Midday sun is often very harsh so you need to think about what you photography and how
When I first began to photograph there was a standard rule – don’t take photos in the middle of the day because the light is harsh and the results will be poor. For the most part I have stuck to that rule, especially in my landscape photography. Because the sun is high, midday light can be contrasty and harsh. But often we find ourselves out for the day – perhaps for a family outing or on holidays – and we want some photos as keepsakes. Here are some tips that will give you better results from your middle-of-the- day photographs.
Come in closer
Moving in closer to your chosen subject – be it a person, a building or almost anything else – will help to eliminate bright highlights and deep shadows. Film can’t cope with too much shadow or highlight and it loses detail. This is often true at midday. Simplifying your composition will make for a better picture at any time of the day, but it’s especially so in hard midday light. When you move closer and fill the frame with your subject, the sky becomes almost absent from your photo – thus you eliminate the cause of much of the harshness.
Watch for passing clouds
Learn to be a sky watcher, especially during the middle of the day. Use clouds and their shadows as they pass by. Many people enjoy taking pictures in public gardens, perhaps to photograph displays of colourful flowers. Waiting for a passing cloud to photograph these scenes will enhance colour and reduce contrast in your picture. A greater saturation of colours will result because the shadow has reduced the glare.
Work in the shadows
Even if there are no clouds in the sky, shadows can be found almost everywhere. In lightly shaded areas, there’s less contrast and film can cope with all the detail. Buildings and trees create wonderful shadows to work with. Watch your background so as to avoid the meter being fooled into underexposure because of a bright sky or sunlit area. That’s why getting in closer is so important. You can create your own shadows by using an umbrella, a vehicle, or even by using your own body, especially for subjects like flowers.
Use fill-flash
The light in the middle of the day bounces around everywhere and we often think that it’s bright enough in the shadows to take a picture without flash. Use your built-in flash more often, especially when taking pictures of people. It can add important “catch lights” in people’s eyes and eliminate dark shadows from their faces. In open shade or under cloud your flash still works a treat. Try it next time and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Don’t put the camera away on overcast days
Many people leave the camera at home if the weather looks dubious. Or they bring it along, hoping that the weather will improve. Even overcast days can yield lovely photos, though concentrating on details by moving in closer is a much better option than photographing a grand landscape. Use faster rated film like ISO 400 for saturated colours. And remember to use your flash for all sorts of subjects, especially people. By following a few of these simple tips, you too can photograph all sorts of subjects at any time of the day. Remember, some rules were meant to be broken!
For more tips on improving your photography when you’re out and about, you can contact Ian Rolfe at his web site at www.ianrolfephotography.com.au
Source:
http://photo.blorge.com/2007/03/04/pictures-at-high-noon/
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Photography tips: 10 tips for better landscape photos
Photographer Shelton Muller provides ten tips to help you take better landscape photos.
1. The right light
Landscape photography is as much about light as it is about composition or location. In the wrong light, even the most wonderful location can appear ordinary in a two-dimensional image. Be sure to use the warmth of early morning and late afternoon light to illuminate and enhance your landscapes. Harsh, overhead light is rarely complimentary to a scene.
2. Dynamic composition
Composition is a key element in successful landscape photography. Placing the elements artistically within the frame ensures that you’re doing more than just taking a snapshot of a beautiful place. Use compositional rules such as the rule of thirds, patterns and leading lines to ensure the image stands alone and is not solely reliant upon the beauty of the scene to draw in the viewer.
3. Filters
Filters like polarisers are essential for saturating colour and enhancing skies. Neutral density graduated filters can dramatise skies and also balance out radical differences of exposure between foreground and background. Warming filters enhance the natural warmth of morning and afternoon light. These filters are a necessary part of the landscape photographer’s kit.
4. Foreground interest
A foreground element is often vital to maintain interest in the landscape image. These elements can vary from rocks and plants to trees, even man-made objects.
5. Use a tripod
Because landscape photography usually requires smaller apertures, shutter speeds may often be too slow to handhold, so mounting your camera on a tripod becomes necessary. Also, using a tripod ensures the photographer takes time to accurately compose, employ filters, set exposures and select lenses.
