Well in our absence we missed out on quite a few big stories in the photography world, but one of the most amazing was that of the discovery of Chicago nanny Vivian Maier’s amazing collection of street photographs.  While researching a book on the history of Chicago, a real estate agent bought at auction a large quantity of negatives that had been sold off by a storage company for missed payments.  A large proportion of these were undeveloped but those that were he began looking through and scanning and soon realised that he was sat on something quite special.

What he’d inadvertently uncovered was a huge collection of images, the quality of which rivals any street photographer in history.  A very private person herself, Vivian Maier worked as a nanny for various Chicago families but in her spare time walked the streets of the city with her camera.  Although never showing her photographs to anybody else, she shot over 100,000 frames over several decades.  Documenting in mesmerising detail the moments that made up life in Chicago.  From the tender to the tragic, every one of her subjects comes completely alive through her work.

What makes her work the more amazing is that the more you see, the more impressed you are with it.  Image after image, her eye never falters.  Every one is a masterpiece of aesthetic: she captures not only the perfect moment but in perfect form; every subject is so beautifully positioned within the image, every exposure so deep in tonality, so deep in meaning.

While she may yet become recognised as one of the most important photographers in US history, it’s rather sad it seems that Vivian herself lived the last years of her life in poverty.  Tragically she died in 2009 having never recovered from a fall the previous year.  What she would have made of her collections being made public this way is debatable but it’s unfortunate that she couldn’t have the final say herself.  Now that it is well established in the public domain though it is a rich seam of inspiration for any photographer.

Self-portrait, Vivian Maier

A book and film are coming soon.  John Maloof’s blog is here and contains further information and pictures from this astounding woman.

The fabulous Angie Pringle for STC Electrical. The session dates to April '69 and, as was often the case in those days, the 'mists' were achieved with lungs-full of cigarette smoke! 18 April 1969

Having photographed in the Advertising Business from 1966 until the beginning of the 1970′s Peter Greenhill’s photography evokes a classic image of 60′s culture and fashion.

Celebrated models that Peter photographed include Joanna Lumley, Marisa Berenson, Celia Hammond, Sandra Paul who became Mrs Michael Howard, Shakira Baksh who married Michael Caine, Paulene Stone who married Laurence Harvey and Sarah Stuart who became Begum Aga Khan.

Many of Peter’s photos have become 60’s icons and a select collection of these high quality photographic prints are to be displayed at the opening of our new Brighton studio on the 10th of March. Viewing is strictly by invitation only so please contact Waterloo Street Studio on 01273 728830 for details.

The studio is going to be the center of most of our commercial work, but will also feature several exhibitions and events over the coming months. Should these prove successful we will be considering using the space as a permanent part time gallery.

This is great news for the blog as we can review and test much larger pieces of equipment as well as provide tutorials on a broader range of topics.

We should also mention that the studio space is available for hire and for a full list of services and prices you can visit our new dedicated site: waterloostreetstudio.com Details of upcoming events and exhibitions will follow!

Thanks for your patience, and rest assured we will be regularly updating SN from now on!

Leica M9 Titanium. A snip at £19,800.

Well if you thought that Leicas were expensive already, you probably won’t be among the 500 people worldwide to buy the new special edition titanium M9 priced at a tempting £19,800.

From Leica’s website:

The exclusive special edition Leica M9 “Titanium” is the result of a collaboration with Walter de’Silva, the prominent automobile designer. Responsible for groundbreaking design concepts for the latest models from the Volkswagen Group, the chief designer and his Audi Design Team have re-interpreted the design of the LEICA M9 just as he envisaged it. The outcome is a unique camera with a new interpretation of the characteristic features of Leica rangefinder cameras, which lends precision engineering, unique style and solid titanium to extraordinary formal design. As a result, the LEICA M9 ‘Titanium’ is an especially desirable object for both Leica connoisseurs and aficionados of outstanding design. This special edition is strictly limited to just 500 cameras worldwide and is offered as a set together with a LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens, whose exterior metal components are also manufactured from solid titanium.

