Advanced Light Measurement.

Just wanted to back up some of the points begin made in the part of the course I'm presently at.





Different exposures can produce shots that all work in different ways.





1. 13secs exposure.

Taken to show the interior while making the outside to bright to distinguish anything








2. 25secs exposure.


Taken to show the interior in shadow while keeping the detail clear outside the door. Natural draws you to the outside world and the light.










3. 40secs exposure.

This is the best of both worlds shot, the shadows aren't too dark while it doesn't appear to light outside thous losing the detail.






In evenly lit scenes their is generally one 'correct' exposure meaning if you took a number of different exposures from light to dark most people would pick the same one as looking best.

1.




2.

3.

To me its clearly the bottom shot as the 1st is to light, 2nd to dark while the last is just right.

Its the bites like this that i sometimes find most interesting because you don't really think about these things and then when you look at it you think how could i not realise that.

Project 11- The Colour Of Daylight

Before even attempting this project there's a hell of a lot of information to take in first. Luckily for me a large part of it I've already covered in the previous course The Art of Photography so I'm already aware of how colour temperature applies to photography and the ways this can effect your work. I don't feel that it is maybe explained in this courses in a way that its straight forward to get your head around as it could have been maybe broken down into more manageable chunks.

What this project is basically explaining to you is that daylight changes colour during the day plus also as the weather conditions change, for example
On a cloudy day as above the light appears white and quiet soft, the light will also appear white around the middle of the day dew to the angle of the sun. The reason the cloud cover makes the light appear softer is because it acts as a natural diffuser much like the ones used in a studio set up that you place in front of the light source.

Next the light can appear blue when the sky is completely clear or between sunrise and midday and midday and sunset depending again on weather conditions.

Finally daylight can appear orange at sunrise and sunset, this is coursed by the angle of the light reflecting off the cloud cover or by the amount of dust present in the atmosphere. The colour can range from orange to red depending on the conditions again meaning that if you understand the weather conditions you can get yourself in the right position to take advantage and get the right results.

Another point to be aware of that isn't mentioned in the course material is that with modern photo software such as Photoshop you can easily add colour filters to your work meaning it isn't always necessary to buy expensive colour filters because its now possible to alter the colour cast in post production. I know alot of the older generation of photographers would argue that this isn't the best way to get the right results but when I've experimented with the two different processes (using a colour filter and adding one in photoshop) i personally can't see to much different. I supposes it just matter of preference on how you like to work.

Weather and the Properties of Light.

Thought i was doing the wrong course for a minute when i got to this section, what the hell has the weather got to do with photography? When i read on a bit i understood where he was coming from, you don't realise at first but when you look and experiment a bit the weather does change the nature of light lot. Cloud depending on its thickness can soften the light, complete cloud cover doesn't have to stop you you just need to know how to use it (on a really cloudy day it might be better to go shot in a heavily wooded area because the shadows wont be as strong). When it rains and the sun comes out it can feel much brighter because the wet surfaces naturally reflect the light which can course problems but again its how you use this to your advantage. As it says in the course

"Often the most important decision for a landscape photographer is choosing the
best moment at which to shoot."

Found this article online think it explains things better then i could.http://digital-photography-school.com/time-for-landscape-weather-and-landscape-photography

I was glad to have the properties of light explain to me little better today, this was an area that I'd covered in previous courses but not from the point of view of a landscape photographer. Clearly if you know in advance how the light is going to behave you have won half the battle for example first you need to know which direction the light is going to be falling on your chosen subject, this can be affect by the time of day, the time of year or even where in the world you are. Add to this the weather condition as I've already talk about and even what the landscape you are shooting is like because a snow covered scene will reflect a lot of light while in a mountainous area shadows might be cast as the sun moves during the day. These things normally you wouldn't probably think about but you have to be aware to get the results you want because you might travel miles to a particular place and then have your time wasted because its raining or there's heavy cloud.

"Light is the most fundamental thing a photographer can work with. A picture taken in the wrong light just will not work, no matter how dramatic the subject, whereas with the right light a lump of coal can look good. Getting yourself in the right place when the light is near perfect for a shot is an all-consuming activity. Its probably the biggest difference between making a great shot and a snapshot."

