Project 21- Silhouettes and Reflections.

This project was quiet a straight forward one in that you where asked to shot images with water in them showing reflection while shooting into the sun to make the surrounding landscape appear in the form of a silhouette. You were then asked to bracket the exposures and examine how the shadows and detail in images change. One of the main problems i found when doing this is that its very hard working facing into the sun because if your not very careful you get end up blinding yourself (and i bet some have) so you have to work fast and hope you're getting the photos you need. Another problem i had was dew to the spot i pick, not thinking it was where a herd of cow come down to drink from the river in the evening i soon found myself surround by about 20 cows so it was a little bit of a rush to get out the way ( the things you do for work).


-2 STOPS- What you see above is that as well as the shot being completely silhouetted, the shadows are also so strong that you can't pick out any detail, the reflection seems very soft but it is clear. A good thing about this exposure is that the sun is clearly visible while in the later shots it'll just be a brighter and brighter spot instead of the ball above.

-1 STOP- In this exposure the detail is starting to become apparent while the trees and horizon are still silhouetted, also the reflection appears a little brighter.

0 STOPS- Virtually all the silhouetting is gone and now the shadows are beginning to be reduced slowly reveling more and more of the foreground detail.

+1 STOP- Shadows are very much reduced but the reflection doesn't appear to be getting any brighter. Now though the sky is becoming very bright and over exposed.

+2 STOPS- Finally the shadows are weaker , again there is no obvious change in the reflection and the sky is pretty much spoiled by the over exposed nature of the shot.

The photo that i think works best is the -1 stop image as it quiet a happy medium the sky isn't to over exposed so the sun still has a little shape, the background is still completely silhouetted while there is some detail present in the foreground and finally the reflection is clear if not to bright meaning the whole shot just feels right. A enjoyable project but i think I'll be seeing spots for the next week.

Been doing a little more reading on this subject because i didn't maybe grasp the reasons why its so hard to get a good expose when working with water. Never thought to think as the water as a reflect er of light meaning that when the camera reads the view its going to make the shot seem very bright. The best time to shot scenes involving water is obviously during the early morning or just before sunset when the light isn't as intense, meaning i could have improved my shots for this project by shooting maybe another half and hour later.