6. Wide-angle lenses
Wide-angle lenses dramatise a landscape by visually expanding the distance between elements in the frame. They’re particularly valuable when used in conjunction with fore- ground interest and they draw the viewer in the through the frame.
7. Use depth of field techniques
Sharpness is absolutely necessary for most landscape photography. Most landscapes ensure sharpness by using small aperture settings like f16 or f22. In this way the eye is drawn through the scene because it naturally searches for sharp elements within the frame. Conversely, minimising depth of field can successfully draw the eye away from elements within the scene that are inescapable inclusions, yet not necessarily attractive.
8. Exposure
It’s often wise to disagree with the meter in your camera. By exposing for highlights or shadows in the frame, you can highlight cer- tain elements in the scene that you want the viewer to see, while hiding others you want ignored. Also, these exposure methods ensure the image appears differently to how it’s seen by the human eye.
9. Telephoto lenses
Telephoto lenses not only bring things closer, they also compress the distance between elements in the frame. By doing so they create images that differ from the standard viewpoint of the human eye.
10. Perspective
The term landscape is often used to mean horizontal format. Landscaped photography often calls for this kind of perspective, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes a vertical or “portrait” format is very successful, especially when employing wide-angle lenses, shooting from lower viewpoints and including foreground interest.
Source:
http://photo.blorge.com/2007/10/20/photography-tips-10-tips-for-better-landscape-photos/
1. The right light
Landscape photography is as much about light as it is about composition or location. In the wrong light, even the most wonderful location can appear ordinary in a two-dimensional image. Be sure to use the warmth of early morning and late afternoon light to illuminate and enhance your landscapes. Harsh, overhead light is rarely complimentary to a scene.
2. Dynamic composition
Composition is a key element in successful landscape photography. Placing the elements artistically within the frame ensures that you’re doing more than just taking a snapshot of a beautiful place. Use compositional rules such as the rule of thirds, patterns and leading lines to ensure the image stands alone and is not solely reliant upon the beauty of the scene to draw in the viewer.
3. Filters
Filters like polarisers are essential for saturating colour and enhancing skies. Neutral density graduated filters can dramatise skies and also balance out radical differences of exposure between foreground and background. Warming filters enhance the natural warmth of morning and afternoon light. These filters are a necessary part of the landscape photographer’s kit.
4. Foreground interest
A foreground element is often vital to maintain interest in the landscape image. These elements can vary from rocks and plants to trees, even man-made objects.
5. Use a tripod
Because landscape photography usually requires smaller apertures, shutter speeds may often be too slow to handhold, so mounting your camera on a tripod becomes necessary. Also, using a tripod ensures the photographer takes time to accurately compose, employ filters, set exposures and select lenses.
6. Wide-angle lenses
Wide-angle lenses dramatise a landscape by visually expanding the distance between elements in the frame. They’re particularly valuable when used in conjunction with fore- ground interest and they draw the viewer in the through the frame.
7. Use depth of field techniques
Sharpness is absolutely necessary for most landscape photography. Most landscapes ensure sharpness by using small aperture settings like f16 or f22. In this way the eye is drawn through the scene because it naturally searches for sharp elements within the frame. Conversely, minimising depth of field can successfully draw the eye away from elements within the scene that are inescapable inclusions, yet not necessarily attractive.
8. Exposure
It’s often wise to disagree with the meter in your camera. By exposing for highlights or shadows in the frame, you can highlight cer- tain elements in the scene that you want the viewer to see, while hiding others you want ignored. Also, these exposure methods ensure the image appears differently to how it’s seen by the human eye.
9. Telephoto lenses
Telephoto lenses not only bring things closer, they also compress the distance between elements in the frame. By doing so they create images that differ from the standard viewpoint of the human eye.
10. Perspective
The term landscape is often used to mean horizontal format. Landscaped photography often calls for this kind of perspective, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes a vertical or “portrait” format is very successful, especially when employing wide-angle lenses, shooting from lower viewpoints and including foreground interest.
Source:
http://photo.blorge.com/2007/10/20/photography-tips-10-tips-for-better-landscape-photos/
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