Shoot the Sky

A few years ago I discovered a place that afforded a wonderful view of a large stately tree silhouetted against the sky.  I passed by it numerous times each time thinking that I needed to return someday and give it try.  The day came one cold February evening when I finally did give it a try.  As luck would have it, a crescent moon hovered above the tree and some light wispy clouds drifted across the sky and were gently illuminated by the glow from the moon.  I stood in the cold air for close to an hour making several shots as the conditions changed.  Once I finally downloaded the images it became evident that it was the sky that made this moment special.

Kentucky often gives birth to some of the most wonderful sky and cloud formations I've ever seen.  I am continually amazed at the quality and diversity of what is presented through the elements found here.  Oddly enough, I have never fully taken advantage of the opportunity.

It is easy to overlook the sky as a photographic opportunity.  Most photographers I venture to guess tend to migrate toward shooting those blazing sunsets or glorious morning sky shots.  It is natural to do so...I certainly do my share of it...but the sky can often make or break a landscape photograph.  Photographing the sky can be a challenge, but doing so opens up a whole new avenue of potential.  I'm far from being an expert on the subject, but there are a few things I have learned about how to accomplish this...Let's take a look.

What to Avoid:  As in almost everything there are very few examples of things to always avoid.  That holds true in photography as well.  But, if there was a consistent error that I see many photographers make, one of the most common is photographing against a white sky.  White skies are generated on those days when a thin layer of clouds obscures the color, but not the brightness in the sky...there's no texture...no color...it's well, White.  A camera will capture this as a bland, flat, and uninteresting sky.  The thing to avoid is including too much of the sky in your image.  It doesn't mean to not include any of it because a clever composition can effectively use a white sky.  White skies are not always so bad because even though the sky itself may be bland, the soft white light it generates creates a wonderful lighting condition without all the harsh contrasts and shadows...that makes it a good time to photograph people and in areas where a bright sun would generate too much contrasts between light and dark areas.

Bad usually means good:  When it comes to photographing the sky, bad weather opens up all kinds of great photo possibilities.  The sky can be full of texture and drama...and that is what we want.  Rolling dark clouds are wonderful for landscapes as they generate that sense of place, moment, and mystery.  The dramatic effect of dark skies can produce wonderful results.  So...when the weather turns bad...don't always hide indoors...head out and take advantage of the great cloud textures...but do be careful and use a bit of common sense and discretion.

Place something in the Sky:  Even a bright blue sky can look rather bland if there is nothing there to break up the view.  A sky with something in it makes for a much more interesting composition.  Clouds are the most obvious...but, its how you use the clouds that are most important to the composition.  The clouds must be a meaningful element within the composition.  What you place in the sky...or maybe I should say place against the sky...is really up to you.  A building or tree or another structure taken from an angle that creates a sense of height can be very effective.  The idea is to use the sky to highlight the boldness of your subject.

Use the Sky as your main subject:   Often times it is the bigness or uniqueness of the sky that captures your attention.  Using the sky as your main subject can be very effective.  Again, it's all a matter of composition.  the angle of the light is important...time of day...and of course the textures and colors.  When using the sky as your main subject it begins to blend your composition into the realm of graphic design.  Think of it as less a photograph of the sky and more as a photograph of the shape, forms, and color you see there.  Use a wide angle lens and include less of the ground to impart that sense of openness.

Use a filter to darken the sky:  Two of the most useful tools to use are a polarizer and a neutral density graduated filter.  Both contribute their own unique characteristics to the sky.  For instance, both will darken the sky and bring out textures that might otherwise be lost in the exposure.  The sky is generally brighter than the landscape under it and so will often skew the exposure one way or the other.  If you expose for the sky, the landscape portion may be too dark...expose for the landscape and the sky will be washed out.  A neutral density  (ND does not affect the overall color) graduated filter is designed to eliminate or reduce this problem.  The top half of the filter is darker and gradually becomes lighter toward the center portion until the bottom half is clear.  This allows you position the filter to cover the sky with the darker part and allow the landscape portion to remain unaffected.  

I use this kind of filter more than any other...it can add a great deal of drama to your sky especially during stormy weather. 

