Landscape Photography: Four Seasons by Chris Gatcum

Author:Chris Gatcum [Gatcum, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Photography, Techniques, Equipment, General, Subjects & Themes, Landscapes
ISBN: 9780240817859
Google: KgpFuAAACAAJ
Publisher: Focal Press
Published: 2011-09-15T00:26:44.035550+00:00

The distinctive “sweet spot” created by a Lensbaby can be recreated digitally using selections and blur tools, but using the lens on your camera is a lot more fun!

COLOR GRADS

Using colored graduated filters over the lens was a once-popular technique with film photographers looking not only to balance the exposure of their summer skies with the landscape (in a similar way to an ND grad), but to inject a little color into them at the same time. However, like many photographic trends, this is no longer a commonly used technique, and photographers who want to create colorful, but unrealistic skies see image-editing software as a simpler and reversible option.

In some ways using lens-based filters can be beneficial. As noted above, a colored graduated filter can be used to balance exposure, as well as add color. It is worth bearing in mind that your choices will be limited, though, as there are not as many colors used to produce graduated filters as there are colors in your image-editing program’s palette. However, this can actually work to your advantage, as being limited to just a few colors (a tobacco-colored grad is an established favorite) means that you are less likely to overuse the technique. Given the millions of colors available in an image-editing program, it is quite easy to carried away with your experiments, and use colored grads for all of your shots, rather than a select few.

If you want to add your graduated color digitally, then most editing programs will have a Gradient tool, which will allow you to apply a color-to-transparent gradient. Applying this to its own layer above your landscape image (rather than to the image itself), will allow you to fine-tune the effect—adjusting the color, increasing or reducing its intensity, or removing it. What a digital gradient can’t do, though, is reveal detail that isn’t there to start with—the initial exposure still needs to be considered carefully if you want to retain detail.

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