I have been reading and studying a book called waiting for the light by David Norton, in this book he describes waiting for the right light before taking a photograph and how the wrong light can make a photography worthless,although I have also heard that what one photographer describes as bad light might be described by another as challenging, and that slow shutter speeds and tripods are useful to have use. Returning to the David Norton book it was very interesting to look at the variety of pictures and the varying light in the book from dawn to night time. My favourite photos were the early morning misty ones there is one of Bodium Castle in East Sussex it has been taken on a misty early morning the castle is almost framed in the shoot by parts of trees and because the water is so still there is a beautiful reflection of the castle in it, I find the photograph very calming and would happily hang the picture on my wall.
Whilst preparing to start this next section and planning where I am going to photograph I have realised that I am going to have to be prepared to wait maybe for a long time to get the light I would like and that I may even have to have many attempts over several visits to get it right. (note to self take a chair and a flask of coffee)., I have also gone back over some of my old work and looked at the lighting conditions and tried to work out what I might have been able to do to improve it., this is partly due again to the David Norton book where he talks about light source having a colour temperature which is measured in degrees kelvin, and that the atmosphere the sun is shining through and the angle determines the directional nature of the light.
Measuring exposure.
In this exercise I need to take between 4 and six photographs which are deliberately lighter or darker than average and then explain why I have chosen the image I have.
Above are the original metered photographs all of them and the ones I have chosen below have all had levels applied to them on auto (I thought it best to keep the same setting on levels for all to get a better idea betwwen the two photographs on each set). Whilst they are not too bad apart from maybe the first one none of them look that great on the camera's chosen setting.
Below are my choices:
photograph one: This I over exposed by a third of a stop(F7.1 on prog F6 on man) as I wanted to bring a little bit more brightness into the picture. This is my favourite picture which is strange as I normally do not like taking landscapes I think this one I was in the right place at the right time.
Photograph two: This one I under exposed by two thirds of a stop (F9 on prog F11 on man) as I wanted it to look a bit darker and more moody almost as if it was about to start and rain at any moment, in truth I stopped to take a series of photographs along this stretch but it was so cold and windy it was a job to keep the camera still and there wasn't really anywhere to put a tripod, may need to look at investing in a monopod for situations like this in future.
Photograph three: a walk along the side of the creek and through a working boat yard produced some great things to photograph, this was the old cabin from a boat possibly a fishing vessel that seemed to have been abandoned, this one I over exposed by two thirds of a stop F10 on prog F7.1 on man), as I wanted to bring a bit more of the detail out of the shadows on the left hand side.
Photograph four: I did not like the camera metered version of this one at all, it just seemed too flat, so I underexposed the man one by third of a stop (F8 on prog F7.1 on man), although it was only a small adjustment I think it brings the photograph to life a bit more.
now for the second part of the exercise I have taken a series of 30 photographs there are six different ones and each one of these has been taken five times at different exposures.
the third photograph is the metered one and although its acceptable I also think that 1/2 stop over exposed is a good exposure in fact think I prefer this version, so far as the other exposures are concerned there are some plus points with all of them the one stop over exposed has the least amount of dark area under the barge but the sky is far too much over exposed where as the one stop under exposed has a better sky, the metered picture is more or less as i would have expected.
All of the photographs in this series were taken along the creek in Faversham and I came across this lovely old building which looks as if it may have been turned into flats now, the metered version again was what i would have expected but somehow i don't think it did enough justice to the building and preferred the 1/2 shoot underexposed and 1/2 shoot over exposed photographs.
The next set were of the mud in fact the next three sets are of the mud as the tide was out but I found it interesting to look at the details in the mud where the water still laid in puddles and the almost wrinkles in it. The metered shot is fine but slightly darker than the actual scene I think the one stop over exposed is more realistic colour wise although some of the detailing has been lost. My favourite shot is number one which is one stop over exposed a prefer the details in it, and if I had to put one of these on the wall this is the one I would pick after all people have pictures of sand so why not mud.
Set four and more mud, this time I saw the old bits of wood rope and chain that had been exposed by the tide going out, and found myself wondering what had been tied up there, this picture was taken by a small dock that had some old boats in it so its possible that other boats had been moored up along here at some point it also looks as if the wood could have been there as an attempt to shore the side up. This time the metered one was exactly as I would have wanted and although most of the other exposures are acceptable I think the one that is one stop under exposed is too dark.
Set five were taken at the end of my walk, it was getting too muddy to continue now so I took these before heading back, this time the metered one was not quite as I would have expected it was a bit too dark but the 1/2 stop over exposed was a bit too light and had lost detail in the sky which could be adjusted in photoshop. I did not like the one stop over exposed at all it looks washed out but I do quite like the 1/2 and 1 stop under exposed photographs as it some how seems to fit the image of the creek with barges up and down to load and un load.
The final set of photographs before I got back to the quay side and a much needed coffee and slice of cake, this old barge is now someones home as far as I can see, this time all the shots worked in some way or another there was no shot that I could say I really disliked the over exposed ones showed slightly more detail in the front of the barge but the under exposed ones had the best reflections they seemed crisper, I also preferred the sky on these ones very slightly.
well that's it the coffee calling is here with a vengeance now so I am putting the camera away and treating my self.
