceland, on a day I will always remember with fondness. For three weeks I’d been out there on my own, and was getting a little tired of just my own company. The night before, however, I’d struck up a conversation with two guys staying at the same campsite. I found they were planning to climb this mountain the following day. This was something I’d been mulling over myself. We decided to join forces and give it a go as a team. We made a diverse crew – Guido, an Italian, Pawel, who was Polish, and me representing the Brits. It was a four-hour hike or so to the scree and scrambling near the summit, and about five hours in total to the top. The last few hundred metres we started to encounter some low cloud, but the views in-between were breathtaking. Skaftafell is a national park that sits between two glacial tongues of the largest ice cap in Europe, Vatnajökull. Hence the mountain that we had just scaled sat surrounded on three sides by falling rivers of ice. Unfortunately, the nature of the hike meant we were sitting on the top pretty much in the middle of the afternoon, and the golden light that comes with the later hours was still a long way off. That low cloud kept coming back to block the view, which at first frustrated me greatly. But on one pass, as I wandered along the spine of a knife-edge ridge that ran from the summit, looking for shots, the cloud seemed to bunch behind the peak, allowing a clear view down into the valley far below, but blocking the sun from striking the summit. I saw the potential instantly, and scrambled to get as close to the edge as I could. It was a delicate balancing act – shooting without a tripod and holding an ND grad filter at a diagonal angle over the lens, while trying not to overstep the edge. I managed a couple of shots before Pawel appeared on the far peak. It dawned on me, as he stood there, the scale that he brought to the image and against all my usual preconceptions of not including people within landscape images, I shouted for him to lift up his arms, and I took this shot.
POST-PRODUCTION
It’s the light spilling over the valley floor, and the figure giving scale and sense to the sheer cliff face that makes this shot for me. I remember scrambling back along the ridge in my excitement to show the guys the image. This shot always seems to grab people’s attention; perhaps I should include more scale-giving figures within my photography. It’s also one of those shots with very little post-production beyond sharpening. I like the understated colours and the dark mountain; it allows the eye to be drawn to the main points of the shot – the daredevil figure and the light far below him in the valley. Compared to most of my shots this was simply done, but the result has no less appeal.
GEAR USED
I was shooting with pretty basic gear – a Canon EOS 350D and Sigma 24-55mm f/2.8 lens and an ND grad filter.
INSPIRATION
This image of the rhyolite ridges of the central Icelandic highlands is another example of how the strength and quality of light within an image can give it extra clout, and how an awareness of conditions and surroundings can ensure you’re in the best possible place when it comes. Iceland is a highly volcanic country offering varying hardnesses of rock that have created amazing eroded mountain ranges. With this image, I wanted a shot that showed the diverse colours and forms of the inland rhyolite geology in and around Landmannalaugar, in the Icelandic highlands. I knew I’d need to be high up so I could capture an image that displays a wide view, rather than smaller details found at ground level. I picked one of the highest of the nearby peaks – Bláhnúkur.
GETTING THE SHOT
This was taken half an hour before sunset. I’d been waiting up on the summit for a number of hours. I had even brought my stove and cooking gear so I could have dinner while waiting for the right conditions. I’d been up here earlier during the day, but at that point the sun was much further round to the east, and it didn’t do the view any justice. These ridges and gullies, most of them several hundred metres deep, would need some serious sidelight to accentuate their contours. This was only going to be the case towards the end of the day, as the sun crept round further west. Using my compass and some common sense, I was able to get a fair idea of where this would be.
