Hi everyone. It's been a while since I have posted anything here and that is due to a myriad of things but chiefly due to the fact that we've just bought a house so that whole experience has taken a fair chunk of my time.
I have been thinking of writing a post for a while and putting more energy back into the photography now that we are moved and settled. With that in mind I have been thinking about what to write about and where I want to head with my picture taking. I have been watching a few of B&H Photography's Event Space talks on YouTube and recently there have been a number of talks that have dealt with landscape photography and bringing impact to your shots. These talks got me thinking about my photography and how I can get my pictures up to the next level and be more meaningful and striking. The biggest factor I have identified that I feel will help me produce better photographs is immersing myself in light, understanding how light works in a given scene and harnessing that light.
Now my first love is shooting landscapes and I understand that the time of day you shoot in has a dramatic impact on what kind of images you can produce. You often hear of the fabled "Golden Hour" or "Magic Hour" - that half-hour to an hour before the sunsets or as the sun is rising. The air is really clean then and the light can be really striking and when I look at some of the pictures I am most please they have been shot in these conditions
The picture above is a great example of what I am getting at. I took this at roughly 40 minutes before the sunset. The light has a really warm glow to it which helps highlight the shape of the rock in the foreground and the facade of the cliffs. Looking at it now I realize I should have exposed the darker parts of the cliff a bit better as the lost detail in the darker areas is a shame and detracts a wee bit from the overall picture.
Light can add amazing drama to a scene as well and turn the ordinary into extraordinary. After I arrived in Auckland the first beach Donna took me to was one she spent her child hood growing up at in Devenport. Narrowneck Beach has a prime view of Rangitoto Island and visiting the beach during the day will give you a pretty impressive view of the island...... But visit it at first light and you might be lucky enough to get a view like this:
I will never forget how intensely red the sky and the sea was that morning, it was absolutely unbelievable. The picture above has not had any added saturation this was all natural. The thing is this effect lasted for two maybe three minutes tops and then the intensity of the color just drained away as if it had never been there. Light is so fickle and doesn't play to a set tune, I learnt this morning that to catch light you need to be prepared and set up before hand otherwise you will miss out.
The last thing i wanted to talk about today with regards to light is that it sometimes doesn't need to be as bombastic a light as the picture above to help make a picture with feeling and impact. Muted light can also convey feelings as well, feelings of serenity and peacefulness.
This last picture was taken out at Muriwai (incase you hadn't noticed I like visiting this beach and now that i am officially a 'Westie' I'll be there a whole lot more!!). I charged out one evening to try and catch the elusive sunset I am chasing and when I got there it became pretty apparent the sky and clouds were just not going to play ball so I decided i'd play around with my ND filter, this log and see what happened.
I am stoked with these results. The cloud cover meant that the light was soft and subdued and adding that to the ND filter and small aperture combination allowed me to stretch out my shutter speeds. That in turn has given the sea a soft dreamy effect (it was pretty rough in reality) and created this really muted picture. Leaving the shutter open for so long as well has allowed light to flow to the sensor for longer and I think this has helped in terms of the tones of color that are shown in this picture. Don't quote me on that though it's just my guess :)
So in thinking about light and trying to find how to make use of good light I have been able plan my landscape sorties a whole lot better and I believe that my photography has benefited immeasurably - however, in saying that by no means do I believe that have a complete and rounded understanding of light. I need to learn how to see light, to see how light can be used to enhance a scene or create feeling in a scene.
So I am going to carry on on my journey to find light and understand it, I'll share what I learn and see along the way and hopefully you'll appreciate my ramblings in some form.
Thanks for stopping by!
I have been thinking of writing a post for a while and putting more energy back into the photography now that we are moved and settled. With that in mind I have been thinking about what to write about and where I want to head with my picture taking. I have been watching a few of B&H Photography's Event Space talks on YouTube and recently there have been a number of talks that have dealt with landscape photography and bringing impact to your shots. These talks got me thinking about my photography and how I can get my pictures up to the next level and be more meaningful and striking. The biggest factor I have identified that I feel will help me produce better photographs is immersing myself in light, understanding how light works in a given scene and harnessing that light.
Now my first love is shooting landscapes and I understand that the time of day you shoot in has a dramatic impact on what kind of images you can produce. You often hear of the fabled "Golden Hour" or "Magic Hour" - that half-hour to an hour before the sunsets or as the sun is rising. The air is really clean then and the light can be really striking and when I look at some of the pictures I am most please they have been shot in these conditions
 |
| Muriwai - 18mm; ISO 100; 1/6sec; f/22 |
The picture above is a great example of what I am getting at. I took this at roughly 40 minutes before the sunset. The light has a really warm glow to it which helps highlight the shape of the rock in the foreground and the facade of the cliffs. Looking at it now I realize I should have exposed the darker parts of the cliff a bit better as the lost detail in the darker areas is a shame and detracts a wee bit from the overall picture.
Light can add amazing drama to a scene as well and turn the ordinary into extraordinary. After I arrived in Auckland the first beach Donna took me to was one she spent her child hood growing up at in Devenport. Narrowneck Beach has a prime view of Rangitoto Island and visiting the beach during the day will give you a pretty impressive view of the island...... But visit it at first light and you might be lucky enough to get a view like this:
 |
| Rangitoto from Narrowneck beach - 18mm; ISO 100; 0.8sec; f/22 |
I will never forget how intensely red the sky and the sea was that morning, it was absolutely unbelievable. The picture above has not had any added saturation this was all natural. The thing is this effect lasted for two maybe three minutes tops and then the intensity of the color just drained away as if it had never been there. Light is so fickle and doesn't play to a set tune, I learnt this morning that to catch light you need to be prepared and set up before hand otherwise you will miss out.
The last thing i wanted to talk about today with regards to light is that it sometimes doesn't need to be as bombastic a light as the picture above to help make a picture with feeling and impact. Muted light can also convey feelings as well, feelings of serenity and peacefulness.
 |
| Muted Muriwai - 23mm; ISO 100; 13sec; f/22 |
This last picture was taken out at Muriwai (incase you hadn't noticed I like visiting this beach and now that i am officially a 'Westie' I'll be there a whole lot more!!). I charged out one evening to try and catch the elusive sunset I am chasing and when I got there it became pretty apparent the sky and clouds were just not going to play ball so I decided i'd play around with my ND filter, this log and see what happened.
I am stoked with these results. The cloud cover meant that the light was soft and subdued and adding that to the ND filter and small aperture combination allowed me to stretch out my shutter speeds. That in turn has given the sea a soft dreamy effect (it was pretty rough in reality) and created this really muted picture. Leaving the shutter open for so long as well has allowed light to flow to the sensor for longer and I think this has helped in terms of the tones of color that are shown in this picture. Don't quote me on that though it's just my guess :)
So in thinking about light and trying to find how to make use of good light I have been able plan my landscape sorties a whole lot better and I believe that my photography has benefited immeasurably - however, in saying that by no means do I believe that have a complete and rounded understanding of light. I need to learn how to see light, to see how light can be used to enhance a scene or create feeling in a scene.
So I am going to carry on on my journey to find light and understand it, I'll share what I learn and see along the way and hopefully you'll appreciate my ramblings in some form.
Thanks for stopping by!
