SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT

Another possibility to enhance the importance of the main subject is to look for spot light. The dark areas around you subject take the role of a frame. Obviously metering is a bit more tricky here - using spot or center-weighted is certainly a good idea here.

SKYLINE

SKYLINE

This is a pretty nice and easy effect. Just search for a interesting "skyline" - typically near the horizon or at middle distances and wait for the time around either sunset or sunrise. Now meter a very bright spot in the scene so the foreground gets totally black on the final picture. Due to this you've to place the foreground at the lower third of your picture - a black something is surely not interesting enough to allow more space here while the graduated color of the sky is of major interest here. Skylining is finally nothing else than a special "backlit" situation but with a much more exaggerated effect.

Note: The projected slide of the image below looks actually much better. Obviously the scanner was not able to get all the contrast.

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds

The most oft-advised technique to good composition is to use the rule of thirds. There are two aspects to the rule of thirds and understanding how they work and interrelate is not difficult at all.

The basic picture scene will have three major elements of:
1 - Foreground
2 - Middle-ground
3 - Background

These elements are self-explanatory and although they may seem more appropriate for a landscape image, they can still be used and applied to other photos such as portraits or abstracts. Being aware of these three elements and how they should be positioned, isolated and enhanced will provide you with a basis to avoid the typical subject-centered image with a 50/50 split that many novices seem to do in the beginning. Yours truly has several of these types of images hiding away in a shoebox somewhere under the bed.

The middle orientation probably has a lot to do with the central focusing sensor of cameras and people's tendency to lock focus and then just shoot. I do the Nikon Shuffle of locking focus on the subject and then recomposing the scene. If your camera allows you to remove auto focus start from the Shutter Release button, do it! This allows you to control when to AF or not and usually, the Shutter Release becomes an Exposure Lock button when pressed half way. You can focus on one subject yet meter for another, a great feature that more and more companies are copying from Canon.

The rule of thirds that most photographers will tend to think of is the viewfinder grid division into nine sections, as seen here. The central four points of the middle rectangle - outlined in red - represent the key points of the composition and it is at one of these four points that you would place an important subject matter. This concept of the rule of thirds is so prevalent and accepted that some companies are offering cameras with auto focus points at the important grid sections as above. The Contax 1N is an example of such a camera.

There seems to be something about the rule of thirds that seems to provide humans with a just-right view of things. The rule of thirds can even be seen in the world of audio in which you have three main audio signals of treble, mid-range, and bass. Harry Pearson of the Absolute Sound Magazine is an advocate of the rule of thirds for speaker placement in which the listener is placed one-third of the way into the room and the so too are the speakers. It is a quick and dirty way of getting acceptable sound but not necessarily the best sound, from a given speaker and room combination.

The advocacy of the rule of thirds is good one to teach learning photographers but it should not be a rule written in stone. For once, you know and recognize the rule of thirds, you will find it everywhere and it holds the danger of being routine and unoriginal as a 50/50 scene split or centered subject. Be bold and experiment for every subject will have a composition that could focus in on it and that may or may not be the rule of thirds. Therefore, while the rule of thirds is a quick and dirty method of getting an acceptable composition, it may not be the best method for your subject.

REFLECTIONS/MIRRORS

REFLECTIONS/MIRRORS

The surface of many materials don't just reflect the color of the material itself but also reflect the shapes from other objects. Water is certainly the most common natural "mirror" that comes to mind but polished metal or glass work just fine as well. Obviously mirrored objects offer some interesting photographic opportunities.

An exact mirroring of the main subjects is often not necessary. Especially with night scenes the contours of a subject are lost but some rough reflections still offer a pretty neat impression.