Leica gained its reputation for immaculately designed kit a long time ago – their rangefinders and lenses were so precisely made that they attracted a great many users both amateur and professional around the world.  They also subsequently spawned a legion of collectors who were more interested in talking stats and comparing kit than in using the equipment to actually take photos.  Beautifully made though this undeniably is, it’s odd to see a camera manufacturer so blatantly exploiting its following by producing a camera that is clearly not intended to be used.  No doubt as chairman Andreas Kaufmann claims they will be sold in days – a tidy lump of revenue and a huge PR stunt that even I’ve managed to be sucked into.  You have to wonder where it’s heading though – they still make some of the worlds best lenses, but their forays into digital imaging so far, including the M9, have been priced in a range to compete with top of the range DSLRs that outspec them completely.  They have size on their side but there is little there to justify the cost.

This being the case, it’s clear that very little of the next generation of world class photography is going to be shot on a Leica – so I have a suggestion for them:

Given that nobody is going to actually use the camera – it doesn’t actually need to be able to take photographs.  They could branch out into other Leica objects – Leica kettles, toasters and microwaves; Leica televisions; Leica wallets…   In fact, write Leica on anything, think of a number between 5 and 10 and multiply the price by that and you have a winner.

Artist's impression of the Likea Toaster - priced at £1475

Waiting for the flag: Graham Hill, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, 1962

If you’re a fan of motorsports there is very little to compare with the atmosphere of a racetrack on a Grand Prix day.  The build-up of smaller races through the day sets the tone and you hear the high-revved engines haring round long before you get to the track to see them.  By the time the main even takes place, everyone in the stadium is on an adrenalin high, imagining themselves in the driving seat.  Even in these days of tactical racing and ultra technology, watching and hearing an F1 car scream past for the first time is exhilarating and the race seems to be over in no time at all.

For a long time photographers have attempted to capture some of this excitement on still and moving pictures.  Television footage has come a long way – watching F1 on TV used to be an almost hypnotic experience, watching the same cars from above following the same racing lines round and round; always staying in the same order and almost no sense of speed.  Now they have cameras mounted all over the cars to bring you right into the midst of the action and dotted around the track to show the best angles as they overtake or crash out or pit in.

Still photography has changed less, largely because it’s rather more difficult to capture fast-paced action in a single shot.  Generally a sports photographer will take one of two options to give the impression of speed:

1.  Follow the car with the camera.  They track the cars movement with the camera in an attempt to keep it sharp and focused in the image while the background is blurred.  This is the preferred choice for most – the blurred background implies movement while the subject can still be clearly seen.

2.  Keep the background in focus and allow the car to blur.  The camera is pointed at a fixed spot so the car is blurred in the image as it zooms past.  This captures the movement effectively, but it’s difficult to make out which car is in the shot.  This could be considered a more artistic look, but can also appear fairly dated unless done particularly well.

That’s if they bother trying to make an artistic shot – quite often these days it will just be a straight frozen action style shot.  They’ll be using a very fast camera and a very fast zoom lens – even allowing for some blur, at these speeds a fast shutter speed is required and the more shots taken the more chance one of them will make it to the newspapers sports pages.

This is now – Formula 1 is a huge multi-national organisation with huge revenues and huge budgets; a source of income for many people including the press.  The races themselves are scientific in the planning and tactics, the drivers almost secondary in importance to the cars.  For the teams and drivers there isn’t a lot of room for fun on the raceday, just a careful notching up of points and almost a sense of relief when it’s all over.  It didn’t used to be like this.

Graham Hill driving, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 1963

Back in the 1960s race drivers were a different breed.  The cars were fast, but there were no computers managing everything for you – if you looked at a corner the wrong way it was game over.  They went into each race scared for their lives, but nevertheless went all out every time to get a win.  The after race partying was as intense as the race, and the drivers from all teams had a sense of brotherly camaraderie.  As Graham Hill once said in an interview, he knew the personality of each other driver well enough to recognise it reflected in their racing style.

Graham Hill and others, Zandvoort, Holland, 1965

Rainer Schlegelmilch was a a young art school student when he began photographing F1 in 1962.  He began by taking portraits for his school exams, capturing the expressions of concentration on the faces of the drivers.  He took to the sport instantly and followed the racers around continuing to shoot – capturing perfectly the different personalities of the drivers and the teams before, during and after the races.  Names which have now become legend – Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Bruce McClaren, Stirling Moss, Colin Chapman, John Cooper – are all here in the flesh, laughing and joking and looking serious on trackside.  But more than just individuals, the feeling comes through the pictures of the accessability of it all – the small teams that though rivals, were also friends; the stands that were placed so close to the track the spectators must have felt the wind as the cars flew past; the narrow tracks twisting around Monte Carlo and other circuits; the beautiful, but insanely dangerous cars that captivated the mind and made those brave and skilled enough to drive them into the legends they are today.

