First thing to say is, this is the kind of image which doesn't get many comments on Flickr! Most flickerites are drawn to brightly coloured images, heavily saturated and unnatural. The thumbnails glow and call out 'click on me'.
This type of image, very 'Joe Cornish' (I wish), is exactly as it was the other morning in heavy frost near the Surprise View in Derbyshire. No spectacular sunrise, no zinging colours - just a wonderful calm atmosphere and lovely lilac blue light reflecting off of the frost.
Which leads me to the reason for my post.
I invested in a set of Lee ND Grads in the summer. No amount of blending, HDR'ing or any other jiggery pockery can replicate how they work or the quality they bring to an image.
However, for some reason, they don't come with instructions. I am guessing either everyone knows how to use them properly and I am just a bit thick, or Lee don't care and just make so much money out of these overpriced pieces of plastic they think 'why bother putting instructions in, when wads of cash just keep pouring in without them'. (I mean, £40 for a small adaptor ring of machined aluminium!!! It must cost Lee £1 at most to manufacture).
Then, this week, I got the Lee Filters book, written by the photographers they use in their publicity - David Noton, Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite et al. At the beginning, finally, is a double page where they explain exactly how to meter for the filters to get superb results. I then got an email from a contact of mine with even more help but more of that later.
Lee describe two methods of metering for their ND Grads. The second method is for those with a hand held spot meter. Now at £300 approx for one of those, I don't yet have one, although I can feel one coming, so I won't describe this method just yet - maybe on a future post.
What I will describe is the method all DSLR users can employ. It is going to sound complicated, and I am purposely trying to include much detail, but trust me, once you have done it a couple of times, you will see it is quite straightforward and no where as difficult as it sounds when you write it down. I also include some help from my friend Howard Goff too, towards the end which simplifies things a lot.
1. Set the camera, on the tripod, to manual mode with the filter holder attached but no filters in.
2. Set your desired aperture - for landscapes usually something like f16 or f22.
3. Set the camera to spot metering mode (see your cameras manual for this). In this mode the camera only measures the light in the very centre of the lens, so it is very specific and accurate.
4. Take your first reading by pointing the camera at a mid-tone in the foreground and half depressing the shutter button. A mid tone means, not the brightest part of the ground and not the dark shadows on the ground but a part of your foreground reflecting an average amount of light (In the case of the image above as an example I took a reading from the grass halfway between the millstone and the style, aiming for part of a tuft of grass showing more green than the bluey white of the frost). When you point your camera at your chosen area you need to adjust the shutter speed until your light meter in the view finder centralises. Remember the shutter speed it displays at this setting. This is your 'Base Exposure'
5. Now, leaving the aperture at the same setting, point the camera to a light area in the sky - again, not at a dark cloud or at the sun itself (if this is visible, never point a light meter directly at the sun or look at it through the lens with your eyes) but point at a brightish area - again in the image above I chose the light area near the horizon just above the dark central hill. As you do this again adjust the light meter in the view finder to bring the pointer into the centre by adjusting your shutter speed (the shutter speed will get faster). Note the shutter speed.
6. Now work out how many stops there are between your base reading and the sky reading. Remember that, in the case of Canon cameras and I am assuming Nikons and other makes too, that each 'click' of the shutter speed adjustment wheel is a third of a stop - if there are 9 clicks between the base and sky reading then there is a three stop difference in the light being reflected towards you.
7. So if there is a 3 stop difference, insert 3 stop grad filter and position it correctly with the grad line across where the sky meets the land and set your camera back to the base exposure shutter speed - no matter what your light meter now tells you with the grad in place.
8. Take the shot and it should be well balanced. I usually take additional bracketed shots one third above and below the base reading, just in case.
9. Some photographers would chose a three stop grad in this example as there is a three stop difference, and that is down to taste. However this can cause problems, especially when taking landscapes with water reflecting the light in the sky - either the sea or a lake/river - the water should always be less bright than the light it is reflecting, this is how things are naturally so a one stop difference between the sky and land preserves this effect.