TECHNIQUE
I very nearly gave up on this shot. It was getting late and I didn’t fancy a trek back down the scree in the hastening dark, marking the end of the day. The last time I’d seen any decent light was well before I’d set off up the mountainside, several hours earlier, from which I had a number of ‘pre-light’ images to check I had everything set up correctly, both with gear and composition, so I could respond if things changed rapidly and fleetingly. As it turned out however, true to Icelandic form, everything suddenly clicked. Weather fronts blow through very quickly and can change much faster than here in the UK. Icelanders themselves often say, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes.” So it was the case here – despite conditions that seemed to suggest a slow drip into grey darkness, seemingly out of nowhere a few small chinks started to appear in fast-moving clouds above the horizon. Thankfully I was still pretty alert at the time, so when these gaps pushed in front of the retreating sun, and the light spilled through for a brief few minutes, I was there ready to make the most of it. This was a hand-held job, with the choice between racking up the ISO in the name of getting a non-blurred exposure at around f/11 to give good sharpness and make the most of the lens, or keep ISO low and ensure a smoother image, but sacrifice overall sharpness by shooting with a wider aperture. In the end I went for the lower ISO of 200, shooting at f/5 for 1/250sec at 18mm. These days, with a more capable camera, I wouldn’t think twice about shooting above ISO 200 if required. But on the old 350D, even ISO 200 was visible to the naked eye. Moreover, the scene in front didn’t need too much DOF sharpness; I wasn’t shooting close to the ground or at an angle that would mean losing clarity if I shot below f/8. Because the scene was open and at distance, f/5 was just about enough to ensure sharpness, both in the distant hills and in the scree closer at hand. In an ideal world I’d have kept my head screwed on, taken my tripod, and shot at f/11, ISO 50 and probably around 1/15sec. A subtle 0.3 ND grad filter was attached via a filter holder to the lens, along with a circular polariser. These two combined ensured that the sky retained detail and contrast, and didn’t look washed out compared to the punchy landscape below.
POST-PRODUCTION
It all worked as I had hoped – the evening sun caught the ridges and left the gullies in shade, giving a completely different look to the shots from earlier in the day. Where before it had looked flat and uninspiring, suddenly there was a maze of gold-coloured rhyolite catching the sun and seeming to spring out from the back of the camera. After a brief five minutes of gold, the spaces in the clouds had passed on; no doubt lighting up some equally fantastic scene further south. I decided it wasn’t going to get much better, and so it was time to head back down before dark. The only post-processing needed was to lighten the foreground scree slope a little, which I had included to give the photograph some foundation and allow the eye to follow the subtle curve down to the right and into the valley floor and sinuous river bed. A final sharpening gave everything a little extra zap.
GEAR USED
I shot this when the best I could afford was a Canon EOS 350D and a Sigma 18–55mm f/2.8. I only needed a very subtle ND grad filter to hold back the sky, which was already relatively dark compared to the illuminated mid-ground hills. A circular polariser helped add a little saturation to the scene and detail in the sky.
Mike tells you why you should understand your subject and how to use filters to manage wide-ranging contrasts in your photographs.
INSPIRATION
I was shooting on Holy Island, Lindisfarne, for a client in the morning, and decided I would take the rest of the day to explore and see if I could scope out any new photographic potential. Even now, with all the visitors to the island, I can still feel something of the quiet contemplation of the early pilgrims. Equally, I was standing next to a ’real’ Viking while I made this photograph. (Gary is a professional Viking who teaches Viking skills and history in schools.) The island has not always been so peaceful. The posts on St Cuthbert’s Way served as a guide across the treacherous tidal sands to these travellers. But how did they see the posts and the world as they crossed back over after their visit?
GETTING THE SHOT
For a change I used a longer lens and kept my feet dry. During the morning shoot I had been up to my waist in the fast-moving, retreating tide, which is probably one of the more reckless things I have done – but not the stupidest – to get the shot. By the time my camera came out the bag I had a very good mental image of the photograph that I wanted to make, and so then it was only necessary to compose and to wait until the light levels were right to give the desired shutter speed. The soft pink sky and carefully perched seagulls were a real bonus.
