Page 80 - Australian Photography - September 2017
P. 80
COMPOSITION IS KEY
Patrick Geeves wrote: “I go to this area in front of a
marina quite a lot for sunrise shots and this time I
saw this beautiful pink twilight. I love the colours and
the clouds and the reflections in the water plus the
silhouettes on the boats. It was certainly better than
the sunrise and if I had got there five minutes earlier it
would have been better. It pays to be early.”
You are quite right that this has a lot of lovely visual
elements with colour, clouds and reflections. With all
that minimal space around the boats, it would work
in a magazine spread with loads of type on the page.
The downside is that it is a background shot since that
foreground offers little interest between the viewer and
the boats. I think this shot would really benefit with a
rule of thirds composition by cropping the foreground
up to the level of the small duck on the left hand side.
This would bring the boats into the foreground. Another
option would be to give the shot a panoramic format
by cropping top and bottom since the best colour and
interest is concentrated in the centre third of the frame
along the water line.
SAIMA’S TIP: When there are good clouds in the sky, TITLE: Tranquil Twilight
it can pay to hang around for half an hour after the sun PHOTOGRAPHER: Patrick Geeves
has set, to see if those clouds are lit up underneath, DETAILS: Olympus OMD E-M5, Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm lens @ 14mm (28mm equivalent ), 1/13s @ f11, 200
sometimes with even better colour than at sunset. ISO, tripod and remote shutter release, .Adjustments: slight + exposure comp, slight saturation and sharpness.
DARKEN FOR MOOD
Steve Genesin wrote: “I went to Semaphore
Jetty on the Adelaide beaches on a fairly
cold morning. I was keen to try out a newly
purchased neutral density filter. With the
help of a tripod I took what I thought was a
handy shot. I tried some different aperture
and speed settings but eventually ended
up with a result that seemed to capture the
mood of the morning and the worn features
of the jetty. I especially like the barnacles
exposed by the low tide.”
I quite like the knobbly-knee-like effect
that the barnacles create on the long ‘legs’ of
the pier. This image has nice lighting, good
colour and a pleasant enough sky. What
could make a big difference to this scene is
simply darkening it. If you look carefully at
the pylons second in both left and right, you
will see a smoky effect going on, and this
is a good sign that they are over-exposed.
Darkening it will also provide more shadows
and interest. It is not necessary to be able to
see absolutely every little detail in a scene. If
you wanted to get a more glassy effect in the
water, you could get a longer shutter speed
by shooting at f11 or f16.
SAIMA’S TIP: Over-lightened images lose
shadows which can help provide interesting
contours, mood and mystery.
TITLE: Tide is Out
PHOTOGRAPHER: Steve Genesin
DETAILS: Olympus E-M10 @ 17mm.
4s @ f7.1, ISO 200.