Jackie Stewart jumping, Nuerburgring, Germany, 1966

The majority of work on display at Proud Camden is from this ‘Golden Age’.  The glamour and excitement of the sport comes through so strongly its appeal is universal – beautiful black and white prints that would be an instant talking point displayed on any wall.

Schlegelmilch continues to be a most sought after Formula 1 photographer to this day – having been a pioneer himself of many of the techniques taught as standard to aspiring sports photographers today.  With the 70s and 80s he had to move into colour photography under editorial pressure but still retained a unique eye among his peers, still trying to bring some art to the work and capture the personality of the sport.  One of his most celebrated photographs on display was from this period, a shot of Stefan Johansson’s Ferrari spitting flames from the turbo at the 1985 Monaco Grand Prix.  The technique used here was similar to the tracking method detailed above, but he kept the car in focus with the zoom giving the picture an incredible almost three dimensional amount of movement.

The zoom effect here captures the feeling of speed while keeping the car almost sharp in focus

Definitely one to check out if you’re interested in sports or editorial photographer for the two here are mixed so beautifully there is much to learn.  More info on the Proud Galleries website here.

Spread from Grand Prize winner Judith Stenneken's "Last Call"

Whenever I walk around a place which has an important historical past I always find myself trying to imagine it as it once was.  Walking through tranquil fields where centuries ago a fierce battle had taken place, or around a long besieged castle that has fallen into disrepair, it’s hard to relate these places we can now visit so freely to the people and events that once occupied them.

Often even more poignant are those places with a more recent past, but one that has been all but erased from the landscape by property development or neglect – like the once proud but faded hand-written sign on a brick wall, now surrounded by the bland signage of mobile phone shops and coffee chains; or the old factory building, no longer economical, lying derelict and awaiting the demolition crew.  Something about the hustle of life these places once knew makes it all the more jarring to see minus its occupants – it makes us question the future of our own haunts and humanity.  I’m not alone in feeling this way, as can be seen by the growing underground fascination and fantastic photography of urban exploration – seeking out empty, abandoned buildings to explore and to shoot pictures; a glimpse of the past and the possible future rolled into one scene of crumbling walls and broken furniture.

The runway at Templehof, once busy with flights bringing supplies to a stranded West Berlin, now empty

What is slightly more rare is to allow a building to fade so slowly into obsolescence that long before the doors are closed and the lights switched off it has already become a ghost of it’s past; the people and the reason to exist all gone but the building kept alive as if on life support.  The 2010 Photography Book Now competition winner, Judith Stenneken, spent February 2008 to October 2008 documenting just such a building in Berlin’s Templehof Airport for her book, “Last Call“.  The airport best known as the base which kept West Berlin supplied with food and fuel during the post WWII Soviet blockade started life as something far less benevolent.  Its huge 1.2km sweeping roof line was designed to resemble an eagle in flight as part of the Nazis great plan to build a power-symbol of a city over existing Berlin.  Halted by the war, no further developments were made and the airport remained the only physical manifestation of the plans for building their ‘World Capital’, Germania.  In the years that followed it was a lifeline to the people of West Berlin, who would otherwise have been cut off from the outside world.  Later when tensions eased it would become a thriving commercial airport – peaking in the early 70s before it was again abandoned in favour of Tegel airport by the big carriers.  Following another period under US control it was again opened for commercial use but mostly for regional commuter flights.  Judith’s photographs capture the eerie emptiness of this huge building, still among the largest in the world.  The tall limestone façades and empty chairs; the cavernous hangars and empty runways; the overgrown plants; the abandoned desks and hatstands.  Shot subtly and honestly, without being either nostalgic or over-stylised, the book stands on it’s own as a document to the building’s schizophrenic past – built for power and oppression, but used for good and finally forgotten like an old war veteran.