OBJECT ISOLATION

OBJECT ISOLATION

An object can be seperated from its environment by various methods. E.g. you can use a very wide lens to sort the scene into distinctive layers. However, while you seperate the object the environment is still visible which may be disturbing because -say- the background is very ugly. Sometimes there's a workaround for this problem: we choose a very small depth-of-field so only the main subject is in focus while everything in front or behind the focus plane gets blurry and therefore virtually unimportant. Have a look at the 1st sample below. The blue marble to right right sucks the view from the first look. This is a natural reaction because the brain scans for the most contrasty subject first. The isolation of the object due to its "outstanding" sharpness is very significant here.

A small DOF is also a common technique for portrait photography. Usually it is quite difficult to find the right balance between people, that are chosen to be the main subject, and their environment. A sharp background is often distracting here so a large aperture should be used to focus the attention on the point of interest.

SEPERATION

SEPERATION

A small depth-of-field can seperate a subject quite easily from the surrounding but sometimes this is no option because we either operate at very long focus distances or we simply want to include a sharp focused environment in the scene. Nonetheless we often still have the option to stress the importance of a certain object.

MOODS

MOODS

This section is actually no description of a photographic technique but the key issue of a great nature photo is often just "being there". Many photos cannot be planned. So feel the moods and exploit unusual light situations. One main problem here is that these light moods disappear as fast as they come. Overall it's a good idea to shoot first and ask later - waiting for the perfect moment often results in missing the moment. A few pictures for the trash bin surely doesn't hurt as much as no picture at all so experiment and SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT!

Long time exposures

Long time exposures

Motion Blurring
Usually we try to avoid motion blurring but when used to the extreme (with long time exposure) the resulting pictures are often great. Just have a look at the image below. It was exposed with about 20 seconds so the cars on the highway transform to lines of light.

Bridalveil
The "Bridalveil" effect is typically used with waterfalls. It's finally nothing else than a simple long-time exposure so you need a tripod here. The effect starts to get obvious with exposure from 1/2 second and up. The surrounding environment remains the same while the falling water produces stribes of bright light on the film. The longer you expose the more enhanced is the Bridalveil. The optimal exposure time is also dependend on the height of the waterfall but I would suggest about 4-8secs as a rough rule.

LIGHT METERING

LIGHT METERING

The very Basics ... or 18% gray
Metering systems are calibrated to a certain light value in order to gurantee constant exposure settings: 18% gray is commonly accepted because a typical scene seems reflect the same amount of light as this gray value. As a framework for comparison all these colors reflect light like 18% gray:

Usually this assumption works pretty good but if you expose a scene with a majority of bright colors/grays without compensation in spot or center-weighted mode the camera will darken the picture to 18% gray - the result is under-exposed. On the contrary a scene with lots of very dark colors/grays will be lightened up to this gray value - the result is over-exposed. The camera cannot differ between a white wall in shade or a gray wall in sunshine because the amount of incoming ligth is identical. Most cameras are blind in regard to colors - with just one exception (the Nikon F5) they analyse the world based on different light values.

Typical spots with risks for under-exposure:
• Beach
• Snow
• cloudy Sky

Examples with risks for over-exposure:
• Forest
• Lakes
• Dusk or dawn (lots of shadows)

Dependent on the situations you'll have to compensate up to 2 EV to longer or shorter shutter speeds (fixed aperture) or more or less f-stops (fixed shutter speed). Just "shifting the program" doesn't change the amount of light transmitted to the film.

Note: Print films are very tolerant to wrong exposure while slide films require an accurate metering result. 1-2 EV difference compared to the optimal setting doesn't make a difference with prints whereas a slide image is usually quality for the trash bin in such a case.

Typical scenes for Spot or Partial Metering
You should be aware of the followings points:
• Don't meter to the brightest spot of the scene - this would lead to underexposed
results. Try to find a place which has to be exposed right but always think of
the limitation of the metering system.
• Even spot or partial metering cover a substantial area of the picture (up to
9.5%). E.g. the partial metering in the big picture (slot canyon) above points to
a very bright spot but it surely contains some of the shadowed areas - in this
special case it leads to a correct result.
• Normally print films can process a range of around 7 EV=f-stops (slide film: up
to 5 EV) so you should choose spots which are a little bit darker than shown in
the pictures above. If the amount of contrast in a scene exceeds the limitations
of the film your main subject will be outshined or a "skyline"-effect will
occure. You can use the latter as a stylistic element like in the picture to the
lower left (looks better projected than scanned).

