Keeping it cool

Photographers often strive to capture the warmest light possible, especially true if their preferred genre is landscape photography.  This often means reaching a location before dawn and waiting for the golden hues of light as a direct consequence of the first rays of the rising sun.  This action is often reversed as we catch the last light of the day before the sun dips behind the horizon. Additionally, the thought of venturing out in poor weather is often alien to most as the quest for perfect light continues. 

However it is all too easy to overlook some of the most atmospheric light that is often available for us to capture. Whilst warm is most definitely beautiful, cool can also be fun and photogenically very rewarding.  You shouldn’t be afraid of taking shots when the light is less than attractive but you should actually embrace it and keep your colours cool.

The simplest way to exploit the blue hues of light is to venture out well before sunrise or shortly after sunset.  Even on a gray day when there is a distinct lack of sun, there will be a period before dawn or after dusk when your image will be bathed in a blanket of cool light. The physics behind this are simple.  Film users will be fully aware that film is designed to provide perfect colour reproduction when used at midday on a bright, sunny day.  This is the reason why the golden hues of first light will often appear far warmer in a transparency than you actually remember. Digital cameras are slightly different as they offer a number of different white balance settings that merely replicate the use of warm-up  (e.g. Wratten 81a, 81b & 81c) or cool-down (e.g. Wratten 80a, 80b & 80c) filters. To make the most of the blue hues available every day, I suggest that you ditch the use of these filters and digital users should turn off auto white balance and instead set their camera to sunny, daylight balance. Now the fun can begin!

A distinct advantage to keeping your images cool is that often the light will be very uniform, making the use of graduated filters to balance your exposure far simpler. Your main concern is to keep the sky balanced with the foreground, using an ND-grad of suitable strength to achieve your desired result. Once in place, determining an exposure is relatively easy as the light levels will be balanced so it is just a case of taking an exposure reading of your foreground interest or similar. Be warned though that when shooting the blue hues of pre-dawn or dusk that the time required for an exposure can run into several seconds so a steady tripod is an essential piece of equipment.  As ever bracket the exposures of your shot – I tend to find that slight under-exposure will produce the most pleasing results.

Simple compositions tend to work the best as the lack of contrast can distract from a complicated arrangement. Keep it minimal and look for appealing foreground interest to keep the viewer hooked in the picture. Working with blue light is all about letting the subject shine, without the distraction of warm light to draw the viewers’ eye away from the shot.

Grey sky days can actually provide some great opportunities for photography, and even a sudden downpour should not discourage the photographer looking to exploit the lack of sunshine.  Film users can be adventurous and try loading a tungsten light balanced film which will result in a distinct blue hue, or can simply fit a cool-down filter, whilst digital users can either switch their white balance to tungsten or, if shooting in a raw format, simply adjust the white balance to a cooler setting at the processing stage.  If long exposures are your forte, the Lee Big Stopper filter is ideal for these kinds of shots due to its inherent slight blue cast.  Landscapes including water can look particularly atmospheric using this technique and, as any regular visitor to our upland areas will vouch, can sometimes actually be a far more faithful representation of an area that a brightly lit, midday shot.  There is no need to worry about the harsh light and apart from you and your gear getting a little bit wet (an umbrella is essential when working in the rain) you have the advantage of having time to compose your shot without the light disappearing behind an oncoming blanket of cloud!

You may be pleased to read that you do not necessarily head out at the crack of dawn or during an onslaught of poor British weather to capture images with a cool feel.  Blue-sky days can also provide good opportunities for exploiting the blue hue; the key is to look in the shadows.  Ideally you will be looking for a subject that is completely in the shade and as such this technique is obviously more suitable for abstract and detail shots. If are lucky enough to live near the coast or a shallow slow flowing river, why not try to find a pocket of water that reflects the blue sky above? Pay attention to you composition and make sure that the lighting is uniform i.e. completely in the shade. Waterfalls and cascades can also make superb subjects, as they are often located in woodland that makes the finding of a shady spot quite easy. Again try adjusting your white balance of you camera or use a cool-down filter to accentuate the cool tones. Running water can look particularly atmospheric with a slight blue cast.