TECHNIQUE
I’m always careful to try and understand the flow of water in my photographs. It’s easy to get carried away and go for really long or short shutter speeds without understanding the water’s true movement through a scene. When the light was at its nicest colour the shutter speed wasn’t quite long enough, so I used a two-stop ND filter to achieve the ideal shutter speed. Critically, I wanted to create a solid base in the photograph to give the posts something to stand on, and to emphasise the difference between sea and sky. So I used an inverted two-stop ND grad to make the water much darker than the sky. I probably made 15 to 20 exposures of the same scene to ensure I got one that worked. I used a long lens, as I wanted to create a strong geometric pattern, with the posts fading into infinity. Lastly, I always use a tripod. I find this essential; and not just for sharp images. Working on a tripod also allows me to study the composition through the viewfinder, matching it to the image in my head, and to make small accurate changes as necessary. Using a camera hot-shoe spirit level with the tripod also ensures that the horizon is perfectly level every time; which is critical for a shot such as this.
POST-PRODUCTION
The post-production technique is very similar for all my work. I prefer to do a minimum amount. I believe nature provides us with all we need, with its own subjects and colour palette, and feel no need to excessively manipulate images. I use a custom Photoshop action developed over two years to blend exposures from the RAW file, which brings out a wider dynamic range and improves local contrast. I then use PhotoKit Sharpener for creative and print specific sharpening. I always print on to matte paper to complement the soft tones.
GEAR USED
This was shot with a Nikon D2X with Nikkor 17-55mm lens at 55mm, 8sec at f/16, ISO 100, LEE Filters 0.6ND and hard grad 0.6ND filters, Nikon remote release, hot-shoe spirit level and Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod.
Martin tells you how to use slow shutter speeds to compensate for false sensor readings when shooting snow.
INSPIRATION
I needed some snow shots for a client to use for a calendar featuring images of the Lake District. But the snow just never seemed to arrive that year and, as it was already March, time was not on my side. My daughter Rebecca and I had been up at Keswick for the weekend at our timber lodge when, at last, the snow started to come down heavily. Although it was still early on Sunday morning, we decided to head off home though the Lakes, despite the treacherous state of the roads. The further south we went, the heavier the snow became and the less traffic there was. As we approached Rydal Water, the snow suddenly stopped and I remembered that there was a pair of swans nesting on the eastern shore of the lake. As luck would have it, they were there and swimming around quite happily, despite the freezing conditions.
GETTING THE SHOT
I pulled the car into the side of the road at the far end of the lake, just past the Boathouse. I think that there were probably some double yellow lines under the snow somewhere there. But the excitement of capturing the image in such perfect conditions pushed the threat of a £60 fine into the back of my mind – such is the life of a landscape photographer. The snow was about a foot deep and it was quite difficult to get down to the water’s edge to get the shot of the swans that I wanted, with Loughrigg Fell in the background. But I set off over the uneven terrain with an uneaten sandwich in my kit bag to tempt the birds into posing for me. It was quite difficult to get the tripod level on the frozen ground beneath the snow. The whole scene was like a winter wonderland, which is why I called the image Swan Lake.
TECHNIQUE
Any image where snow is predominant can be quite difficult to capture, because the snow tricks the camera’s sensor into thinking that the conditions are brighter than they are. The technique here is to use a slower shutter speed to compensate for this. I normally use an aperture of f/11 to ensure that I get a good depth of field without any distortion, according to the principles of hyperfocal distance. Therefore, I set the camera on aperture priority mode at f/11, spot metered for the foreground and for the sky. The two shutter speed readings were exactly the same and there was no need to use my graduated neutral density filters. I then changed my camera to manual mode, keeping an aperture of f/11 and used a slower shutter speed than was indicated by the metered readings. On this occasion, I used 1/60sec while supporting my camera on a tripod. Normally, when taking landscape images in the Lake District, there is around a two-stop difference between the two meter readings, making it necessary to use graduated neutral density filters to compensate for this contrast. I know this can be achieved post-processing in Photoshop, but I like to capture the best image that I can on camera.