Trick:
You can gain 1 EV by pre-exposing the film:
o switch to multi-exposure mode (#2)
o pre-expose with a high-shutter speed and small aperture to a blank paper
(e.g. 1/2000s, f/22)
o expose your picture (non-compensated)

"Black" will probably not as dense as normal but there shouldn't be any further side-effects.

Typical scenes for Center-weighted Metering
Try to find a larger area which has to be exposed right and -again- think of the limitation of the metering system. In critical situations try to compensate manually which can be well controlled in this mode or change to spot metering.

Typical scenes for Matrix or Multi-zone Metering
Multi-zone metering systems are very easy to use. In primitive cases just POINT & SHOOT. Manual compensation isn't very reliable with difficult scenes because you simply don't know exactly how the camera calculates the settings. After some usage you may get a certain feeling for its reactions in certain situations.

LAYERS

LAYERS

Very often you've a major landscape feature like a spectecular mountain which will degenerate to just another rock on a picture. After the first look the viewer has already sucked it all information of the scene so there's not much left than the raving comments of the photographer.

COMPRESSION

COMPRESSION

A major problem with many presentations is an owerwhelming usage of wide-angle lenses. Monotonious perspectives are poison so just add some dynamic here and go for a medium tele lens. This may be an usual thought but once you got used to the idea that typical portrait lenses like a 85mm or 135mm are good for more ... much more. In contrast to the depth provided by a wide-angle lens it'll compress a scene or isolate or special object.

HI-KEY/LOW-KEY

HI-KEY/LOW-KEY

A contrast between an object and its surrounding can either stress the importance with a high contrast or hide it via low contrast..

Obviously this will also work the other way round as well - just place the quite dark main subject into a quite bright surrounding. Dark object in a "Hi-Key" environment.

FOCAL-LENGTH AND PERSPECTIVE

FOCAL-LENGTH AND PERSPECTIVE

There's a bit more about the focal length than just the coverage of a certain angle of view - there's always distinct effect on the relationship between the objects within a scene.

EXPOSURE CORRECTION

EXPOSURE CORRECTION

Approved translation from the original (German) text from Marco Silbernagel.
Some enhancements plus style changes by Klaus Schroiff
Topics:
• The meaning of EV (Exposure Value)
• Auto Exposure Programs.
• Expoure Correction: Why?
• Typical Exposure Situations.
• How to deal with Reflections from your Main Subject ?
• How to set the right Amount of Correction ?
• Some hints for a couple of Available Light Situations.

Exposure Value (EV)
The "Exposure Value" (EV) is the common unit to explain exposure differences so it's useful to understand its concept. In simple words: 1 EV difference is identical with either +-1 f-stop or the half or double shutter speed.

Example:
The camera meters something like 125s at f/8.
If you correct the setting by +1 EV this can mean 1/60s at f/8, 1/90s at f/6.7 or 1/125s at f/5.6 (based on half stop steps). At either setting the lens will transmit the double amount of light to the film. Furthermore 1/125s at f/8 has the same EV like 1/90s at f/9.5 or 1/60s at f/11. The amount of light transmitted to the film remains the same in all these three samples here.

Modern SLRs cameras offer at least possible corrections in 1EV steps, half steps are standard and third steps are a common option in pro cameras. Back in the old days when camera had no internal metering sensors a photographer had to use an external light meter which show also the absolute EV, like EV 6, to provide information about the light situation - EV 0 means 1 sec at f/1.0 here.