Whilst the majority of these techniques are more suited towards landscape and generally scenic shots, city dwellers can also exploit the cool hues of day by photographing the city where they live after the sun has set.  The key is to balance the artificial lights of the city with the blue tones of dusk.  I normally try to compose my shot just before dusk and then I simply wait, capturing a sequence of images until the exposure of the natural and artificially light sources are perfectly matched.

Above all, the key to successfully keeping the colour balance of your images cool is to not be afraid to experiment.  At first you may find that the majority of your shots will not work but once you continue to explore different compositions and various exposures you will hopefully start to find that everything falls into place – And you will start to capture images that are simply not available in the harsh light of day.  Just remember to keep your cool!

Picture of the month | July 2011

I'm ashamed to say that July was a really quiet month for photography.  To be honest the work required to organise my forthcoming exhibition has totally taken me by surprise, unfortunately meaning far more time being spent in the office than I would normally hope for.  There is an upside though.  Everything is in place for the opening night and I now have a couple of weeks free for nothing but photography.  Now all I need is the weather to be obliging.

I did however manage a couple of photography trips this month but ironically my photo of the month was actually captured on a private photography workshop at High Force in County Durham.  Whilst Xavier explored various different compositions from near the top of the falls, I couldn't resist composing a couple of shots of this wonderful location.

It has been a while since I last visited High Force.  In fact it has been 7 years! On my last visit I was shooting with my (then new) Canon EOS 20D and still carried a medium-format film camera with me.  A lot has changed with the technology behind the making of my images yet interestingly this shot is not that dissimilar to my favourite image from my last visit to the falls.  Just goes to show that a good photo will always be a good photo, regardless of the equipment used.

The Great Print Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of the ‘Time & Light’ photography exhibition at the F-Stop Gallery in Newcastle next month, we are going to offer everyone a chance to own a 9″ x 6″ giclee print from the forthcoming print collection.

This is not a competition as such, as everyone will be a winner, and entry is simple. All you need to do is press the Facebook ‘Like’ button on the Time & Light website, and you will be automatically added to the list of lucky ‘winners’. There are no catches and we wont be bombarding you with spam or unsolicited emails. The only condition is that you continue to ‘like’ the page until the launch of the exhibition on the 11th August. On this date we will contact everyone with the code to use to order the print of their choice.

So, to clarify the above, you will receive a free 9″ x 6″ print of your choice (worth £19.99) simply by pressing the Facebook ‘Like’ button. All you will have to pay for is postage & packaging (£2.49 UK – Overseas £4.50).
What are you waiting for?

Picture of the month | June 2011

 

I consider colour to be something of a crutch in the image making process. In someways it is essential for the creation of a successful image yet in others it can be something of an hindrance, an unwelcome distraction from the core elements of the scene which could be used to compose a shot with maximum impact.

However much I love black and white photography, I will not deny that some scenes just need to be photographed in colour. Perhaps none more so than the stereotypical british view of a field covered in flowering poppies.  Now here is the dilemma.  Poppy fields are wonderful subjects and for that reason they are photographed to death.  Ask yourself, do we really need any more poppy images? Thankfully for me, the answer is a definite yes but we do need to perhaps be a bit more creative in the approach to how we compose and capture our images.

I visited this field in Northumberland on a day of less than ideal weather conditions. Strong gusts of wind were making it impossible for me to take detail shots of the poppies with my 'field studio' and the light was less than flattering for a wide landscape view.  So often I have had to make the decision of whether I should abandon a shoot or instead try to experiment with my compositions.  One of the best things about digital cameras is that you can experiment to your hearts content and it won't cost you a penny.  I can not guarantee that you will always be pleased with your shots but I can guarantee you that you will learn and improve your photography simply by trying to be more creative with your shots and learning from the mistakes that you made.

This shot was the result of taking a chance and experimenting with my composition.  I decided to work with the wind as I knew that it would be virtually impossible to record sharp poppies throughout the frame.  So instead I fitted my 10X ND filter with a view of exaggerating the movement of the poppies in the field to a point where the image almost becomes a minimalist design. Here I have managed to record five minutes in the life of this poppy field on a breezy day in Northumberland and condensed them into the one single shot that I have decided was my picture of the month.