POST-PRODUCTION
The image was shot as a RAW file to ensure that the maximum data was obtained for use in post-processing. The camera RAW file was uploaded using Canon ZoomBrowser software and the white balance checked at that stage to ensure that there was no ‘orange’ cast on the image. The image was then converted to a TIFF file using Canon Utilities RAW Image Converter, and edited using Photoshop. Only minor changes were necessary, such as adjustments to levels and contrast. As there was little colour in the image, no adjustment was necessary to hue/saturation, and minimum sharpening was applied using the unsharp mask filter. The final image was saved as an 8-bit file, ready for printing.
GEAR USED
I shot this in 2006 with my old Canon EOS 5D full-frame camera, together with my Canon L-series EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. I used a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with an 804RC2 three-way pan tilt head in conjunction with a Canon RS-80 remote switch to obtain the crisp image. Both the tripod legs and head have built-in spirit levels.
Jason tells you how to pick the right moments to compose your images to give them a sense of scale.
INSPIRATION
My partner and I were visiting Morocco as a short holiday, leaving the UK Christmas festivities behind, with the view of celebrating the new year in a warmer climate. I had also planned to increase my stock photography portfolio, and I was extremely keen to capture some images of the Sahara desert. While we were not disappointed with the temperatures throughout the daylight hours, the nights were a different story. We employed the services of a local guide and a couple of camels to take us out into the desert, spending the night under canvas to ensure I could be on location for both the sunset and sunrise. Imagine my surprise one morning when we were greeted by a frost-covered desert. Photography in the Sahara can be quite difficult, and the changing of lenses should be avoided. On this trip I was also carrying a film camera – a Hasselblad XPan – which I discovered upon returning to the UK had somehow managed to accumulate fine Saharan sand in the film chamber; perhaps not surprising until you discover I never actually changed a roll of film while I was in the desert. This just goes to show how fine this sand is and the havoc it can wreak on your gear. My advice is to choose one lens before heading out, and don’t change it while you are on the dunes.
GETTING THE SHOT
The shot featured here was captured on the first day of our trip, shortly before sunrise. It is always quite tempting to shoot towards the sun. But I nearly always prefer to shoot at45º to the setting sun, allowing me to capture the last rays as they illuminate the location with golden light. The hard part was finding a suitable dune, complete with pleasing patterns in the ripples of sand. This involved a fair amount of hiking and climbing up dunes until this subject was found.
TECHNIQUE
Once I had found my location, I explored a variety of compositions before settling on this shot. My aim was to convey the size of the dunes, while using the ridge and sand ripples to lead the eye through the frame. My camera was mounted on a tripod (with the legs pushed into the sand), and a polarising filter was used to help enrich the blue sky and balance the overall exposure. I could have used a neutral density graduated filter to achieve this, but I felt that evidence of the use of the filter would be visible in the final shot. Then it was just a case of waiting for the sun to set, taking a number of frames until the shadows on the left-hand side finally encroached too far into the frame.
POST-PRODUCTION
Processing of the image was fairly simple, as I believe that if you dedicate your time, most landscape images should be right ‘in camera’. Using Phase One’s Capture One software, I slightly tweaked the saturation, contrast and tone curve to achieve the finished result. Then I removed the few dust spots evident.
GEAR USED
I shot this on my Canon EOS 20D with EF 20-35mm lens, fitted with a polarising filter. My exposure was 1/8sec at f/20, ISO 100, and I was using a tripod.
INSPIRATION
As I spend so much time on Poppit Sands (near Cardigan in West Wales), I get to see an awful lot of sand ripples. This shot stood out for me because it had something extra. The window of time that gives this certain light on Poppit is about five to 10 minutes. I would say that nearly all of my shots are taken in that short period of time. This image, however, has the added bonus of the reflected sky at the top. Take away that sky and it would be just another ripple photograph.
GETTING THE SHOT
It was October when I shot this. I remember that I had been standing in the flat stillness for quite a while, waiting for that short window of light. When it does arrive you have to rush to catch it. It is as if someone has turned on the Christmas lights – opportunities appear wherever you look. Upon studying the roll of negatives for this film, I saw that I took three shots of this subject. The sky made this one a keeper.
