Snow capped mouintains

[norhan]

Hi! I was recently in New Zealand where it rained daily as it was

winter. There was almost always overcast days with beautifulscenes

of farms backed by snow capped mountains against a plain dull sky.

Not having any experience with this type of scene (coming from a

tropical climate)a few of my photos using slide film had washed out

mountain tops and dull foreground. How could I have improved on this

so that there would've been a clear difference between sky and

mountain top and a brighter foreground? Thanks.

[jason neymeyer]

Search for Graduated ND (neutral density) filters. The rectangular ones work great, the circular screw in type do not.

 

Singh-Ray makes a top quality product.

[david_senesac]

Film of course doesn't have the ability to capture such a dynamic range of light as one's eyes do. Around the mid point of ones camera exposure setting, dark areas will film darker and light areas lighter than one's eyes see. Thus there are many situations in which it is impossible to adequately expose all elements in a scene. In fact one of the tasks of a wise photographer is being able to evaluate what their camera and film can and cannot expose adequately. Knowing when to not bother and when one can adjust whatever is available to compensate as well as possible. If your friend stands in front of the sun as a silhouette, you can either compensate the exposure to allow your friend to expose correctly or expose for the sky which would end up making your friend look very dark. Likewise your situation of snowy peaks presumably at midday requires a decision on whether to expose for the background peaks or the othe closer scene elements. When snowy peaks are not too distant and the air is clear, it may be impossible to bring all scene elements in at midday. As has been suggested, one might use a split neutral density filter, however that imposes a limitation on the geometry of framing. A more natural approach is to simply expect to photograph such scenes early or late enough in the day when the contrast between scene elements is lower. I love shooting scenery with snowy mountains in the background, and can readily do so here in California during the summer till mid morning. After 9am standard time, that increasingly becomes more difficult. Try bracketing exposure on some shots and record your camera settings for later comparison.

 

...David

 

www.davidsenesac.

[joseph_smith3]

The human brain compensates for the range of light intensities you were viewing. Unfortunately, your camera and slide film does not. Slide film can record only about a 4-5 f stop range of light. When a greater range is present you get washed out whites or deep blacks, or both. As the other posters have stated, you have to tone down the highlights by using graduated neutral density filters. Here is a link to an article by Rod Barbee on how to use them: http://www.barbeephoto.com/using_split_neutral_density.htm.

Also go to the Singh Ray web site for their article. Joe Smith

[todd_west]

I'm not sure contrast is the problem. It might be, but from my experience it's more likely the light is just blah. Unless the foreground is sunlit from behind or something, it's not normally brighter than the sky. Nora, can you describe the lighting in more detail or post a sample image?

[markplawchan]

Will a Singh Ray ND fit into a Cokin holder (Series P)?

[norhan]

Hi everyone.

 

Thanks for the advice. Todd, afraid I'm not sure how to post a photo here but you could view 2 of them in my portfolio. I've just uploaded them (you couldn't miss them - they're the photos that didn't work).

 

They were in fact all taken around 3-4pm (sun went down at 5pm). Perhaps I shouldn't have attempted in these situations but all those days I was there, the atmosphere was like this - dull - although my eyes noticed beauty, I couldn't translate them into photos. Appreciate the advice.

 

Thanks.

[todd_west]

Hey, thanks. I think I was half right in my guess. The foreground in Midford 2 is dull because it's shadowed and lacks chiaroscuro, unlike the sunlight on the mountains. I wasn't there so I can't say for sure, bit I suspect it's probably a bit overexposed, which is why the sky is blown at the right. The situation with Creek is much the same, though contrast is more of problem in that photograph. From looking at the reflection in the water, as other posters have suggested, a grad ND would knock down the sky's brightness and pull it into the exposure latitude of the film. However, that'll also darken the mountains and, in my experience, usually makes dark trees dark enough they lose detail.

 

Unless you were already using it, I think you could probably pull detail in both of these shots with Astia 100F and more careful metering. Astia 100F has a couple stops more exposure latitude than other slide films, which helps a lot, plus I'd bet both of these exposures could be taken 1 AV lower than they were. What I do in these situations is to meter the sky and the ground and then put the exposure basically in the middle of that range. Or just give up if the brightness differential is too large.

 

However, that won't fix the lack of good light on the foreground. Creek's not bad with the water if you crop for square by dropping the right part of the frame, but it doesn't have the right compositional and lighting ingredients for major wow factor. Not much you can do about that. ;~) Milford 2 would be better if had been shot from the other side of the road in the midground, but for it to be really dramatic there would need to be light on the midground trees.

 

In these kinds of situations I usually shoot the mountains with a telephoto (400mm or thereabouts is often handy) and then look for interesting compositions within the foreground which don't include the background. Easier on the film (or sensor---my 10D is not competitive with the exposure latitude of 4x5 Astia 100F sheets) and often makes for better compositions since you're not trying to unify two disparate kinds of lighting.

[norhan]

Thanks for the advice. Will try that out next time.