Stock Photography - Is it a numbers game?

The common wisdom for contributing images to stock photography libraries is that it is a ‘numbers game’.  Simply put, the more images that you have represented by a library will produce the greatest return on your investment.  After ten years of contributing images to a number of libraries, and some 6000 images later, I have started to question the logic behind this common perception and have actually started to produce a far higher return on my images by actually supplying less shots.

Like many other photographers, I started my stock career by carefully looking through the pages of the Freelance Photographer`s Market Handbook, and short-listing a small selection of libraries that may be suitable for my landscape and travel shots. I steered away from the bigger libraries (ie Getty & Corbis) simply because I felt that I would not be able to supply the number of images that they required.  Upon signing a contract with my first library, I quickly amassed around 500 images which were accepted.  So all I had to do now was to continue shooting and wait for the cheques to appear. I shot, and I waited but to no avail. I quickly realised that I had probably made one of my biggest mistakes. I had simply put all of my eggs in one basket.

A quick flick through the pages of the handbooks later, I noticed an online library accepting general images and offering the lowest commission structure of probably all of the libraries. Of course the library in question was Alamy, now a regular name in publications worldwide although back then I was taking a bit of a gamble. Alamy were the perfect library to represent my Australia and New Zealand images, so I started to have my old Velvia slides scanned (which was not a cheap process) and started sending in my CD’s.  200 shots later and I had my first sale (£100 for a image reproduced at a ¼ page in an education textbook).  Things were looking good. I started to plan trips to destinations purely to shoot stock. And it started to provide a good return.

For a while I put most of efforts into supplying new images to the big A.  I did keep in mind that I should not put all of my eggs into one basket so I also started to contribute to a couple of libraries that only represented British material – Loop Images and the former Britain on View collection. Both libraries have provided good returns over the years with the former showing increasing promise over the recent months. Which is far more than I can say for Alamy. By the start of 2009 I had over 5000 shots with them and I was receiving regular sales of at least 10 images being reproduced every month. But my return per image was slipping and I felt like I had hit a plateau. More images were not necessarily meaning more income.

To be honest if overseas material did not make such a large proportion of my portfolio, then I would have probably just have increased my efforts with Loop and BOV (now managed and marketed via PhotoLibrary) but having returned from a previous around the world foray (which was purely a stock trip) and still having a large amount of un-represented shots, I needed to find a new outlet for this material. I looked through the handbook again but also did extensive web searches looking for overseas libraries. One Canadian library caught my eye. Masterfile had a reputation for being extremely stringent about image quality and the photographers that they represent perhaps understandable if you consider that they are the largest independent stock photography library in North America. I sent in my contributor application, waited, and was accepted.

I knew things were going to be a little bit different with Masterfile when they appointed my with my own picture editor and arranged a phone conversation so that we could discuss exactly what their requirements were and what they were looking for. Technically it was a nightmare getting my first submission through – Mainly because the specifications for the shots are stringent and every single shot has to pass a computer processed test as well as a visually examination by a human being. The second submission was easier but I started to feel a bit disheartened as they were accepting on average about 25% of the images that I was contributing. Alarm bells starting to ring and I started to slow down the submissions at about 100 images being represented by them.

Twelve months in and I had still not received a single sale. However, the start of last year I received my first monthly sales report. A modest sale of £50 (after Masterfile have taken their 60% commission which should be noted is far higher than the commission structure of Alamy) but it was a sale and it was paid into my bank account immediately.  At the time I was pleased but did expect it to be my only sale for a while – After all I have only 100 shots with Masterfile compared to 5000+ with Alamy.  Imagine my surprise when I received another sales report a month later, and indeed the month later. In fact I have received a regular payment of at least £50 every months (with the best payment being £300) up until the time of me writing this piece. Admittedly I now have more shots represented by them but I still have a total of only 200 images.

You can draw your own conclusions from my experiences but as a general rule my profit percentage for my images represented by Alamy is now surpassed from the other libraries representing about 20% of my portfolio. Stock photography is numbers games but a higher commission percentage for the photographer and a larger portfolio of images represented by a single library does not necessarily mean the highest return.  Choose your library carefully but above all do not put all of your eggs into one basket.

