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Have you ever photographed a subject that is either very dark or very bright? Is it easy? Nope…it’s not. There are several factors that make it difficult to photograph subjects that are mostly white or mostly black.
Exposure
The camera’s built-in algorithms nearly always get the exposure wrong when the subject is all white or all black. If ambient light is too low, the camera can’t meter properly. When Jay was taking this photograph in Capital Reef National Park on a Moonless night, the camera could not accurately measure the exposure. He wanted to show the Milky Way as it is visible to the human eye. So, he used the histogram to determine the proper exposure without the help of the meter. He made a guess at setting that might work and took a single shot. Then he checked the histogram to see if the stars were bright enough – or too bright. He took several shots to determine the proper exposure.
Another challenge a scene like this poses is lighting the foreground object. There is enough light to capture the stars, but not enough light to capture the foreground. Jay used a headlamp to paint the foreground with just a small amount of light. Once again, he used the histogram to decide how much light was right for painting the foreground. He wanted to add just enough light to make the foreground visible, but not so much that foreground would appear to be obviously artificially lit.
Focusing
High or low key subjects are often characterized by low contrast. Accurately focus is often difficult when you don’t have high contrast edges to work with. This shot from Artist Paint Pots in Yellowstone National Park was a challenge for focus.
In order to get the shot he wanted, Jay set the focus to the correct distance using autofocus, and then switched to manual focus mode to lock the focus. Once the focus was locked, he could take several shots of exploding mud bubbles and hope to catch one with interesting patterns.
How much contrast is enough?
Once you overcome the challenges of exposure and focus, it’s time to think about post-processing. Default software settings often pump up the contrast to bring out rich colors and details. With a low contrast image, increasing the contrast can actually make a photo less appealing. For this shot of Skógafoss in Iceland, Varina actually reduced the overall contrast slightly for a more nature look.
White Balance
And then there’s white balance. This can get a little tricky… especially with wide-angle photography. The scene we’re working with here is actually relatively evenly lit, thanks to the full moon that painted the balanced rock with light. Beautiful. The problem is that the white balance for the sky is different than the white balance for the foreground. For this shot, Varina choose one white balance for the sky – making sure that the blue looked clean and natural. She chose a different white balance for the foreground, letting the color in the rocks take center stage. After processing the star-trails (that’s a whole different issue), she used layers and masks to fix the color of the rocks.
We are often asked why we need to understand Layers & Masks in Photoshop? After all, we can always blend or adjust images using HDR software, right? Here’s a quick explanation.
Overexposed Highlights
After iHDR Blend
Take a look at the two images above. Notice that the highlights in the image on the left are overexposed. You can’t see any detail in the white areas in the water. In the second image, I corrected the overexposure with our iHDR workflow. I can create a similar blend using an automated HDR tool. But this is not a finished image. I want to take it further. I think the image needs some corrections to improve the contrast in the rocks, and to help focus the viewers attention on the water itself. To accomplish this, I used different layers and masks to limit each adjustments to a specific region. The image below show all the layers and masks I used, and the areas I targeted with each adjustment.
Adjustment Layers and Masks
It is true that I can accomplish the same adjustment without layers and masks in Photoshop, but adjustment layers combined with masks allow me a lot more freedom. I can fine-tune the adjustments I made on each layer without destroying the other layers. I can make adjustments to a single layer without having to retrace my steps. I can turn layers on and off to see what effect they have on one another. And I can add to or subtract from each mask to refine it at any time during the workflow.
I often save the image as a PSD file – with all those layers and masks intact – and return to it a few days later. In this way, I can keep track of all the adjustments I’ve made.
So, layers and masks let me take my blended image to the next level, and they allow me to preserve the processing steps I used to create the image. As my workflow gets more complex, layers and masks allow me to keep track of each adjustment, and gives me much greater control.
To learn more about Layers and Masks, check out Session 2 of our Nature Photography and iHDR Workflow Recording: Histograms and RAW Processing
I love shooting water droplets. They are tiny and perfectly formed, and light plays within them , making them seem to possess a life of their own. Here are some of our water droplets.
Studio photography gives you fine control of light and shadow. For this shot, I placed a flower in a black box, placed a piece of glass on top, and sprinkled water droplets on the glass. A thin layer of RainX helped the droplets bead up. I set up my camera on a tripod, and shot straight downward, making sure the flower was properly exposed.
After it rains, water droplets form on branches and leaves. Jay used a macro lens to capture this pretty droplet and found a tiny world inside it. He took two shots – one for perfect focus along the edge of the droplet, and the second for the reflected scene within. Then he combined the two images in Photoshop.
Here’s a shot of dew on a fresh green stem. Varina wanted to capture the essence of Springtime. She got down on her knees and used a macro lens to get close to this little gem. The simplicity of the composition and color scheme let the droplet stand out.
Broad leaf vegetation often allows water droplets to bead up – in the same way that they do a on a freshly waxed car. Jay used diffused side-lighting for this shot. If the subject is small enough, you can create subtle lighting with a diffuser – but in this case, Jay used indirect light coming from the entrance of a small cave.
And here’s one more. This is a shot taken the day after a heavy rain – in the middle of winter. Temperatures dropped during the night, and tiny droplets froze on every leaf. Varina used a very narrow depth of field to capture the beauty of this miniature ice sculpture.
To learn more about composition and color check out our eBooks below:
Abstracts may lack a clear point of interest. They are often about form, color, or mood. When you shoot abstracts, think about what you want to convey with your image. Here are a few examples to get you thinking.
This shot is titled Distortions. This image uses reflections to showcase patterns and color in sandstone formations in the Coyote Buttes region of Arizona. Jay placed his camera very close to the surface of the water and zoomed in. The goal was to fill the frame with pattern and color.
Here’s a shot called “Broken Heart.” Varina chose a recognizable shape as a point of interest and filled the frame with the patterns in cracked mud. Notice that the heart shape is the only closed shape in the photograph. This helps to define it as the point of interest.
Sometimes a recognizable locations or object can be imbued with an abstract feel with the help of in-camera techniques, special filters or lenses, or processing. Jay took this shot of Old Faithful with a Lens Baby. The result is dreamy and blurred.
This shot from the Hot Rain Forest in Olympic National Park is an example of a creative in-camera technique. Varina took a shot through a rain-spattered window in order to capture this surreal impressionistic image.
A high shutter speed can freeze motion and allow us to see something that might be invisible to us otherwise. Jay took this shot of an exploding mud bubble in Yellowstone National Park. A 1/2500 second shutter speed shows off the incredible patterns that appear as the bubble bursts.
Capturing abstracts might mean you have to think outside the box. Next time you are out shooting, get creative. Try some of these simple techniques to build an unexpected photograph!
To learn more about how to capture creative images and brilliant colors check our the ebooks below:
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