 A polarizer on the other hand is great for those bright blue sky days...or really on just about any kind of day as they remove the glare and will darken the sky and bring out a lot of detail in cloud formations.  Polarizers also reduce your effective exposure by about 2 full stops so be aware of how your exposure settings are falling when using one.  Another useful filter is what is called a tobacco filter...or more specifically a graduated tobacco filter.  Where the ND filter does not affect the overall color, the tobacco filter will impart a reddish or orange hue to the scene.  This can often be used to enhance those sunset shots, but use one with discretion as it adds a powerful and dramatic look to your shots.  Also, take note that any graduated filter can be used right side up, upside down, sideways, or stacked with other filters to give you the effect you want. 

Shoot the Moon:  Try something really fun and challenging...include the moon in your sky shots.  There are three things to consider when including the moon in your composition: Time of Day, Position of the Moon, and Capturing the Detail.  Timing is essential.  Too early and the moon looks pale and indistinct.  Too late and you lose detail in everything else and the moon becomes a bright blob.  The best time I've discovered to shoot the moon is right at twilight...both morning and evening...when the moon is hovering above the horizon and there is still some lightness in the sky.  If you must tilt your head to see the moon, it's too high in the sky...if the sky if totally black or if the sky is filled with daylight...it's too late.  Exposure can be tricky and may require some experimenting.  One technique that I've used is to make two exposures...one for the landscape and one for the moon...then use a bit of Photoshop magic to blend the properly exposed moon onto the properly exposed landscape shot where the moon sits.  It's not easy...but it's a lot of fun to do and you can get some amazing results..

Don't forget Black and White:  Many times when I am out photographing the sky, I often try to visualize what it will look like in black and white.  Black and White even in today's digital world is still a powerful and amazing form of photography...What is so cool is that with Photoshop...you can easily convert any color image into black and white.  Use a polarizer and the ND filter to darken the sky...a dark sky in black and white can be very dramatic. 

Shooting the sky can add a whole new level of complexity to your photographic endeavors.  It's challenging...but the opportunity is just to tempting to pass up.

Keith

Capturing Movement

Nature photography by its very nature involves capturing not only places and moments, it involves capturing movement.  Movement can be represented in various ways. We've all seen those great sports images where the running back is frozen as he turns a corner or the basketball player is locked in mid-air just as he releases the shot.  Who can forget those great nature shots where the eagle is caught snatching a fish from the water, or the humming bird hovers outside a flower.  But movement doesn't always have to be frozen.  Often, allowing the subject to be blurred can generate a wonderful effect and sense of movement.

So how do we do capture movement?  Well, three things come into play; shutter speed, depth of field, and timing.


Your shutter speed is what determines when a moving object is either frozen or blurred.  To freeze an object, a fast shutter speed is required...something in the range of a minimum 1/250th of a second upwards to over 1/1000th of a second depending on the circumstances.  For everyday situations...walking people, playing children, things that are moving but not so rapidly that you have a hard time following them, a shutter speed somewhere around 1/250th of a second will freeze most activity.  But, for those objects that are traveling faster such as athletes in motion, or vehicles, and animals, a shutter speed more like 1/500th of a second is required to freeze the action.

You may be asking, what does depth of field have to do with capturing movement?  Depth of field as you might recall is that portion of the image from the foreground to the background that remains in focus and is primarily controlled by the aperture.  A small aperture like f/16 generates a wide depth of field where most of the image will be in focus from front to back. A large aperture like f/2.8 generates a very tight depth of field where the subject is primarily in focus and the foreground and background is blurred.  The type of lens you use also comes into play. A 50mm lens will react differently than a 500mm lens.  Depth of field comes into play primarily for those close up images when you want to isolate your subject from all the background clutter.  Also, if you use a small aperture, f/16 or so, you might find it difficult to obtain a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action simply because the smaller the aperture the less the volume of light is allowed in.  A larger aperture will allow in much more light thus allowing you use a faster shutter speed.  ISO setting is also important in that you may need to boost the ISO up to 400 or even 800 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed to lock in on movement.

Timing makes all the difference. When capturing nature, especially flying birds, timing is critical as you want to not only capture their movement, but you want to capture them doing what they do naturally within their environment. Taking a photo of hawk sitting on a telephone pole isn't very inspiring to a viewer, but capturing a hawk as it flairs just before it alights, or just after it takes off makes for a more interesting image.