The 3 major Auto Exposure Programs:
• Program (P) - The camera suggests a shutter speed/aperture combination based on
the chosen focal length. Some of the smarter camera models allow to "shift" the
program ( changes the setting to the next nearest shutter speed/aperture setting.
The exposure value (EV) remains unchanged ). A "P" program without Shift mode
cannot be used for more than just P&S - including Shift it is a good general
purpose program.
• Shutter Priority - This program is targeted for Action photography where you want
to insure that you have a fixed shutter speed e.g. in order to prevent blurred
images. The camera cares about an appropiate aperture setting here. The exposure
value (EV) remains unchanges again.
• Aperture Priority - This is usually used to control DOF ( Depth-of-Field ) -
portraits may be a good application for this program. The camera automatically
cares about the appropiate shutter speed. The exposure value (EV) remains
untouched again here.

There's no uniform naming convention in regard to these programs. The "Program" mode is usually designated with a "P" but the sign for shutter and aperture priority differs between the manufacturers (T, Tv, S, A, Av etc. pp.). Look into the manual to find out the representation in your world.

The story behind exposure correction
The exporure meter of today's SLRs measure the amount of light (and sometimes also the color) reflected from a scene. This metering is usually done Through-the-Lens (TTL). This works pretty good for most of the time but there're several situations where the limit of the method is exceeded

The metering sensor is calibrated to provide appropiate exposure settings for a scene which reflects light "like" 18% gray. What does that mean ? Have a look outside your window: e.g you may see some red cars which reflect light like 12% gray, the blue sky (5% gray), grand mother's doberman (80% gray), the next house with some white walls (0-5% gray) etc.

If you average all these values you'll quite often end up with a scene that reflects light around 18% gray. If this averaged value is different we have a problem. This is the reason for the various metering modes of a camera. e.g. multi-segement metering systems try to emphasize certain areas in the scene to overcome the 18% gray restriction - with often limited success. Via spot metering you can be the one who selects a typical part of the scene that resembles pretty much this gray value.

If we've only an intergral metering sensor or we simply cannot use spot metering for whatever reason we run into problems in scenes with an average reflection rate which differs significantly from 18% gray - resulting in under- or overexposed pictures. This is where manual exposure correction enters the game.

Table with typical exposure correction directions for difficult light situations:

Typical under-exposed Scenes
[ many bright spots (>18% reflektions)] Exposure correction direction
Contra-light or related light situations Plus (+)
dominant white or yellow areas
Sunset/Sunrise

Typicalover-exposed Scenes
[ many dark spots (<18% reflektions)] Exposure correction direction
Scenes with dark green like a forest Minus(-)
dominant shadows
dominant dark objects

The right Amount of Exposure Correction
It's a bit tricky to choose the right amount of exposure correction - finally nothing else than experience will help here. The "severity" of the problem is also dependent on the chosen film type. Slide film is extremely sensitive, a difference +/-1 EV off the exact exposure is already over the edge for most situations here. Print film is much more tolerant. It (or to be precise: the lab) can easily compensate up to +-2 EV without any big impact on the final result. However, playing around with light moods is much more difficult - especially because the labs always try to compensate exposure variations.
Here some rules of the thumbs for a couple of difficult light situtations based on a normal center-weighted metering system (does not apply for matrix or spot metering):
• Bright scenes at a sunny day: 0 to +3 EV
• Snow or shining water surface: +2/3 to +3 EV
• Close-ups of bright subjects: +1/3 to +1 2/3 EV
• Dawn: 0 to +2 EV
• Landscape with lots of shadows or direct light:-2/3 to 0 EV
• old steam trains (black): -1 1/3 to -2/3 EV

Usually the direction for the exposure correction is pretty easy but setting the right amount is often difficult. Just take a simple sunset - finding the exact setting requires some experience here and even then you may like to take some additional pictures with different EVs just to see which exposure shows the best mood.