“I am honoured that ‘Last Call’ was selected by the judges to receive this prestigious award,” said Judith Stenneken. “Although the Tempelhof Airport was still operating in 2008, it felt as if the building was deserted, and the only people who were there acted like extras in a movie. It seemed as if time had lost its meaning. ‘Last Call’ is focused on the transitory condition of this place, where desertion had been taking place for a long time.”

“Ms. Stenneken’s work stood apart as this year’s Grand Prize winner,” said Darius Himes, lead judge, Photography Book Now. “Her photographs combine a rigorous, large-format camera aesthetic with a quieter sensibility. She edited and sequenced the work intelligently, creating an intimate view of a grand space within the pages of her book. She then brilliantly took a ‘readymade’ trim size offered by print-on-demand and made some crucial alterations to the pre-existing format: added endpapers that complimented the feel of the book, a gold-debossed detail on the cover of the book, and a hand-made fold-out midway through the sequence of the book all enhanced the experience of the book as an object. The end result is both elegant and compelling.”

Fine Art category winner "Barcelona Unfolds" by Arthur Tress

The Fine Art category prize was taken by Arthur Tress for “Barcelona Unfolds”, a disorientating collection of architecture and street scenes designed to be folded by the reader to create fold out pages.  First runner up was Justin Schmitz for “MOSH” – portraits shot at clubs around Michigan, and second was Elizabeth Tonnard for “In This Dark Wood”.

Anton Kuster's winning Editorial entry, 893 Magazine - The Yakuza in Tokyo

The Editorial prize was awarded to Anton Kusters for, 893 Magazine – The Yakuza in Tokyo, a very glossy magazine style presentation of his experiences getting to know certain members of the Japanese ‘Yakuza’.  First runner-up was Alexey Vanushkin with “Merry-Go-Round”, a photo-story of disaffected and lost youth around his town Novosibirsk, Russia.  Second runner-up would have been for me the overall winner – “CHICA BARBIE” from Carl Bower tells the powerful story of Colombia’s obsession with beauty pageants.  Unlike the first and second placed entrants in this category, excellent though they are, with Carl’s work you get the feeling he understands that the subject and not the photographer is the most important element in the picture.  Nearly every page is a work of art, capturing momentary expressions thrown, juxtaposing smiling girls in bikinis with rifle carrying soldiers and the background of poverty in which it all takes place.  You can easily forget there is a camera between you and the people in the photographs, which makes it all the more compelling.

A shot taken from Carl Bower's "Chica Barbie" on Colombia's obsessional relationship with the beauty pageant.

Portfolio category was won by Wassink Lundgren “Portfolio”, followed by Emily Shur, “The Woods” and Lauren Orchowski, “ROCKET SCIENCE” (which I loved).

People’s choice winners were David Beach’s, “FETZER’S TALE” (about his cat) for the Fine Art award; Matt Eich’s moving “Carry Me Ohio” about the poverty and isolation of a former mining community for Editorial; and Barry Homes’ celebrity encrusted portraits, “Entertain”.

As ever with Photography Book Now and Blurb in general, it’s the diversity of entries that make it so special – being able to see the world from so many viewpoints and in such eloquent detail.

The books created by the top prize winners will become part of the permanent collections at the International Centre for Photography, the Annenberg Space for Photography and the George Eastman House.

The winning books, including 30 titles that received an Honourable Mention, will be acknowledged later today on the Photography Book Now website and in the Photography Book Now bookstore.

Using some amazing images as examples David Griffin (director of photography at National Geographic) talks about the power of photography and how it connects us to the natural world.

Photon Worshippers by Steven Christenson

When most photographers think of a telephoto lens they might be imagining something with Canon, Sigma or Nikon written somewhere on it.  They’ll be using it to shoot some wildlife perhaps; a twilight landscape or a model in the studio.  There is another world of photographers out there though whose chosen glass is far more likely to read Takahashi or Celestron.  They’ll be the ones packing their gear away as you get up at stupid o’clock to catch that sunrise.  Their subject is the night sky and it makes for some of the most fascinating and wondrous images ever recorded to camera.

Winner of the 2010 competition: Blazing Bristlecone by Tom Lowe

Some of the best astronomical photographs of the year are on display from today at the Royal Observatory.  The winning picture from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, shown above, wasn’t shot with a fancy telescope set up but rather a normal wide angle zoom.  Submitted in the category ‘Earth and Space’, intended for pictures that set earthly landscapes against an astronomical subject, it shows a beautiful alternative to the current fashion for moody clouds as a backdrop to landscape shots.

