Thursday, November 27, 2008

Borrowed Style

Reach for the Sky

Location
: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Year
: 2008
Camera: Canon 40D, 17-85mm f/4-5.6 lens
Settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/400 second, 100mm

Details
: This is one of my pictures for an assignment from the course I took (Develop Your Photography, TWI). The assignment was to replicate either the style or theme of another photographer. I chose the style of Simon Chaput (link to Fifty One gallery below where his work can be found). His work with buildings is characterized by B&W shots with start contrasts between light and dark.

In my first session I found I could not get any pictures with the right amount of contrast (note I was shooting in colour and converted to B&W after). The next session I was able to hit paydirt with many shots. Here is what you need to do:

First, you will need to take shots either early in the morning or later in the evening when the sun is lower. This makes darker, longer shadows. Next, you want the right exposure to make the dark areas darker. The key is to not let the camera take a reading from the overall scene as it will try to balance the light and dark. Instead, zoom into the well lit area and take an exposure reading (usually by pressing the shutter release halfway in). Note the speed and f-stop. Then put the camera in manual mode, set the f-stop and speed, recompose for the shot you want, and click away! Essentially, you will be using a faster shutter speed than normal for the scene. This will keep the light areas clear and the shadows very dark.

Processing: The shot was then processed in Camera RAW (part of Photoshop CS3), where I easily removed all the colour from the photo. I did no other processing to this photo (aside the copyright watermark).

Link: http://www.gallery51.com/index.php?


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