This can be done manually or a bit faster and more convinient via auto exposure bracketing by the camera. "ABC" (Auto Bracketing Control), "AEB" (Auto Exposure Bracketing) is featured by many mid and upper class cameras. Usually you just need to activate this feature and set a certain shutter speed/aperture combination and your camera will automatically take 3 to 5 pictures with defined exposure variations.

Available Light
Night or available light situation usually suffer from extreme contrasts between dark and very bright spots (like street lights). These spot lights often confuse the metering sensor because it only takes an averaged sample of a certain picture area. A correct exposure is pretty tricky here and often quality comes only with experience.

Based on an ISO 100 film at f/2 the following shutter speeds may offer some rough rules for some available light situations.
Theater, football stadion (w/spot lights)................: 1/60s
Circus...................................................: 1/30s
Museum, good illminated expositons.......................: 1/15s
In-door shots (artifical light source), camp fire .......: 1/8s
Candle light, christmas tree.............................: 1/4s
weak illuminated town/street scene (at night)............: 2s
Snow landscape at full moon..............................: 10s
Normal landscape at full moon............................: 20s

DRAMATIC PERSPECTIVES

DRAMATIC PERSPECTIVES

A picture is exciting because it shows something extraordinary. This can be achived by an exciting subject or a more or less sophisticated photographic technique. However, it is also possible just to exploit the special physical characteristics of a lens. Especially ultra-wide lenses offer some interesting possibilities. Such effects like the ones shown below are too extreme for regular usage so handle them with care.

The easiest way to push the perspective to the extremes is to use a fisheye. It is really nothing more than a special purpose lens which cannot be used for much more than effect photography. A fisheye is basically an ultra wide lens which does not correct any of the natural distortions. The picture below shows a typical result. The effect is emphasized if you point the lens either up or down.

DEPTH-OF-FIELD AND FOCUS

DEPTH-OF-FIELD AND FOCUS

Dependent on the chosen aperture (f-stop), the focal length and the focus distance you have a certain depth-of-field (DOF). The DOF defines a zone around the chosen focus point where objects appear to be sharp. Beyond the (floating) border of this zone objects get blurry. Typical beginners tend to think that a good picture is a picture where everything is sharp so often small aperture values are preferred in order to maximize the depth-of-field. This assumption works fine some photographics scenes but it's certainly wrong as a general shooting philosophy.

CROSS-LINES

CROSS-LINES

Crossing Lines/diagonals are actually again another simplyfication of the golden mean. The basic idea is to provide a sort of "guideline" for the eyes to follow. It is a good idea to place the start or end of such a line to one of the extreme edges. The classical approach states that the upper left edge is the best starting point because most humans start to traverse a picture from here on. However, it cannot hurt to break this rule (see 2nd picture). Just a straight line would be pretty boring thouhg so there should be some sort of disturbance in the picture.

COLORS

COLORS, COLORS, COLORS!

Image composition is about light and light is about contrast/brightness and colors. It is either a good idea to surpress as many different colors as possible (resulting in monochromatic pictures when going to the extremes) or to make use of color contrasts by looking for complimentary colors - red, green & blue. The more pure the base color the more extreme is the difference (color contrast) making an image interesting. There're various possibilties to increase color saturation and therefore contrast. Polarizers are the most popular option. These filters work pretty good to enhance the blue sky or shiny objects like the sea or other non-metallic object. The effect is maximized at a position 90 degrees of the sun. Often it is a good idea not to go for the max here. Graduated color filters can help as well here and there. There're also various sorts of direct color enhancers like "Redhancer" filter etc.

Just make sure that you know what you're doing...

BACKLIT

BACKLIT

Taking advantage of backlit in scenes with semi-transparent objects is quite favourable in many situations. Just take a look at the wings of the bird or the flower below. The shiny effect here provides a pretty interesting contrast to the "solid" body. Further objects that fit very well for this kind of composition are e.g. hairs (portraits!), ice or shells.

This light situation REQUIRES! a lens hood - otherwise your pictures will suffer from extreme flare problems and a significant loss of contrast!