Veil Nebula by Martin Pugh

Other categories include the solar system, deep space, people and space.  All contain images so incredible they make me want to become a nocturnal photographer too.

Whisper of the Wind by Dave Brosha

The exhibition runs from 10th September 2010 to 27th February 2011 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.  Admission times 10am to 4.30pm.  Entry is free!

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/get-here/greenwich-map/

Animated sequence of photographs of a horse in motion by Eadward Muybridge

Best known for his series of sequential photographs proving that a horse’s legs leave the ground while running, British born photographer Eadward Muybridge accomplished the feat by deploying a bank of trip-wire triggered cameras to capture a number of images in close succession.  Aside from the obvious application as an early predecessor of motion photography, the technique is very similar to the ‘Matrix effect’ employed to the opposite effect that has become a cliche in countless action movies today.

During a troubled life that saw him receive serious brain injuries from a stage-coach accident and later shoot dead his wife’s lover (which he admitted at the subsequent highly public trial but still managed to get an acquittal!) he also managed to be one of the most pioneering and influential photographers of his day.

Aside from his much celebrated motion sequence experiments he was also famous for his studies of American landscapes, shooting definitive views of the wild Yosemite valley over 30 years before Ansel Adams was even born.  He used techniques of photo manipulation, moving sky and rock from one photograph to another to create a more artistic image.  Easily done now in Photoshop, at the time that would have been quite a skill.  Legendary (or notorious) for his obsession in getting the picture he wanted, he was known to chop down trees that were in his way (!); have his assistants lower him down a precipice or hike miles alone with his huge plate camera.  He was an endless self promoter, making his money by selling stereographs (3D images viewed through a special set of glasses) and prints of his awe inspiring panoramas of San Francisco.

'Mirror Lake, Yosemite, 1867' an albumen print by Eadweard Muybridge

It’s the motion pictures for which he is best known though, inventing the zoopraxiscope which is considered the first motion picture projector and dedicating most of his later life to stop-motion photography.  Whichever you look at it, it’s certain that one way or another most photographers and film-makers around today will have been directly or indirectly influenced by his work.

Muybridge at Tate Britain opens 8th September 2010 and runs until 16th January 2011 at the Tate Britain, London.  Tickets £10, concessions £8.50.  More information can be found at the Tate Britain website here.

Christopher Burkett - Fir, Snow & Mountainside, Wyoming 1989

Exposure is one of the most important aspects of photography and yet to many it is a complex art that is often overlooked. Image exposure is based on science yet is still open to artistic interpretation. Whilst one photographer may think an image has an accurate exposure, in that it captures the mood or essence of a scene, another may decide it inaccurate if it fails to conform to technical rules. This is especially true when considering landscape photography, as the difference in exposure can dramatically affect the outcome of the image. For example, the below image of a waterfall looks completely different when the exposure is altered slightly.

ISO 100 | F22 | 1/2 Sec

ISO 1600 | F4 | 1000/sec

Camera Settings and Terminology

There are several terms it is important to understand when learning about exposure. The main three are: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. To get creative with landscape photography, it is also essential to use a camera which has manual controls over these functions. Put in simple terms  the aperture is the amount of light reaching the sensitised material, the ISO is the sensitivity of the material and the shutter speed is the length of time the sensitised material is exposed to the light.

Too little light and/or too short a time will result in underexposure, yet too much light and/or too long a time will result in overexposure. It is important to get just the right amount of light for the correct length of time given the sensitivity of the material, to record the scene as you see it in your mind’s eye.

ISO Rating

The ISO (standing for International Standards Organisation) rating is the measure of a film’s sensitivity to light. A film with a low ISO rating, such as Fuji Velvia 50 is less sensitive to light than a film with a higher ISO. This means that a low ISO film needs more light than a film with a higher ISO rating would need. ISO follows a geometric progression. Each time the ISO number doubles, the amount of light required is halved. In digital cameras the ISO refers to the sensitivity of the cameras digital sensor rather than the film. A great benefit of a digital SLR over its film counterpart is that the ISO rating can be altered shot by shot. Doing this on a film camera will not change the sensitivity of the film, but will “push” or “pull” it instead.

