Saturday, October 18, 2008

No Weather Too Dark

Thursday was allegedly the best kind of weather for photography - overcast. Overcast light softly illuminates everything making it easier for exposure choices, dynamic range handling, and sometimes lends to more evocative black and white photos - with lesser contrast you can expose for more blacks and greys rather than lights.
By the time I set out that day it was 5:30P and dark overcast by then. I took the same route below, took my mind off the slow shutter speeds and tried for some eerie motion instead.

 
(1/4 second)

  
(0.9 second)

The only 'trick' I've read to producing cool photography implying movement is to make fluid motions with the camera. Say you're walking up a driveway - don't move the camera away from your body, keep it steady in one place and let your legs do the moving for it. One other thing to consider is how long your shutter speed will be. Too long and your photo may become washed out and overexposed; too short and that may not afford you enough time to record motion.
After that it was definitely too dark for most photography, I tried firing my flash to give some artificial highlights. What I understand is a typical flash will force your camera to use a fast shutter speed and Slow Syncro - which I used that evening - considers exposure for the whole scene while giving the subject in focus the 'fill' flash to even out illumination.

 

Here is what's looking to be more and more like it will hold a coffin, but it's nowhere near the other tombstones.

And my favourite, not setup in any way, a chestnut lying on a nearby bench. The out of focus are tombstones which nobody but me can tell unfortunately. What stood out for me is the softness of the light and how the chestnut stops your eye from following the diagonal line of the wood. There are enough blacks to balance it out in my opinion, though it could use the slightest bit more depth of field.

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