10. In my image above there was a two stop difference between sky and land and so I used a one stop filter, although a two stop could also have been employed.
this method does seem to give consistently good results and saves taking 10 shots and messing about trying to guess which filter to use or which combination of strengths is needed.
You do need to work quickly, especially when the light levels are changing fast at dawn or dusk. It is a bit of a nuisance having to have the camera loose on the tripod mount so you can point it at the appropriate areas to get your readings before finally setting the framing up and locking the tripod head off for the shot.
I am assured by photographers better than me, that you soon develop the ability to look at a scene and think 'mmm, there is a 2 stop difference here' and select the filters without metering.
Now on to the help from my friend, Howard Goff. He has written his own version of the instructions and made them downloadable from his excellent website at http://www.360360.co.uk/equipment_main.html . In this account he also displays a chart of shutter speeds and apertures that you can print off and laminate which help you work out how many stops fall between two readings - brilliant. Please take a look at his instructions and browse his website while you are there - it is well worth it.
He also suggests you take the sky reading first, then the base reading, because you have to return the camera to the base reading for the shot and this makes sense to me and speeds up the process slightly.
I have been struggling with ND Grads since I got them. Sometimes I have hit on the perfect settings, but purely by accident, and I have been having to take heaps of exposures to make sure I get the right one. I hate this finger in the dark machine gun approach.
The correct method takes more time and precision, but it is more satisfying, more reliable and it does yield far better results - so for the true landscape photographer, it is the way to go.
I hope this set of instructions is helpful - please let me know how you get on using it.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
My First Free Photo Locations Guide
I have just written and released my first free photo location guide - please see my previous posting for what the idea is all about.
If you would like to take a look at it you can view it here - I would welcome your feedback and suggestions
http://knol.google.com/k/doug-chinnery/a-photographers-guide-to-clumber-park/p6sikvm6o9wc/1#
If you would like to take a look at it you can view it here - I would welcome your feedback and suggestions
http://knol.google.com/k/doug-chinnery/a-photographers-guide-to-clumber-park/p6sikvm6o9wc/1#
New, Free Photo Location Guides
I have become part of a new free project to write location guides for photographers.
I am sure you have stuggled to find the information on a location that is exactly what we need as a photographer visiting a new location for the first time?
I have spent ages gleaning small snippets of information from loads of websites and books in preparation for trips - time on location is so short I want to get it right to come away with the best results.
So when I heard of this project on the web I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I am now the administrator for the Midlands region of the UK. You can read the first blog entries here - http://freephotoguidesukmidlands.blogspot.com/
You know the kind of thing we need to know - what is access like? Can I park? Is there opportunities for disabled photographers? What about accomodation, food stops and toilets (restrooms)? Where are the best locations to shoot from? What about public transport? What time of year is best? What lenses will I need? Where does the sun rise in relation to the best locations? All stuff we need to know.
I am now compiling the first guides for my area and other photographers are already putting up superb guides for their areas. I am convinced this will become the world wide premier resource for photographers needing location information.
I am looking for photographers with good writing and camera skills to volunteer to write articles on their favorite locations in the Midlands - Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, BIrmingham, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire - please email me if you would like to become part of the project.
If you live outside the area - even if you live in a different country, please contact me too and I can pass your offer on to the admin for that area - or you may wish to volunteer to become a regional admin yourself.
So please take a look and bookmark the site - I am sure it is going to be superb.
I am sure you have stuggled to find the information on a location that is exactly what we need as a photographer visiting a new location for the first time?
I have spent ages gleaning small snippets of information from loads of websites and books in preparation for trips - time on location is so short I want to get it right to come away with the best results.
So when I heard of this project on the web I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I am now the administrator for the Midlands region of the UK. You can read the first blog entries here - http://freephotoguidesukmidlands.blogspot.com/
You know the kind of thing we need to know - what is access like? Can I park? Is there opportunities for disabled photographers? What about accomodation, food stops and toilets (restrooms)? Where are the best locations to shoot from? What about public transport? What time of year is best? What lenses will I need? Where does the sun rise in relation to the best locations? All stuff we need to know.
