Landscapes Captured In Flat Light
For me landscapes no matter how compelling the subject are always more interesting when captured in early or late light, especially under grey or totally blue sky. I tried to create some interest in these images by creating framed subjects with large DOF and using exposure compensation.
Leica M9, 90mm Elmarit, 50 mm Summicron
Dan
posted by dan in marin at 5:06 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Nice framing, Dan. I like the top picture more because the rock formations used as the frame match the rock formations in the distance. However, I can tell that the sky was altered a bit. Maybe it was blue and you changed it to gray? Or maybe the brightness level was lowered a bit (maybe a tad too much because the adjustment was noticeable). The single color with varied shades of brown, gives the elements of the image some cohesiveness, very nice.
In the lower picture, the rocks in the distance do not hold my interest as much. It seems that the framing structure is more interesting, so that after I take in the frame, the apparent subject (that is being framed) does not satisfy as well as the subject in the top picture. This could be because in b&w, the subject gets lost in the surroundings.
--WT
thanx for the thoughtful comments Warren, what do you suggest for the bright flat sky during the middle of the day?
Dan, that's a very good question, and there could be different solutions depending on what you're shooting. Some possible ways to address this:
1) ignore it. your subject is more important than the appearance of the sky.
2) minimize the amount of sky in your composition
3) if the vast expanse of sky is the subject or is an integral part of your subject, darken it uniformly. if it's a blue sky, make it deeper blue by using a polarizer or in post-process
4) If it's a b&w image, can you use color filters to get the sky that you want? or post-process.
5) If possible, come back to the scene on a day with some clouds in the sky.
I would be very interested to hear others' opinions on this.
--WT
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