Fine Art Photography Water, Ice & Fog: Photographic Techniques and the Art of Interpretation by Sweet Tony

Author:Sweet, Tony
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811742825
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2013-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

—Ansel Adams

Big Lake

* * *

South of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Nikkor 20–35mm, f/2.8 lens

Singh Ray three-stop split, graduated, neutral-density filter

A scene with a dark foreground and a bright sky with some nice detail is a prime candidate for a split, graduated, neutral-density filter. I wanted the foreground water area a bit brighter than it was, so I metered the dark foreground, making it brighter. When brightening up a dark foreground, the bright highlights in the scene can get completely blown out, so a 3-stop split graduated neutral-density filter was called for. For digital shooters, photographing the bright and then the dark areas and blending the two exposures together in Photoshop can achieve the same effect. I prefer using the filter because it’s faster, requiring no computer time.

A wide-angle lens was certainly called for in this image. The foreground, which is close to the lens, is interesting and graphic, and the clouds and foggy shorelines in the distance also provide some interest. Normally, dividing the frame in half should be avoided, but in this case, with the reeds and reflection and the cloud pattern having equal importance, I felt that it worked. To create some asymmetry, I brought the left shoreline two-thirds into the frame and included a small piece of the opposite shoreline, making a small opening. The idea is to have the viewer begin at the foreground grasses leading to the opening and then move to the cloud pattern.

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