Your photos (4)

Your photos (4)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

Sunset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Why has the background come out so light? I'm using an automatic compact camera." Joe Sliggins, Manchester, UK.

The background is over-exposed because there is so much dark shadow in the foreground that your built-in exposure meter was misled into taking this into account when calculating exposure. There is a limit to the contrast range any film (or printing lab) can cope with, so the solution with a very contrasty view like this is to expose for the part of the picture that interests you most. If it is the background you want, expose for it and let the foreground go really dark. If your camera has spot-metering, you can just take the reading from the background area. If not, get much closer in so that there is very much less to be seen of the dark foreground, then the meter will not be affected by it. But try to keep in enough of the foreground to effectively frame the picture!

The real problem with this picture is its lack of a specific subject, so it's a bit of a non-event. What emphasis there is, is on the empty road! Far better to select the part that really interests you, then concentrate on that. The house in the left foreground looks interesting. If you agree, why not just show that? Then you could have avoided the over-light background altogether.

"Hi! I noticed your website listed in Yahoo! and decided to take a peek. The below link will take you to the few photos I have on my web site. Could you give them a look? Thanks." Brian C. Miller.

A very photogenic scene that might have been made even more appealing by including a rather closer view of the running water in the immediate foreground. But perhaps this would have meant getting into the stream! The appearance of moving water depends very much on the shutter speed being used. It's a good idea to use a long shutter speed to blur it, as here, as this brings out the feeling of movement.

A fine dramatic picture, made all the more dramatic by being in black & white. But I'm not sure you need quite all that white sky above so....

....I'd be inclined to keep in just enough of the white sky to preserve the contrast with the dark areas below, as shown on the right:

This doesn't quite work in b & w, because all the middle of the picture is taken up with a rather boring grey sky, and you're not sure where to look. The dark shore behind is a bit of a distraction too. If a connection was intended between the large gun and the war clouds above, this needed to be made more obvious.

Reply from Brian C. Miller: "Thanks for the comments! :)
The battleship scene is cropped down. The original shows a general crowd to the left, and is barely cropped out. The original center of eye focus was the bridge, but the crowd was too distracting. This reduces it to just two figures, the fellow at the lower left, and the child to the right of the cannon. (that's all there is from the negative) The background is the deck of an aircraft carrier. This photo is from when I first started using something besides a point & shoot. I would use a blue filter now instead of red 25, and bring up the shadow values. The ship is the BB Missouri, and was open briefly (three weekends) before it was towed to Hawaii. I experimented with Techpan and some other vessels, but I didn't know Techpan requires special developer.... ); (the vessels were two wooden hulled minesweepers, with peeling paint).
I photographed the snag when I was burning off the end of a roll of film.This is a straight print from the lower bracket.
I couldn't get more of the immediate little falls in the picture due to DOF constraints. I am now experimenting with an old Graphlex Super Graphic. I've just found out that I need a better lens for landscape pictorials, as the original 135mm is a bit soft. (Great for news gathering, portraits and such, but my smaller cameras beat it soundly.)"

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