I am now compiling the first guides for my area and other photographers are already putting up superb guides for their areas. I am convinced this will become the world wide premier resource for photographers needing location information.
I am looking for photographers with good writing and camera skills to volunteer to write articles on their favorite locations in the Midlands - Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, BIrmingham, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire - please email me if you would like to become part of the project.
If you live outside the area - even if you live in a different country, please contact me too and I can pass your offer on to the admin for that area - or you may wish to volunteer to become a regional admin yourself.
So please take a look and bookmark the site - I am sure it is going to be superb.
Monday, November 3, 2008
'Tweaking Levels & Curves'
How I used to hate it when a photographer wrote those words. I felt so inadequate. Every shot of mine seemed to need hours of work in Photoshop to make it look only half decent.
If that's how you feel, don't worry. I have learnt now that it is all part of the learning process. When you read in camera mags that it is best to 'get it right in-camera' they are right. You will find that as you master your DSLR and it's controls that gradually the images you download from the memory card will need less and less doing to them to get the look you want.
You will gradually master exposure and composition. Even when you glance at the cameras monitor in the field you will see exciting images you can't wait to view on the computer - you will get that tingle that comes with making an image you know is going to be good.
I love the scene in David Notons Landscape tutorial DVD where he is standing in a field, by a river in Gloucestershire as the sun rises over the mist and just for a few seconds Glastonbury Tor emerges into the light - he fires a few shots, looks at his histogram and image preview, turns to the camera and rubs his hands together saying - 'don't you just love this game?'. here is a man who has photographed countless sunrises, in some of the most beautiful places on earth, and yet on a simple misty morning in England he gets that buzz from everything coming together - the light, the composition and his camera skills - to produce a fine landscape. He knows when he gets home all he will have to do is remove the dust from the image and just 'tweak the levels and curves' - and there will be an image which will help pay his bills.
So here I am, looking at some autumn shots taken recently in Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire. I have selected my favorites and begun processing them. But what used to be a mammoth session in front of the computer has only taken half an hour, because, after cleaning off the dust, all I needed to do was 'tweak the levels and curves' to get what I wanted. The great thing about this is, you get to spend more time in the field shooting and less time at the computer sorting the mess out!
If that annoys you to read it, sorry - I do know how you feel. But I also know that if you stick at it, before too long you too will 'tweaking' to your hearts content.
If that's how you feel, don't worry. I have learnt now that it is all part of the learning process. When you read in camera mags that it is best to 'get it right in-camera' they are right. You will find that as you master your DSLR and it's controls that gradually the images you download from the memory card will need less and less doing to them to get the look you want.
You will gradually master exposure and composition. Even when you glance at the cameras monitor in the field you will see exciting images you can't wait to view on the computer - you will get that tingle that comes with making an image you know is going to be good.
I love the scene in David Notons Landscape tutorial DVD where he is standing in a field, by a river in Gloucestershire as the sun rises over the mist and just for a few seconds Glastonbury Tor emerges into the light - he fires a few shots, looks at his histogram and image preview, turns to the camera and rubs his hands together saying - 'don't you just love this game?'. here is a man who has photographed countless sunrises, in some of the most beautiful places on earth, and yet on a simple misty morning in England he gets that buzz from everything coming together - the light, the composition and his camera skills - to produce a fine landscape. He knows when he gets home all he will have to do is remove the dust from the image and just 'tweak the levels and curves' - and there will be an image which will help pay his bills.
So here I am, looking at some autumn shots taken recently in Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire. I have selected my favorites and begun processing them. But what used to be a mammoth session in front of the computer has only taken half an hour, because, after cleaning off the dust, all I needed to do was 'tweak the levels and curves' to get what I wanted. The great thing about this is, you get to spend more time in the field shooting and less time at the computer sorting the mess out!
If that annoys you to read it, sorry - I do know how you feel. But I also know that if you stick at it, before too long you too will 'tweaking' to your hearts content.
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