TECHNIQUE
I have standardised my technique for all my Poppit work. Every shot is taken with the same camera, lens and film type. I do this because I am now able to set up and shoot with no decisions to be made. Everything I think about is in front of the lens, rather than what is happening behind it. I always use f/22 – and I know that at a certain time, in certain weather, when the light is perfect, I will need 15 seconds exposure time. I always use a red filter as I find looking at an image in many colours distracting, and I always use a polariser. I never need to focus as I use a hyperfocal distance technique. This helps in two ways – firstly, I don’t need to mess around with focusing when I am trying to concentrate on what is available in front of me; and secondly, it often throws the focus out ever so slightly, which helps smooth out the million pinpricks of reflected light from the sand grains. Because I have these standards I am almost certain to get a good copy of what my eyes can see. I think that my aim is to forget about the photography and just concentrate on looking – that makes the difference between seeing shots that are truly thrilling to you and seeing the same old sand ripples over and over again.
GEAR USED
I use the same equipment for all my Poppit work – a Hasselblad 500C/M made in the 1980s, a Zeiss 50mm lens made in the 1960s and a Manfrotto tripod. I use a Cokin red filter along with a Cokin polariser and, most importantly, I wear very thin, but very warm, gloves – without these I would not be able to work the camera at all in the cold of Poppit’s winter months.
INSPIRATION
Since I was a child, and all through my photography career, I have been fascinated with the Apollo space missions. This childhood obsession has led directly to my infatuation with photography at Poppit, and I constantly have images of the moon running through my mind when I am on the beach. This pool of water and the soft reflected sky suggested to me the image of an astronaut’s visor.
GETTING THE SHOT
I shot this on 24 July last year. There is a certain part of Poppit that produces wonderful pools of water like this one. How they look depends on the weather and the roughness of the sea. Sometimes it can be totally flat – other times it is like the surface of the moon. This shot relies on the reflection of the sky to provide the soft/sharp contrast that can be so important. As is so often the case, I came across it by chance and took five shots from different angles. This particular one gave me what I was hoping for.
INSPIRATION
There are some shots that only ever come around once. I spend most of my time on Poppit rejecting possible shots – and very little time actually taking any. This is because I feel that it is important to always look for something new and exciting. You can never plan for shots – they just seem to happen at your feet. And within minutes, or sometimes seconds, they are gone. To help me with my photography at Poppit I try to rationalise the way I do things and explain to myself that repeating the process over and over again brings me closer to the subject. This allows me to see more, rather than running out of ideas and getting less. I think about how athletes repeat processes over and over again, and how archers practise with countless shots before they begin to feel a bond with the target and everything appears to become effortless. This shot to me is the beach revealing itself – rewarding me for my efforts.
GETTING THE SHOT
This photograph required no special technique, no long period of waiting. It was the first shot of the day and it simply appeared through the viewfinder. I took one shot and then a large piece of the sand broke off and the face image was gone. An important part of the photo for me is the small leaf in the bottom right. I love little hidden things like that popping into shot.
POST-PRODUCTION
For all of my images I shoot using Ilford Pan FPlus, which has a film speed of 50. I develop the film in my studio using Ilford ID-11 powder developer and standard photographic chemicals. Once developed I let the film dry overnight and then I scan the negatives as low-res images into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom on my iMac. This allows me to browse them all and choose which are good for the next stage. The chosen images can now go one of two ways – they can be scanned again at high res and then printed on the Epson Stylus Pro 3800, or they can be printed as enlarged negatives and contact printed in the traditional way, using darkroom fibre paper and processing chemicals. The first way is straightforward and easy. The second way is pretty difficult, time-consuming – and wonderful.
Richard reveals how subtle use of HDR can add natural depth to your landscape shots.
INSPIRATION
Helman Tor on Bodmin Moor is a magical place. These solitary trees are wonderful things, with twisted trunks showing their constant battle against the ferocious winds found on this isolated spot, high up on the moor. I wanted to frame the rocks on top of the tor with this particular tree, but also keep the detail in them. Early morning light would mean a lack of shadows. Midday always has too much contrast, and afternoon would leave little, if no, shadow detail on the rock.