Monochrome Returns

Nearly fifteen years ago I attended my first every photography class.  At that time I had no desire to become a professional photographer, or even shoot colour, all I wanted to do was to learn how to photograph and print good black and white pictures.  There was absolutely no hint at that time of how my life would unfold to set me on the path to become what I am now. I knew nothing about f-stops and honestly had sweaty palpitations when somebody asked me an awkward question like what is the filter thread size on my SLR.  What SLR? This all began with a simple point and shoot, compact film camera.

Before I knew it I had my first rangefinder and then first SLR. I continued to shoot black and white although i did use colour for my first overseas trip to Mexico. As I took more pictures and also began to travel more, colour started to become the logical choice. I started reading more books and started to appreciate what could be done with colour transparency film, I began to see that colour work could actually be considered as a creative art with the added bonus that it could also be sold to magazines, which actually helped to fund my early trips away. Gradually and really without me noticing, I began making and marketing images as a profession - and there wasn't a roll of black and white film in sight.

This continued for a decade but something started to change a couple of years ago. After an extensive period of capturing images for a number of Halsgrove books, I started to become despondent. I started to begin questioning why I had become a photographer. Did i have anything left to say through the medium. I had to learn how to enjoy my craft again.

These events coincided with the recent resurgence of interest in black and white photography, probably mainly due to the sudden convenience of obtaining these shots in the world of digital.  No more loading films in the darkroom surrounded by the unpleasant aroma of processing chemicals, now shots can be captured on a digital camera and loaded onto your home computer. With the additional convenience that you can even print the image at home. And the prints can be very, very good.

I now still mainly shoot colour images but black and white does play a huge part in satisfying my creative urges.  Currently I am working on my first e-book which also happens to be my first entirely black and white project. Entitled 'Black Light' it contains a portfolio of images from different stages throughout my career - Some film but mainly digitally captured shots, processed with the care that I gave to my darkroom prints all of those years ago. Over the next few weeks through the website I will be sharing some of the techniques used to create these images, as well as some of the stories regarding the events behind the camera.  In the meantime here are a few shots to wet your appetite.

Picture of the month | May 2011

I had been looking forward to May for a while mainly due to a planned return to the Scottish Highlands to capture images of the splendour of the Cairngorms National Park for a forthcoming book to be published by Halsgrove.  The weather at the start of the month was simply fantastic so imagine my dismay when the forecast for my planned visit was simply horrific.  Unfortunately work and home commitments meant that I was unable to reschedule the trip so there was only one decision to make - To cancel the trip or go ahead and hope for the best.

It can be so easy to get disillusioned with a trip when you find yourself sitting in a tent with rain battering on the canvas.  OK, modern technology like my newly purchased iPad means that I can continue to work but when you are in a location like the Cairngorms it seems an almost criminal action to do. I was there to make images and although poor weather can really hamper the image making process, it can also provide some outstanding natural lighting that can simply not be found at any other time.

In between hiding behind bushes to shelter from the wind and constant wiping of the front element of my lens to remove raindrops, I managed to create some memorable images that I feel convey the emotion of trip perfectly.

Typically is was on the drive home to Northumberland when the weather began to improve. Consistent sunny spells with occasional light showers created the perfect environment for rainbows to appear.  Unfortunately I was driving down the A1 through the Scottish Borders when the rainbow pictured here magically appeared.  At first it was a perfect ark above the border landscape yet however hard I looked I could not find a suitable viewpoint to do it justice.  I continued to drive and as the last rays of the setting sun started to paint the clouds a magical orange glow, I managed to reach the small village of Burnmouth.

Time was running out. I had followed this rainbow for nearly 20 miles but by now the sun had nearly disappeared below the horizon. I had little choice other than to fit my 70-200mm zoom lens and create a composition around the rainbow itself.  I decided to keep a slim slither of the North Sea mainly to enable a sense of belonging and place for the rainbow.  I took this shot and then it was over. The rainbow disappeared in front of my eyes.  But I had the shot of the trip.

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