Sussex Corn

Astonishing depth of field. Can you fill us in on the technical details? My only caveat is that the large leaves in the forground to not stand out enough. Maybe they should be darkened a bit?

Hello Ned, thanks for your interrest, it means alot to get advice from photographers as good as you.

 

It was an exceedingly hot, still and bright day, last summer up on the South Downs in Southern England just north of Brighton. I was out for a walk with my family and came across this fantastic corn field. I wanted to do something with it, but for most of its length, the field was elevated above the path, so there was no veiw of the Sussex countryside beyond. Also the landscape was generally lacking in foreground detail. Suddenly the path rose up, and this view appeared; and what luck, there were these cabbage-like weeds nestling in amongst the wheat to give me some foreground interrest.

 

The shot was taken at midday, and there was hardly any cloud cover, so the light was very direct and very harsh, but with few shadows. There was absolutly no wind, despite the elevated location, and being so close to the coast.

 

My camera was hand held, and loaded with Kodak's C41 process B&W film (Kodak Professional T400 CN), which I rated at 400 ISO. - I find this film to be very chrisp, giving good contrast with the minimum of grain (also find it to be exceedingly forgiving). I was using my Canon 50mm (f.1.4) prime lens, which I think has fantastic optics [in fact I think it is as good as Canon lenes get without spending silly money!]. The light conditions allowed me to stop down to f.22 for an exposure of 1/60s, despite the yellow filter! - The focus point was about 6m into the field, and I used the camera's Depth of Field preview to make sure the foreground was sharp. I then breathed in and took two shots - the first suffered a little from camera shake, but with this, the second, I was lucky!

 

I love B&W for most situations, but my only regret, given the conditions, was that my camera wasn't loaded with Fuji Velvia - Oh well!

 

There has been no photoshop manipulation of the original image, but taking your advice I have had a go at darkening the leaves. - What do you think?

 

Regards, Nick.

Thanks for calling me a good photographer, but I'm really a rank amature. Until my retirement I hadn't touched a camera in over 20 years.

 

I think your photo has fantastic potential, but the weeds in the foreground still aren't jumping out at you. It will probably take more than just darkening, maybe somesort of localized contrast adjustment, but I'm not shure where to go from here.

 

As for the lense, I know I simply never use the zoom that came with my camera. I've been using a 1.4 50mm nikon and there is no question that it is the best bang for the buck. And when you're learning a new skill, using tools that make you do as much of the work as possible are the best way to learn. That's what got me interested in the pin-hole. The camera does absolutely none of the work for you. I can't even see through the view-finder, so my brain has to learn how to compose a scene ahead of time. Having survived Med school you know that doing things the hard way is the best way to make things easier later on.

 

Here's a link to a picture I think you will find relevant:

http://www.geh.org/taschen/htmlsrc15/m196700800006_ful.html#topofimage

I did some quick fiddling around with the image. Obviously the texture of the corn is all wrong, but this might give a feel as to what it would look like with more discernable leaves.

The corn is ripe for the harvest. I am amazed at how many pieces of corn there are in this photo.

I would very much appreciate your comments and ratings, and any suggestions on how to

improve the image.

 

Regards and thanks, Nick.

Very nice composition with nice perspective. Sharp image offer beautiful details.

As a former resident of the American Midwest, your photos grabbed my attention. They made me think, "I saw fields like this for years, but I never saw the fields like this." I appreciate your eye for the landscape.

 

I have a question about horticulture though. You've titled the photo as "Sussex Corn" but it seems to depict wheat or a similar grain. Albeit your description of how the photo was taken does mention wheat. Hmmmm...if this isn't corn, then I suspect your "Harvested Corn Field" photo shows bales of the same crop, not corn. The grain stalks in that photo are planted very closely unlike the even rows of corn stalks that I'm familiar with.

 

Beautiful photos...very nice patterns.

Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you liked the photograph!

 

George Bernard Shaw was right when he said that "England and America are two countries separated by a common language".

 

You too are right, this is indeed what in America would be called a "wheat field". In the U.K. however, we call any field containing cereal crop a "corn field". This includes wheat, oats and barley, but not "corn". What you in America call corn, we Brits only call corn, when it's on the plate. When it's in the field, we call it "maize"!

 

Confusing hey! - Like: "pants vs. trousers"; "garbage vs. rubbish"; "elevator vs. lift"; "fanny vs. bottom" etc. etc. etc.

 

Regards, Nick.

A wheat field in balck and white. How unbelievably artistic. A real killer shot.

Hello Porter.

 

I'm glad that you liked this shot, although I don't think that I would have gone so far as to describe it as a "killer"!

 

Thanks for stopping by, Nick.