GETTING THE SHOT
I shot this in May, when the light is still quite soft. I decided the best time of day would be early afternoon. The sun would give me the tree’s shadow in the right place, and provide the light on the rocks that I wanted. I would have preferred more clouds in the shot though; I think these would have given the image a little more depth.
TECHNIQUE
The image was taken with my Sigma 10-20mm lens to give a wider feel. I used a tripod to take a three-shot bracketed exposure, so I could play around with the shadow details later if necessary. I enhanced these slightly on the rock face and under the tree. The high sun provided soft, yet saturated, colours. Having my focal points on the right-hand side gives the distant view over the moor. The bluebells provide a splash of colour to break up the foreground.
POST-PRODUCTION
I always shoot my landscapes using RAW. My process is to firstly use high dynamic range (HDR) processing software, Photomatix Pro, to generate a subtle HDR image. I then import this into Photoshop. Using the original files I create various adjustment layers alongside the HDR image. A curves adjustment layer lets me darken the original image, dropping the overall RGB values just below the midpoint. I don’t tend to use more than one point on this layer. I then mask out areas on this layer to retain the brightness in the centre of the image. This gives me a controllable and very subtle vignette. I would also use this layer at opacity of between 30% and 50%. Another layer is duplicated and used as my burn layer to target specific areas of interest. I use this method to create additional depth in the image. Again, this layer will be reduced to about 50% opacity. For the final part of the layering process I adjust the opacity of each layer to suit the individual image. I find that HDR normally gives very flat-looking images. Using the layers above I can generate detail in the shadows, yet also give the image depth by burning the extremes of the shadow. This process allows me to adjust the curves and dodge and burn very specific areas of interest on a very subtle level. I always try to create a final image that looks as natural as possible, while feeling a little like a painting.
GEAR USED
I shot this image with my trusty Nikon D200 with Sigma 10-20mm lens. My D200 was attached to the solid Manfrotto 074 tripod with Manfrotto 222 grip-action ball head. I also use the Lowepro Street & Field deluxe waistbelt to carry all my lenses, filters, batteries and cards, as it’s more comfortable than a backpack when trekking.
Stephen tells you how to maximise depth of field and balance exposure in your shots.
INSPIRATION
This image was shot as part of my 1/365 Project – for which I attempted to produce at least one good photographic image a day, throughout the entire year of 2006. The Northern Ireland coastline featured quite heavily in the project’s early months, and in this case it was Benone beach in County Londonderry. This was one of those times when it felt as though everything was smiling on me, as I drove on to the beach to see these huge mounds of sand and the stormy skies coming together at once.
GETTING THE SHOT
This shot itself was in a group of about 10 that I took to ensure that I covered every angle. The storm was coming in quite hard off the Atlantic at this point, and I had to fight against winds and eventually heavy rains to get these images sharp – and without destroying my camera in the process. Thankfully, Northern Ireland has several beaches which can be driven onto safely, so I was able to park my car just behind me. This broke some of the wind and provided a retreat between showers. The mounds of sand were created by a digger which had just cleared the concrete road which runs down the middle of the beach. These huge sandcastles were each about six feet wide.
TECHNIQUE
This image was all about trying to maximise depth of field and balance the exposure between the white wave tops on the horizon and the darkness of the clouds with the golden sands. The shot itself was at ISO 100 using a dark graduated filter to balance the sky. A wide-angle lens with a 35mm equivalent of 34mm was used to bring as much of the foreground in as possible. This was also set to f/11 to get sufficient front to back focus. I always use the ‘shoot to the right’ technique for exposing landscape shots, whereby you make the brightest part of the image fall just below clipping on the histogram. The largest part of the technique involved was in analysing the composition of the scene and lining parts of the landscape to fall on the thirds within the viewfinder. I also made a conscious decision to break the rule of not placing your horizon in the centre of the frame. Rules are, after all, made to be broken.
