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Photo of the day: December 2013
- Thread starter MacRy
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Pitlochry, Scotland. C&C welcome!
C & C? Lovely colours, but, for me, the pic lacks a 'point of focus'... something to draw the eye to it. And the tree to far right is a bit of a distraction...
I often hear that landscape photography is almost always best done around sunrise or sunset. I notice you manage to get all kinds of interesting light in what appears to be "regular daytime".
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Something I found in the backyard.
IMG_1405 by Puckman2012, on Flickr
Had about an hours shooting today. Just uploading them to iMac and I see I left the ISO set to 6400 from the other night. Grrrrrrrr. The difference between a pro and an amateur!
Oh well. Here is a portrait either way (just ignore the grain!)
Oh well. Here is a portrait either way (just ignore the grain!)
I think a lot of photographic ‘rules’ and conventions must have been compiled by people living in California, where blue skies are the norm! The light in the middle of a cloudless day is blue and bland, so it makes sense to shoot towards dawn and dusk, when the light is warmer and more ‘descriptive’.
However, here in rain-swept Britain, blue skies aren’t the norm. A lot of days are part sunny, part cloudy: a pretty good combination for landscape photography. With a breeze to move the clouds along, a scene can change dramatically from minute to minute (which is why I find it worthwhile to spend an hour or two in one location).
Sunlight out of a big blue sky is a bit like a room lit by a single bare bulb. The light is directionless, not very photogenic. But sunlight coming between clouds is more like a spotlight: creating pools of light, moving across the landscape, to contrast with the shadows. The light will be more directional, not unpleasantly blue, and the light/shadow combination is anything but bland.
These part-cloudy days are common, and a rain shower often helps to clear the air. I prefer this kind of weather to big, blue skies, because I can shoot throughout the day...
No argument here. I was simply making an observation.
Living in California for the past 20 years, I can completely understand your description of the "boring" blue skies. We do get those more than anything else, and they do indeed, make everything look rather bland.
Of course, the irony is that as I type this, we are having most un-Californian weather. It rained cats and dogs yesterday and today, it's only part cloudy.
I used to watch American movies trying to analyse the lighting and figure out how they got such great shots when comparing it to the lighting outside my window then I realised they they were mostly shot in LA, CA where there is pretty much a perfect golden hour everyday (maybe I got a lucky week of weather when I was there).
I would kill for that here in the UK. However, I do suppose we get softer light than you guys thanks to all our clouds.
Lera by acearchie, on Flickr
As always, comments appreciated!
Loch Tummel? My wife lived nearby in Aberfeldy for a while (long time ago), but we've visited couple of times in the last few years so she can see her old friends.
Great photo by the way
Cheers
Hugh
Thanks so much!
I THINK it is Loch Faskally, but I may be mistaken. I took the photo from the hydro dam/salmon ladder...
Absolutely stunning country, and such friendly people.
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Thanks for taking the time to offer the C&C, Doylem, it is greatly appreciated. To be honest, I couldn't quite decide what I wanted to capture: the colours, the reflection or the mist in the background. If you don't mind me asking, how would you have framed the shot, and what would you have made the focus?
Thanks again!
Having lived here (LA, CA) for 2 decades, I will disagree with you on the bit about golden lighting. We have bright light, sure, but it is often too harsh for what I would consider golden lighting. The diffuse light from what I imagine is the cloudy british weather is a whole different ballgame.
Not saying one or the other is better. The application will vary. I suspect the diffuse light you get there is a lot more appropriate for porrtaits, street photography and the such. Our harsh lighting in CA makes for boring landscapes (unless there's another point of interest in the foreground). I find things get a lot more interesting when we're having some clouds (but not all clouds).
In any case, results are what one makes of them, I guess.
C&C: Love your shot. But then I like 90% of your work with the ladies. The lighting is always great and the subjects are always interesting and well posed, I find.
I say this coming from my trying to learn both portraiture and off camera lighting in the past few weeks, and struggling with it MISERABLY.
PS: I also ramble a lot. Feel free to ignore all of the above
Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Cloudless blue skies can be a bit boring but as it starts to get later that sun starts to dip and you get the best sort of backlight there is.
Hard to explain I suppose but I found this video online which I think illustrates the point. (Cut to about 35secs in for what I'm talking about)
Occasionally in London you will get a day like that and it will look great! However, usually it clouds over before it happens so it's not really something you can rely on.
I've yet to take a shot that I am really happy with in the golden hour mainly because I get so little chance to have a go at it. Fortunately in winter it lasts longer however, I have to deal with it being much earlier too!
No chance for long exposures with these guys!
We have several frog ponds at our place and our Spotted Marsh Frogs have been busy spawning right through the Winter. It's been a very mild Winter for us here.
We are just starting to see the new season babies now. The pond just by the back door is full of tadpoles of varying growth stages. Tadpoles are smart critters, they exude a chemical which hinders others close to them from developing too fast, so they pace out their maturation to frogs as a consequence and the strongest get to it first to continue the lineage.
This one has just become a frog and was breaching the water yesterday afternoon calling. What you can see of the head here is maybe 12mm across, for a sense of scale to this picture.
I couldn't use the speedlites without them hiding for ages, so had to take this as it is naturally illuminated, in the full shade.
Spotted Marsh Frog by playswithlight, on Flickr
We have several frog ponds at our place and our Spotted Marsh Frogs have been busy spawning right through the Winter. It's been a very mild Winter for us here.
We are just starting to see the new season babies now. The pond just by the back door is full of tadpoles of varying growth stages. Tadpoles are smart critters, they exude a chemical which hinders others close to them from developing too fast, so they pace out their maturation to frogs as a consequence and the strongest get to it first to continue the lineage.
This one has just become a frog and was breaching the water yesterday afternoon calling. What you can see of the head here is maybe 12mm across, for a sense of scale to this picture.
I couldn't use the speedlites without them hiding for ages, so had to take this as it is naturally illuminated, in the full shade.
Spotted Marsh Frog by playswithlight, on Flickr
Somewhere in Newfoundland. Half an hour later the whole thing got covered in clouds and it rained on and off the rest of the day. A little later in the day thick fog rolled in and we were riding through it with about 5-10 meters visibility. So I kind of like this one as the sun did not come back out until 3 days later.
Untitled by FriskyFreeze, on Flickr
Untitled by FriskyFreeze, on Flickr
Hey! I know that spot.
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Just outside the brewery at Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland where they brew a selection of outstanding ales.
Thanks.
That would be the Canon 6D with the EF 100mm Macro lens.
EXIF data should be available on Flickr (if you click on the image).
I believe I was also using an extension tube when I shot that.
I get what you mean now. I think the initial post was misleading.
Yeah, we get a lot of that great golden hour here because we tend to have nice weather year round. It's hard to go out an hour before sunset and NOT have beautiful light (this past weekend being an exception).
It certainly makes it fairly easy to go out shooting on any given day and not get some nice lighting around that time of day.