Aperture

The aperture of a lens is a mechanical hole that alters the amount of light that reaches the sensor or film inside the camera. Changing the size of the aperture allows you to decide how much light reaches the film at any given point. Aperture is measured using f-stops and the quality of your lens will dictate the range of f-stops offered (generally speaking, the wider the maximum aperture, the better the quality of the lens).

Controlling exposure via aperture will affect the depth of field (the proportion of the image that is in focus). The wider the aperture the less depth of field you have and vice versa. This is an important factor to take into consideration when deciding on your exposure. For example, an image with detail in both the foreground and background will require a narrower aperture (larger f-stop number) which in turn will necessitate a slower shutter speed or greater ISO. In the example below you can see the effect of increasing the aperture.

Shutter speed

The shutter speed is the length of time that the light falls on the sensor or film. It is measured in minutes, seconds and fractions of seconds. All modern SLR cameras have a comprehensive selection of preset shutter speeds. They will also have an option to time the shutter release manually (this is usually marked as B [bulb] or T [time]). Similarly to the Aperture and ISO, changing the shutter speed by a single stop will either half or double the exposure. E.g. changing the shutter speed from 1/2 of a second to 1/4 of a second will half the length of time that the shutter is open for, equating to a one-stop reduction in exposure.

Depending on your subject you may want to use either a slow or fast shutter speed. E.g. the image below would have been blurry and unrecognisable had it not been for the relatively fast shutter speed of 1/500sec.

Combining the three

Achieving perfect exposure requires a decent understanding of the three controls outlined above and any change in one variable must be compensated by a change in another. Certain situations will dictate some of the settings e.g. photographing moving wildlife in lowlight without a tripod will necessitate an extremely high ISO setting so as to avoid the blurring of the subject. This characteristic of exposure is known as reciprocity and it states that any change in one variable is compensated for by an equal and opposite change in another.

Reciprocity law failure

When dealing with long exposures of over one second the law of reciprocity has a tendency to fail. This is because film, and to some degree sensors, become less sensitive to light the longer they are exposed. Therefore, when shooting with shutter speeds over one seconds it is important to allow more light to hit the film or sensor. The table below gives guidelines for different films:

Digital versus film exposure

Whilst digital photography is now the norm there are certain issues that affect digital SLR cameras more than their film counterparts. Digital cameras often feature a very wide latitude, offering incredible detail in the shadows of an image. This does however mean that the highlights can sometimes ‘burn-out’ in brightly lit conditions. It is therefore advisable to very slightly under expose by half a stop from the suggested reading.

Different modes

Every SLR camera will feature at least four modes for controlling the exposure. These are:

Automatic – in this mode the camera will try to make a judgement based on the type of metering selected. When using this mode, an experienced photographer may prefer to use the matrix metering system as it will give an exposure reading based on many different areas in the composition.

Aperture priority – here the camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed (and ISO if set on auto) to compensate for the manual change in aperture. This mode is best used when the photographer wishes to control the images depth of field that is not concerned with the length of the exposure.

Shutter priority – this mode will automatically adjust the aperture (and ISO if set on auto) to compensate for the manual change in shutter speed. This mode is best used when the photographer wishes to control the length of the exposure e.g. when taking pictures of moving water or grass blowing in the wind.

Manual mode – when the camera is set to manual none of the settings will automatically compensate the changes to the others. This mode is best used when using creative filters, working with a tripod, longer exposures and night-time photography. In certain cases the automatic settings on the camera will not be able to accurately reproduce the lighting of the subject. If this happens it is advisable to use the automatic suggested settings as a starting point and then to adjust exposure manually.

Contrast

Contrast is the measure of the difference between the highlights and shadows in a given scene. Unfortunately the human eye is capable of seeing much more detail in these areas than film or digital sensors. It is therefore important to learn the individual characteristics of the medium you’re using to record the image. In order to reduce the contrast the lights must be diffused somehow (this could be in the form of could cover or heavy foliage).