POST-PRODUCTION
There was a significant amount of post-production carried out to emphasise the heaviness of the scene, which a standard printout would not have achieved. The graduated filter used in the shoot was brought out further with graduated layers being placed on the image in Photoshop. A reasonable amount of dodging and burning was applied to the sand to highlight and give depth to the mounds, and to pull out the wispy lines of sand being blown about in the wind. Black and white points and image contrast were also adjusted to bring out the colour in the sky and sand while also bringing back the heaviness of the overbearing sky. The post-processing simply brought out the exact feeling of what I was out photographing, rather than changing the reality of what was there, and was no more than what could be achieved in a standard darkroom – as I have a personal preference for presenting reality, rather than distorting it.
GEAR USED
As with all images in the 1/365 Project, this was shot on an Olympus camera, specifically the E-300, with a 14-54mm lens attached and UV filter to protect the lens. I love to travel light and prefer to take only a basic amount of equipment with me. Not only does this mean I can travel further, but I have found that it makes me more creative in getting the shots for which I may not have the correct lens to capture. I use the Cokin filter system with a two-stop graduated neutral density filter. I find this to be enough with digital, as you can pull so many of the highlights back when you shoot in RAW.
INSPIRATION
Again, this shot formed part of my personal 1/365 Project; a concept which seems to have become quite commonplace these days, but was relatively new in 2006. My approach to completing the project involved a lot of travel to many stunning locations, including this one in Portrush, Northern Ireland. This popular seaside resort used to be a destination on the British Professional Surfing Association’s (BPSA) UK Pro Surf Tour, as it gets its fair share of big waves coming in. I have always loved stormy seas, so decided that for this image I really wanted to try and capture the power and the force of the churning waves.
GETTING THE SHOT
The shot was taken in February, in the middle of a very cold storm. Although I was shooting with a good telephoto lens, I still had to get as close to the waves as possible without risking life and limb. Crouched between some rocks on the shoreline, I started my hunt for the perfect wave. As with any fast-moving subject, until you get the images on to the computer back at base, it is impossible to tell if you’ve got that perfect shot. But nestled among the 50 or so images from that day was this one, which more than captured the exact moment I was looking for.
TECHNIQUE
The image was shot at ISO 400 to try to get as much shutter speed as possible. I always keep the camera in aperture priority, using the old technique of ‘compose, move, spot meter, exposure lock, focus, recompose and fire’, which actually works a lot quicker than it sounds. The basics of it are to compose the scene generally for what you want to see, then select the middle range lighting point in the scene, take a spot meter reading from this, which you lock with the exposure lock facility on your camera, then choose the object you want in focus within the scene and lock focus on this. Finally, you recompose and then take the shot. Once you get used to working like this it really is quite speedy. That said, it was also necessary for me at the time, as the Olympus E-300’s outlying focus points were not particularly trustworthy. For these shots I locked the exposure in and then kept this set for all images, allowing me to work a bit quicker by simply focusing, composing and shooting. With the speed the waves were coming in, and the size of them, it would have been impossible to work any other way. I used a long telephoto lens at the 35mm equivalent of400mm to get the shot as tightly cropped as possible. I always prefer to try to anticipate the movement in an action shot, rather than just holding down the shutter and letting the motor wind on. It is trying to capture Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment which appeals to me. In this case I would watch the wave come up through the viewfinder and try to time my actions with the shutter release accordingly.
POST-PRODUCTION
There was actually very little post-production required for this shot. As I like to get my metering right at the time of shooting, this image was literally slung into Photoshop, the black-and-white points set appropriately, mid points adjusted to bring out more contrast and the white balance corrected. The latter was the one thing which was quite far off, but as I always shoot in RAW, this was easily corrected.
GEAR USED
I try to keep my camera gear as light as possible, and in this case was travelling with a small Crumpler shoulder pack containing an Olympus E-300 and a Zuiko digital ED 50-200mm lens. I shot on to SanDisk 1GB CF cards. The two indispensable items for the shoot were a good quality UV filter to keep the salt water off the lens, and a large lens cloth to wipe any water from the filter. Other than photographic gear I was wrapped up warm in some good-quality Lowe Alpine hiking gear, as personal comfort is as much a part of any photograph as the equipment you use.
