Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Three Ideas for Improving Your Compositions - July/August 2010



Recently I posted a blog photo of Kauai's Wailua Falls. Included in the narrative was a discussion on how I approach an iconic scene (one that has been photographed by nearly everyone with a camera) and apply my own personal vision to the scene. I wrote about a mental checklist I run through my mind and how I applied this checklist to this image. Here is the image along with the checklist:

The falls were obvious, but what about the mist? What about the lush foliage? What about the interesting mountain behind this scene (not included in this frame)? What about the interesting cloud floating over the top of the mountain? (also not included in this frame)? Where is the light coming from? (backlit). Do I need a GND filter to control contrast (in this frame I did not). What mood will the light evoke? Are there any potential problems that could work against us in creating this image? (flare, wind, mist blowing on our lenses, hot spots that will draw the eye out of the scene)? How can I best control those problems? What lens will work best for the scene? (I used a 24-70 mm). Should I use a polarizer, and if I do, have I remembered to turn it? Are my filters clean? Does this scene work better as a horizontal or vertical (I challenge you to shoot both), how should I frame this scene? What do I want the viewers to see? What aperture is required to produce my desired depth-of-field? Will my shutter speed be an issue? Do I include a foreground? Can I photograph this scene from a different vantage point (unfortunately we could not though there is a steep trail to the bottom of the falls - not one I would use in a workshop).


This particular post drew many responses, which lead me to believe that the thought process of a professional and the thought process of an amateur could well be on divergent tracks. It may also mean that 30-plus years of training and practice have made much of what I do second-nature. Regardless, it proved to me that not only do photographers need guidance with the technical (craft) side of photography, but also the creative side (vision). Add to the mix that we now process our own images and I can begin to see how our brains feel like they are overloaded!

So let's turn-off our left brains, tune in to our right (creative) brains and see if you can absorb and then apply the following three ideas that will hopefully improve your landscape photography vision skills.

Idea Number 1: Learn the Limitations of your Camera


I find in teaching workshops that many photographers fail not because their personal creative vision is bad; rather, because they don't understand the differences between how their camera sees the world versus how they see the world. Why do I discuss this under a heading of COMPOSITION? My answer is simple; no composition will survive, regardless of how strong it is, if the image is not correctly exposed.  The primary limitation I would caution you to pay attention to is in the limited dynamic range of your camera's sensor. In technical terms we can measure this limitation in stops of light. Our incredible visionary systems can see in a contrast range of 2000:1 or 11 stops of light. The best 35mm camera sensors on the market today can only see a range of 64:1 or 6 stops of light. Some top-of-the-line medium format cameras allow for a bit more dynamic range due to the larger pixel heads, but I think most of us shoot with 35 mm, so I will limit my talk to this medium.

Let's take a look at a sequence of images of another iconic waterfall located on the Garden Isle of Kauai - Opaeka'a Falls.



As you can see, not one exposure captured the entire range of light due to the limited dynamic range of the camera. The image (far left) was the correct exposure for the sky but the falls and foliage were too dark. The middle image was a bit better for the foliage but the sky and mountain began to wash out. The final exposure (right) worked well for the shadows but the waterfall and sky lost all detail. To my eyes, this scene looked great but to the camera's limited eyes, this scene looked terrible! Thankfully there are workarounds to this problem.

On the capture end, I could have used a graduated neutral density filter. My filters of choice are Singh-Ray Filters. But alas, my filters were safely inside my hotel room! On to plan B, bracket exposures via my shutter by one-stop to cover the range of light from shadows to highlights. Once back at my computer, I can use a HDR specific program (I like using Photomatix Pro) to blend the various exposures into one image. You can read more on this amazing software by clicking here: High Dynamic Range Images With Photomatix Pro. Here is the my finished image after blending the above frames:



Idea Number Two - Learn to Crop in the Camera


If you are one of those photographers who work on the premise of, I'll fix it in Photoshop, let's get rid of that idea starting now! I'd rather hear a photographer say, I'll get it as perfect as I can in the field! This not only applies to exposure, but also to cropping. Too many times we are reluctant for whatever reason to crop precisely in-camera. If you want to take your photography to the next level, it is imperative that you rid yourself of that notion right now. Not only should you be cropping while looking through your viewfinder, but you should also be trying both horizontal and vertical framing.

In the image below, I was so fixated on capturing this incredible dusk sky that I neglected to turn my camera to the vertical format. As you can see by viewing the vertical crop, an entirely different image emerged once I began to play with the crop tool. I did not see the receding three hills in my original frame because my eye was too focused on the sky. I also did not see the prominence of the oak tree in relation to these hills until I slowed myself down and allowed my eye to view the possibilities within my frame.

My advice to you is to take time with every scene you photograph and see if there is a picture within your original frame that you did not immediately spot. It is a great learning exercise to go back to 3-5 of your images you were a bit disappointed with and see if you can find the image you really intended to capture by simply playing with the crop tool!



Idea Number 3: Pay Attention to Spacing of Elements


My final tip for this article is one that must really be pre-programmed into your thought process for every image you capture and that is paying attention to the spacing of elements within your frame. An element can be any physical item in your frame. If we look at the above vertical image of the oak tree under the dusk sky, you will see that fortunately I did not allow the canopy of the tree to merge into the line of the foreground hill. I did unfortunately allow the tree trunk to merge with the middle hill. In a perfect world, if I would have cropped this frame in my camera (and not during post), I would have spotted this and would have moved to my left, which in turn would have shifted the position of the tree to the right where I would have centered it within the two smaller hills resulting in a cleaner and more depth-revealing frame.

Remember that we work in a 2-dimensional medium, so paying careful attention to overlapping lines and shapes is critical in creating the illusion of depth. If you take a look at this image of Pedestal Rocks found  at Stud Horse Point outside of Page, Arizona, you will see that I was careful with where I chose my point of view.


A low angle of view allowed me to make sure all the caps of the rocks sat above the horizon line (especially with the far right cap). I also made sure that none of the lines of the caps overlapped. In reality, I could see the spatial relationship between these three hoodoos, but in a 2-dimensional print (or on the web) the spatial relationship would have been lost if I would have allowed the lines/shapes to merge.

Learning to see with a camera is no different than learning any other aspect of photography. Our digital cameras can bring us hours of fun visually interpreting the world around us, but they can also demand a lot of our time if we are serious about making images to the next level. It's important to learn your craft well, but it is even more important to learn to see images!

1 comment:

  1. The best illustration of how to crop and avoid merging that caught my attention so far.

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