LIGHT……

You are at a great location, you have your camera setup and a perfect composition through the view finder. What will turn a good image into a great one? Light…. it is why landscape photographers get up before the sun rises and make long treks early in the morning. It is why they spend hours at mid-day scouting for locations to use for morning or evening. It is why they walk back from an evening location for hours with a headlamp on.

You can use light to highlight elements within a scene such as this.

You can use light to light up the clouds in the evening.

On an overcast day you can use light in a scene so everything is lit more evenly.

But it is all about light. Next time you go out looking for that great shot, think about how light will affect it. Think about shadows, highlights, reflections… use it to your advantage. Most of all, be patient. Light changes, you need to be there when it does.

Central Oregon Coast

During the month of September I spent some time on the Central Oregon Coast. The first trip was to do a little exploring since I have not been there before…. My bad! I went a second time to explore some more and capture a few shots. For me, to get decent photographs, I have to visit a location more than once. I go at first to find the area and get a feel for what type of photography I can expect. If I happen to get lucky, I might even get a nice shot. In the case of the coast, I want to get a feel for tides and how the sun looks against the coast. Knowing how a location looks at high tide and low tide tells me when the best time to be there is. Some areas look better at high tide, some at low, others have photographic opportunities at both. Some other questions I get answered are “how does this location look in the morning? How about in the evening?”

All these questions and exploring help plan your time wisely. Four things I always look at before heading out; Tide tables for the areas and weather, sunrise and sunset as well as moon rise and set. All four of those are important and can help decide if a trip was a success or a bust. And if the weather looks bad, that can mean photography is good. Nothing is more boring than a cloudless blue sky.

A word of caution, if you like keeping your camera gear pristine, shooting at the ocean is probably not a good idea. My gear can get wet, and I spend time keeping the salt film wiped from my camera and filters. I wear glasses, which get coated too, though they help keep me aware of when it is time to wipe the lens. I usually try and keep my polarizer on the lens, since my Singh-Ray circular polarizer wipes clean easier than the front element does. After shooting, my equipment is fine, but if you get nervous about that type of thing you might be better off shooting something else.

The photograph at the top is a good example of wiping the lens to keep it as clean as possible. I also had to keep an eye out for large waves as I was standing very exposed to incoming waves. Though the spray and the mist made for a nice extra glow around the water.

The next shot is Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. I used a 3 stop Graduated Neutral Density Filter and a wide angle lens. What first attracted me to this location was the fingers of water pointing at the rock, but when I got there the ripples in the sand looked like they would catch the sun so I included them in the composition.

 

 

This third shot was screaming black and white to me. I converted it in Photoshop and did a little dodging and burning as well as contrast enhancement. This was another occasion where I had to keep the filter wiped constantly, though it was a 3 stop Soft Graduated Neutral Density one and no polarizer. I kept the lens cap on between shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last one was taken right before sunrise, so the slow exposure gave the water a mist like look. I also used a Circular Polarizer so the tiny bit of reflection from some of the wet rocks and water weren't so obvious and to help slow the shutter speed a bit more.

Be selfish, enjoy yourself first...

Then worry about getting "the" shot. I started out in landscape photography probably the same way many other photographers did. I loved the natural beauty of the world around me while I ventured out hiking and camping in the nearby mountains. Maybe for you it was walking through the desert or visiting the ocean before you decided to get serious and try and get more than just a "tourist photo." I think too often we are consumed with getting a beautiful shot to show friends and family, or if you're a pro, maybe you are concerned about getting that next publishable shot. I have been with people so anxious to get that shot, they miss the real beauty around them. They have forgotten why they started...

Looking at the photograph to the left, it isn't one I would call a great shot, it's nice and helps give the viewer a bit of an idea of the area. But the best part of being there was the hike and the scenery. There is this wonderful gorge where the river flows through, almost impossible to find a spot to photograph safely from, but I still remember how beautiful it was. I stopped along the trail many times, knowing the location I stopped at wouldn't make a great photograph, just to take in and really enjoy what I was seeing.

More often than not, a beautiful scene doesn't translate into a good landscape photograph. But sometimes photographers spend so much time trying to force it into a shot they miss the entire point of why they started. If you relax and enjoy the moment, you may not have a shot to show friends and family, but you have an unforgettable experience that will last a lifetime. And yet, you may also get much better photographs because you slow down and start noticing things you may not have seen in your rush. Some of my best shots are after I sit down and just enjoy what I am looking at.

People need to think back to why they began this quest. Don't lose sight of your goals, but open your eyes and "see" the way you used to. I don't know that you will go home with better shots, but I guarantee you will go home with a much more gratifying and better experience.

The Circular Polarizer: Myth and Truth

A circular polarizer wont work on wide angle lenses, you cant use it on anything wider than 24mm.

I could fill a book with statements like that. Usually made by people who do more talking than photographing. The truth is, if you are shooting clear blue skies in mid-day in landscape orientation at the right angle to the sun, then yes, a circular polarizer will cause some problems with an uneven sky. But as most professional landscape photographers know, the reason you use a circular polarizer isn't to make blue sky darker blue. It is used to cut glare and enhance color. If all you want to do is make the sky darker blue, you can use a Graduated Neutral filter or do it in post processing. If I want darker skies, I use the graduated filter.

Think of it this way, why do we wear polarized sunglasses? To cut glare.... Think of a circular polarizer as sunglasses for your camera. I probably use my Singh-Ray polarizer for 75 percent of my shots. For a landscape photographer, it is one of the most useful tools available and the effect can not be reproduced in post processing.

One of the best uses of a CPL (circular polarizer) is around water and forest scenes. The polarizer will cut the glare from the water surface as well as from the wet rocks. Let's say we are shooting a forest stream, we are most likely going to find rocks, trees, shrubs and bushes. All of these surfaces are affected by light and can have some color robbing glare, even on dark cloudy days.

Here is an example of  a scene shot without a polarized effect and with polarization. Notice not just the water, but the leaves, ferns and trees also have reduced glare and enhanced color. The scene was shot using a 16mm extreme wide angle lens by the way.

This is the before, the water, rocks and fallen trees have some glare to varying extent. Notice even the leaves have glare, something that we have to deal with in the Pacific Northwest. The glare is robbing the scene of some color too.

(When shooting in the woods, it is usually best to go very early or late, or on overcast days since a camera cant capture the entire dynamic range of light for a scene in sunshine.  You either wind up with blown out bright parts with no color or pure black shadows that should have some detail in them and often times you get both blown and pure black areas.)

This is the after, you can see some of the colorful rocks under the surface of the water, the glare is mostly gone from the leaves and rocks adding more color to the scene. With a CPL you can vary the effect by rotating the front piece of glass. Sometimes you may not want top cut all the glare. many times on a still lake that has a beautiful reflection of a mountain, I will reduce the effect so the reflection is the main subject and not what is seen below the surface of the water if I had fully polarized the scene.