George Herald | Winter landscapes

Translate to:


News	Classifieds	Directory

Winter landscapes
07:41 (GMT+2), Thu, 28 June 2012

Winter seems to have arrived with a vengeance, at first you may think that winter doesn’t exactly suit our photographic needs therefore, some of the unique landscapes could be photographed in the winter time only, when the air is transparent and clear, let’s try not to miss this chance of making wonderful pictures.

The best time to photograph a winter landscape is in the morning or evening hours, when the slanting beams of light make long shades, quaint lines and curves, it brightens up the whole composition and perfectly outlines the relief of trees or rocks.

So get out of bed early and get to where you want to shoot before the sun comes up. Just as in all of nature outdoor photography the best time of day for most scenes is Early Morning and late afternoon when the Sun is burning through more of the earth's atmosphere casting hues of Red, Yellow and White on your scene. It tends to add a mystic feel to the image that conveys feeling and personality that is original.

No matter what time of day, your position in relation to the sun is important. The sun's position can drastically change a landscape in a matter of minutes especially at Sunrise and Sunset. Follow the sun through a scene and watch for changes as they occur. Many times it takes several shots to capture the right balance of light, colour and contrast in a scene. Details tend to get lost when you are shooting in the direction of the sun.

Green pine trees tend to look black or gray. Metering is the most important element in all of these situations. Be sure you are versed in your camera's metering system and can compensate for the subtle changes that can happen in a five-minute span. I suggest that if you have a newer camera that is equipped with zone or " Matrix" metering you ought to set your system on aperture priority and let the camera figure out the exposure time to balance the light with your f stop setting. ISO is also important. I use a slower speed ISO to provide a finer grain image that will be more pleasing when it is enlarged for viewing either framed or on display.

On the finer side of things we have just launched our amazing new Online Photographic Course, take a peep at our website.

In our next blog we chat about a new project, we supply the film and cameras, we go out shooting and process the films the same day and on the following day we teach you to print them in our darkroom. . However it emerges from the process, Kodak will never again be the photographic titan it was during the film

Cheers Ian & Warren
www.ianfleming.co.za