David Norton.

ASSIGNMENT 1- THE SEASON

What I'm presenting here are the shots that i chose not to send to my tutor and the reasons behind these decisions.




The first photo above i nearly did use but in the end i decided not to because of the position of the building. I didn't like the solid brick wall facing the camera because i thought it over powered the whole shot drawing to much away from the flowers in the foreground. What I'm trying to show is the contrast between the boarded up house begin quiet dilapidated and the fresh new flowers growing around it in the over grown garden. Although i didn't manage to get this across here with photo 13 i did a much better job. Another problem i had with this one was that it felt a little to busy/to much going on in the frame, i much prefer to keep things more simple if i can.

Shot Settings-

• f/13
• 400 secs
• 400 ISO
• 18mm

The reason i didn't use this image was although it has good lighting its missing a focal point, what it needs is something on the left hand side which would have given more focus but also balance because it has far to much weight on the right with the tree and hedge line. Produced it from two shots using Photomerge.

My problem here is it lacks any sense of scale/depth and is a little to devoid of life to capture the idea of spring. It would work better with say some wildlife in the foreground and in the summer it'd have far more colour to it. In photo 5 i solved these problems by altering the position and using the trees to create diminished perspective plus also adding a natural track to draw you into the shot.

Shot Settings

• f/11
• 320 secs
• 400 ISO
• 22mm

Used a group of three shots to make up this images, it does feel springish (if that's a word) but it could have done with the figure from the shot below to make it work better. Just feels to empty, but a little warmer then some of the other shots because of the hint of yellow on the left hand side.

I didn't think this photo captured the idea of spring/new life at all, yes it is a good shot but it doesn't feel like spring because of how bare the landscape is. Its a shame because i like, its got nice balanced with good perspective plus the little colour that's present does stand out. Feels to cold because of the strong amounts of blue and green.

Shot Settings

• f/11
• 800 secs
• 800 ISO
• 75mm

Similar problems as with the 3rd shot in this section but this has no real standout quality's to it. Yes there's a hint of green returning to the trees which gives it the idea of spring but it needs more than this to make it a good piece of work.

Shot Settings

• f/11
• 800 secs
• 800 ISO
• 130mm

Similar problems as the 4th shot in this series, thought that by using photomerge could get across the grandeur of the landscape but just doesn't fit the idea of spring.

This was the second shot i experiment with by adding some colour back to it using layers in photoshop. It does have some points that make it kind of stand out as being spring (some trees with leaves on others without) but not enough that i felt it'd fit in with the rest of the work I'd chosen for this assignment. I defiantly keep it in mind for future use because i actually really like it a lot.

I could have either used this one or photo 17, why i left this out was even though it does show slightly more activity with all the boats queuing up i didn't feel the angle was right. By this i mean it would have looked better if their had been a way for me to get higher up a look straight down the canal.

Conclusions on Assignment 1.

I found this one of the hardest assignments I'd done so far, whether this is because i approached it the wrong way but more likely i feel its just hard to find different ways to show spring without continually using the same imagery eg. flowers and trees bursting into light, misty sunrises etc. What i have produced i am very pleased with because I'm happy that i know have a much better feel for adding good depth perception to my work plus i haven't rushed through this assignment but have taken enough time to be sure i got just the shots i wanted. If you want to see the work i sent away to my tutor I'm going to in time put it on my flickr page as soon as i have a chance.

Planning And Research For Assignment 1.

At last I've reached the point where i feel I'm ready to tackle the first assignment, what it asks you to produce is "Photograph subjects which capture the feeling of the current season" for me at this time it is spring.

To begin with i found it a little hard to find inspiration and to get a hold of what spring time actually meant to me personally, but after emailing my tutor he put me on the right track and gave me food for thought. What i did was to look more closely at how other people doing the same course had approached the different seasons and also how more established photographs approached the subject, plus i was also looking closely at the content of there work to see if this could help to develop my own approach. One of the points my tutor made to me was to understand how the light can be very important in the spring but he also said to try and avoid what he called "chocolate box" landscapes which I'd guess he means the classic lamb jumping around in daffodils.