Images taken under a harsh light source unknown as having a ‘hard’ quality and images shot under diffused light sources are known as ‘soft’. It is a matter of taste as to which lighting source suits any given subject. Landscape photographers (especially those used to shooting with Fuji Velvia colour film) will often prefer to shoot under harsh conditions. E.g. sunlight breaking through dark storm clouds and illuminating the landscape. On the other hand, seasoned black-and-white photographers enjoy the wide dynamic range offered when shooting under a lightly overcast sky.

It is important to remember that shadows give an image a sense of depth, it is therefore a case of balancing the amount of shadows (dark) and highlights (light) in the image while still maintaining a high level of detail. Unfortunately cheaper DSLR cameras often cram a high number of megapixels into relatively small sensor causing a reduced dynamic range. One way around this is to combine several exposures in a software package such as Adobe Photoshop.

Follow The Sun

When working outdoors and shooting landscapes the single most important element to consider is the lighting position. To try to simulate the three-dimensional quality of a landscape on film is no easy task.

Front lighting
In the past it was always considered bad practice to light from the front and photography students had the mantra “Always photograph with the sun behind you” drilled into them. This was mainly due to limitations of cameras rather than it had to do with good photography. Frontal lighting will reduce the overall contrast and flatten out details and texture which can be advantageous when trying to record a subject’s key features.

Side lighting
light that falls on the subject from the side will create shadows that enhance texture and define the sides of multi dimensional objects such as trees and buildings. It is the shadows that give form to your photographs and help to turn them from flat pieces of paper into pictures with high visual energy.

Lighting from above
When the sun is overhead (typically in the middle of the day) the lighting will have a harsh quality which is often avoided by photographers. However if your subject has a horizontally formed texture lighting it from above will enhance the shadows and emphasise form.

Backlighting
Often overlooked backlighting can produce artistic results when combined with correct exposures. Backlighting is often the easiest way to produce a silhouette or halo effect.

Metering the light

When we look at an object what we actually see is reflected light. This can be measured with the reflected light meter otherwise known as a luminance meter. The brightness of an object is decided by the amount of light it reflects back and a light meter will provide a visual representation of this, either in the form of an exposure value (EV) or as an actual aperture/shutter speed combination. As the reflected light meter measures the light coming back from a subject it can be used from a distance. This means that it can be built into the body of the camera, also known as TTL metering.

Reflected light meters are calibrated to read everything as 18% grey (middle tone) however different subjects reflect different amounts of light. In practice this means that the light meter will assume that the subject is reflecting 18% of the light falling on it and will give a reading based on that. Any subject that is lighter or darker than 18% grey, for example white or black, will be rendered incorrectly. This can mean that it is very difficult to accurately reproduce pure white or black objects using TTL metering.

A simple trick to combat this is to increase the exposure value by two stops when shooting something white, and to decrease by two stops when shooting something black.

Incident light meters measure the light falling on the subject rather than the light reflected from it. It is easy to distinguish an incident light meter as it will have a white plastic dome or cone attached to it, which averages the total amount of light falling on it before the diffused level of light is measured by the meters cell. Incident light meters work best when placed very close to the subject. Because of this they are less vulnerable to high contrast lighting conditions.

Modern Sekonic light meters often feature both incident and reflective modes

Types of metering

Matrix metering
Matrix metering is a multi segment metering system that takes readings from different areas of the scene and calculates an exposure based on a combination of factors. Different camera manufacturers use different matrix metering systems, each giving different qualities of results. When photographing a scene where the level of contrast or dynamic range is within that of the latitude of sensor matrix metering will usually yield accurate results. It is often the only option when using compact digital cameras.

Centre weighted metering
When put in centre weighted metering mode a TTL meter reads the light across the whole scene but weighs around 75% of the reading towards a large centre circle. This is perfect when shooting portraiture as the subject stands out from the background yet still fills a large proportion of the image space.

Spot metering
Spot metering a subject takes a reading from a very small part of the subject, giving incredibly accurate results. It is also useful for calculating the EV difference between any given area is in a scene. When shooting landscapes a spot meter is often all that is needed to obtain pleasing results.

Bracketing

In some situations are it pays to have multiple exposures of the same image is. Bracketing is most useful when shooting film as you will be unable to compensate for your mistakes once the film is developed. The bracketing function on an SLR will provide a variance option for your exposure. Typically, the variance should be around a 1/3-1/2 stop but you may wish to go as far as +/-1 stop.