Darwin reveals how to achieve a sense of scale in your images.
INSPIRATION
This image was taken in September during my yearly Fall Colours in the Canadian Rockies photo tour. I suspect this wasn’t the colour that my photo tour participants were expecting, but in the end they loved the variety of subjects we could get this time of year. We shot everything, from emerald lakes and glowing sunrises to yellow hills of aspen trees and, of course, glaciers and mountains.
GETTING THE SHOT
In order to get this shot we hiked4km across the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, Alberta, to the Icefall area. A professional, glacier-trained guide led us up the glacier. Anyone who is interested in hiking on the glacier either needs to be a trained mountaineer or to hire a trained guide. At the Icefall we were met with a wall of cascading ice which made for really awesome photography. As we were right in the Icefall we needed to use wide-angle lenses to take it all in. The entire time I was in the Icefall I used only my Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens. To give a sense of scale here, the three ice chunks in the foreground are about the size of a car.
TECHNIQUE
I chose my Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens not for its ability to correct perspective or to control depth-of-field independent of aperture, but rather to give me wider views than the 24mm focal length could provide normally. I simply used the shift feature of the lens to give me two images that I could stitch together into one larger one. I shifted the lens down until I got the ice chunks in the bottom of the frame and made a horizontal image, then I shifted the lens upwards until I got the serac [column of ice] in the background and made another horizontal image. The two images overlapped in content by about 30%. I shot both component images at 1/160sec at f/10, ISO 100.
POST-PRODUCTION
Back at home I used Adobe Photoshop to merge the two images into one square one. Joining two horizontal square images shot with a 24mm lens into one larger image gave me the equivalent of about a 16mm lens on a full frame camera. I always shoot RAW images and then process them using Adobe Camera RAW in Adobe Bridge. Once the RAW image is processed I finish the images in Adobe Photoshop. For shifted stitch images I use photomerge in Adobe Photoshop (CS3 or higher) to seamlessly blend the two images together. Because I used a tilt-shift lens, the images generally merge together pixel for pixel and no part of the image is lost during stitching in photo merge. This process was also applied to the Icefields Parkway image.
GEAR USED
I shot this using a Canon EOS-1Ds MkIII and Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens.
INSPIRATION
This is another image taken in September during my Fall Colours in the Canadian Rockies photo tour. This is a little spot along the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park that people often don’t notice, simply because the pond is very small and is easily overlooked.
GETTING THE SHOT
There is much more here than meets the eye. First of all, you need to know about the location; secondly, you need to know when the best light makes this little pond look great; and finally, you need to know how to capture the high contrast light of the scene. Local knowledge provides all of this information.
TECHNIQUE
I used my Canon 17mm tilt-shift lens here for two reasons. Firstly, even though I was using a wide-angle lens on a full frame camera, I simply could not get the pond and the mountain into the photo at the same time. So I used the shift feature on the lens to make two separate photos that I could merge into one larger image. I took one horizontal image of the foreground log, the pond and the base of the mountain. I then shifted the lens up to make another image with the top of the mountain and the sky. For both photos I also had the lens tilted into the scene to give me great depth of field from the foreground log to the background peak. And finally, along with the shifting and tilting, I used a Singh-Ray polariser and two-stop hard-edge graduated filter to even out the exposure between the shaded foreground and lit mountain. For this particular image both component images were shot at ½ sec at f/11, ISO 100.
GEAR USED
I use a Canon EOS-1Ds MkIII camera and all four of Canon’s tilt-shift lenses (17mm, 24mm, 45mm, and 90mm) for the majority of my landscape work; here I used the 17mm lens.
Look out for our next installment of the guide: Wildlife!
- Average Article Rating 0 Stars
-
Your Rating
Login Required!
Sorry - You must be a registered user & logged in to rate this.
Login | Register
Back to Categories