As I mentioned previously, capturing movement doesn't always mean freezing the action.  Often, allowing the object to have a blurred effect can be quite striking.  The best way to accomplish this is to use a tripod and set your camera with a small aperture and low ISO, which will usually generate a slow shutter speed.  The slow shutter is what is critical.  Depending on what is moving, a shutter set from 1/30th of a second down to as low as a full second will generate some wonderful blurring effects.  The best time to capture blur is on a cloudy windy day when the light is generally lower.  You can also attach a polarizer filter which will effectively reduce the light gathering ability of your lens by one to two full stops which will also slow your shutter down.

So, capturing movement can be quite fun to try as it can add a whole new level of complexity to your photography.  Here's a list of some potential movement capture opportunities:

Tall field grasses blowing in the wind
Birds at the feeder
Bumble bees and flowers
Moving water or waterfalls
Sporting events
Night photography of vehicle lights
Amusement park rides...especially at night

Give it a try..I think you'll enjoy it.

Keith

Creating an Illusion of Depth

One of the most effective compositional tricks in photography is to create the illusion of depth in your images.  There are about as many ways to accomplish this as there are photographers who do it.  No one way is better than another as they all have their own merits.  What's important is being able to recognize those subtle ways to add another dimension to your images and to transform the ordinary into images with power and impact.

Lets look a some examples.

Create that Layered look:  Often the way the landscape rolls toward the distance can be used to generate that Layered look.  By its nature, the further away a hill looks, the lighter it becomes.  When you have multiple hills that dip and roll in front of each other, then a natural layered look is created by the effects of the atmosphere.  An effective way to take advantage of this layering is use Spot Metering.  By switching to this metering mode, you can select the degree of the layering by placing the metering spot on the layer that appears to be a middle tone in value...then locking in the metered value...recompose the shot and let the rest of the scene fall where it may within the set exposure.

Reflections:  Reflection on a calm body of water can provide some of the most dramatic illusion of depth for photographers.  Capturing this kind of photograph begins well before the opportunity presents itself.  To really take advantage of it, you should identify potential locations where a great reflection could materialize under the right conditions...then watch the weather reports and plan your outing on one of those calm mornings.  One thing to remember is that reflections are usually one to two stops darker than the object being reflected whether it is the sky or an object...so be sure to carry and use a one or two stop graduated neutral density filter to help even out the exposure for both the sky and water reflection.

Include Something in the Foreground:  Too many times I will see a great landscape and shoot the scene from eye level...then when I really take a close look at the image I realize too late that it lacks depth.  To remedy this, I try to remember to get down low..close to the ground...and include something of importance in the foreground.  Using a small aperture (f/22) will increase the depth of field where the foreground and background remain relatively in focus at the same time.  Adding something to the foreground not only helps to create that illusion of depth, it add interest and dynamics to the image.

Raise or Lower the Horizon:  Take advantage of the situation and recognize that generally speaking most landscapes do not look good if the image is split down the middle evenly between sky and ground.  For an open expanse like a prairie region use a wide angle lens and add more landscape in your composition with just a sliver of sky to create that sense of distance.  For big sky shots, use a thin base of landscape to open up the sky with wide angle.

Use a Zoom Lens:  A zoom lens will create an effective illusion often used by artists to generate a three dimensional effect on a two dimensional plane;  Foreshortening.   A zoom lens is very effective at bringing distant objects closer and condensing the depth of field.  This condensing action is what adds a sense isolation and depth.

Use Light and Dark to Create Depth:  As in every image, light is the key ingredient.  Dark can be used to make Light look brighter...and Bright light can make darks look darker.  The contrasts between the two is what creates mystery and is an effective way to add depth and mood.

Use Leading Lines:  Leading Lines are great depth indicators and can be used to guide the viewer into the image.  Leading lines can come from just about anything including roads, fences, tree lines, crop rows, even the suns rays and shadows.  One thing to remember, leading lines should lead INTO to the image...and not out of it.

These are only a few of the more common ways to create an illusion of depth in you images.  Thinking within the context of depth and mystery and mood, is when you as a photographer start looking beyond the obvious, and start being able to see photographically.

Keith