Found it hard to find any photographers who have tackled the subject of spring in their work so what i ended up doing was looking at landscapes in general for the photographers in the list to the right (this was more to understand what makes a good landscape) and then looking on stock image websites to get an idea of what other people consider to be spring images.

The conclusion I've come to is that spring really means the return of life to landscapes, whether this means in terms of wildlife or in actual human activity it gives me some scope for what i hope to produce. I could look at how we effect/interact with the landscape at this time of year, how colour slowly returns after the dull emptiness of the winter. What ever i do must bare in mind that i got to pick some of my work to include in my final portfolio so it has to be easily assessable throughout the year so i can return to the same scene and re-shot it.

Project 10- Soft Colours

For this project I'd be looking for landscapes with a soft colour range throughout, this isn't as straight forward as you'd first think because these ranges don't natural occur in a English landscape so I've had to spend so time to find the right range of colours.


This first shot is the best in this set because it captures the idea of this project perfectly. In the scene you have a nice collection of very soft blues and greys which work together well to give the scene a relaxed air. I know it seems a little dull and maybe a little cold also because of this combination of colours but with soft colours this is a problem which often occurs.

Here again you have the blues and greys but this time I've introduced a little yellow which helps fix the problem with the first image. Although the yellow doesn't fit in with the colour range produced by the blues and greys i don't feel it stops the shot from working as a soft colour image because for some reason it just works(not a very good explanation i know but its how i feel about the shot).

The final shot for this project I've gone for something a little different to try and show that soft colours don't just have to feel cold. Here although the range is a little harder then i would have liked you still can see that there is out there scenes where warmer colours can appear softer. If the fog had been greater it would have soften the light which in turn would have soften the colours also.

I found this a very interesting project if a little challenging (which isn't a bad thing) because as I've already said soft colours can some times be a little difficult to find occurring naturally as the British countryside is full of strong colours. I feel that the best chance to capture these colour ranges is probably say on a mist autumn morning because at this time of year you have a greater colour range and the mist would act as a natural softener.

Project 9- Colour Themes.

After doing the previous three courses i can whole heartily say i feel comfortable dealing with colours because it made up quiet a large part of at least two of them and alot of the work i produced involved landscapes in some way.(For this reason two of the following shots are taken from colour projects in the Art of Photography and An Intro. to Digital Photography.)

The aim of this project was to produce three images showing-

• the largest range of greens that you can find in one view

Like the range here from the very light greens of the grass through darker colours in the heath to the very dark greens in the trees. Felt it added interest to the photo by including the houses and then with the hillside in the distance seeming to loom over the whole scene it all comes together to make a very balance image. This kind of colour range does tend to be the norm in England at least in the summer months when this was taken, i do find it a bit repetitive and do tend to look for anything to break the colour up (suppose this is another reason for including the house), i just don't like shots with a solid mass of colour in.

• one isolated strong colour set against a contrasting background
  
  

This was from a previous project in The Art of Photography to do with contrasting colours so felt it fit in perfectly here to. The contrast clearly is with the yellow of the flowers and the green of the undergrowth, the only point that lets this photo down are the trees in the background apparently. A former tutor told me it look a little to busy and distract you away from the foreground which is the focus of the shot, i can see what he meant but i still feel its a good piece so that why i included it again.

• the largest range of colour contrast that you can find

I've taken this from the very first course i took An Intro. to Digital Photography, this for a long time was one of my most favorite shots and now i understand why. It has strong perspective with the path drawing you to the tree in the background, also the good contrast between the golden wheat, green of the tree and incredible blue of the sky make it standout. If i was able to retake this now i only change the time of day it was done, by shooting it in the late evening I'd have been able ton use the shadow to add even more perspective plus the lower light would have made the colours far more intense.

I know understanding colours in photography is just as important as understanding light but i do feel that this is just old ground being recovered again, I'm sure there are reasons for it but i just don't understand why?