OCA Course: Measuring exposure.

This exercise consists of some old photographs and some taken specifically for the exercise.

The first three are images lighter than normal. The snow scene was taken opening up one stop to make the snow appear white. The Greenbottle was a flash photo with no exposure compensation, but the cameras metering seems to have coped well. The swan shot again was given one stop over exposure to whiten the snow and the birds.

South Bay in Winter

Greenbottle

Mute Swans

The next three are darker than normal, showing the stars, moon and sun. Only the moon shot was deliberately under-exposed to maintain the "atmosphere".

Milky Way

Moon over South Bay

Shieldaig

 The forest images were actually shot with one stop difference between them because of the wide tonal range of the scene. The darkest one best reflects the mood of the scene, but even that is still lighter than the scene appears to the eye, and 2.5 stops underexposure would have been better.

Forest -2ev

Forest -1ev

Forest 0ev

Forest +1ev

Forest +2ev

 The river Hartford shots are probably all acceptable, depending on what you wish to emphasise, be it sky, river or grass. The minus 0.5ev shot works best for me as it conveys some mood to the shot without it being too dark.

River Hartford -1ev

River Hartford -0.5ev

River Hartford 0ev

River Hartford +0.5ev

River Hartford +1ev

 This scene of the North Bay has a very wide tonal range, with reflections from the beach, direct sun, and dark shadows in the foreground. Any of the exposures works.

North Bay -1ev

North Bay -0.5ev

North Bay 0ev

North Bay +0.5ev

North Bay +1ev

 Snowdrops should appear white with a little detail present. The normal exposure has worked best, although one would expect a little over-exposure might be better. The cameras meter has coped well.

Snowdrops -1ev

Snowdrops -0.5ev

Snowdrops 0ev

Snowdrops +0.5ev

Snowdrops +1ev

 The South Bay images were taken on a cloudy day, so the under-exposed images work best.

South Bay -1ev

South Bay -0.5ev

South Bay 0ev

South Bay +0.5ev

South Bay +1ev

 Again, this scene shows a wide tonal range. Any of the exposures work.

Towards Filey -2ev

Towards Filey -0.5ev

Towards Filey 0ev

Towards Filey +0.5ev

Towards Filey +1ev

 In conclusion, it can be difficult to predict in advance which exposure is "correct", and for some instances, they all are. It's worth bracketing exposures to experiment, when circumstances allow. Not a hope with birds in flight, though.

OCA Course: Colour Relationships.

Here's the one I can't get rid of!

8. Mandarin Drake. Canon EOS 1D Mk111, 500mm, 1/750 sec. @ F5.6, ISO 800, hand held. These ducks are dazzling, and present many colour combinations, including opposites of red bill and green crest, orange cheeks and deep violet breast. They are not native, having escaped from private wildfowl collections and established themselves as a wild breeding population.

7. Shag. Canon EOS 1D Mk111, 500mm, 1/750 sec. @ F5.7, ISO 800, hand held. The green eye is a colour accent on its own, but the similar colours of yellow and green harmonise nicely.

6. Waxwings. Canon EOS 1D Mk111, 500mm, 1/1000 sec. @F5.6, +1EV, ISO 800, hand-held. There are several colour relationships here, but mainly similar ones with the yellows of the berries, bird's wing and tail tip, and the reds of the leaves and the wax tips to the secondary feathers of the bird's wings. These all contrast with the blue sky. I like the curves presented by the bird's contortions whilst feeding. There have been a lot of Waxwings in the UK this winter - normally they stay in Scandinavia, but it's been even colder there!

5. Mute Swan. Canon EOS 1D Mk111, 500mm, 1/2000 sec. @ F8, +1EV, beanbag and car window. The red bill is a nice colour accent in an otherwise almost monochromatic scene. I gave one stop extra exposure to maintain detail but whiten the snow. Pure white is in the wind-blown feathers of the swan.

4. Blue Tit. Canon EOS 1D Mk111, 100-400 zoom @ 390mm, 1/200 sec. @ F8, ISO 400, fill-in flash. Who says British birds aren't colourful? The blue and yellow give a nice contrast, complimented by the yellow background.

3. Fairground Lights. Canon EOD 1D Mk111, 100-400 zoom @ 375mm, 1/15th sec. @ F11, tripod. It took me ages to find anything with the yellow and purple needed for this element of the exercise. I eventually found this whilst out birding, at the harbour fun-fair. The proportions of 1:3 yellow:violet aren't correct, but I couldn't find a way to crop it any better.

2. Crescent Moon. Canon EOS 10D, 24mm, 1/8th sec. @ F9, ISO 400, tripod. This was taken from my patio during the prolonged cold spell. The afterglow orange and the blue sky are about 1:2.

1. Poppy Field. Canon S90 compact, 15mm, 1/200th @ F8, -0.33 EV, ISO 200.

The red/green combination overall is about 50:50. Slight under-exposure brought out the colour a little more.
Colour Relationships: This exercise is a bit out of sequence because I found it difficult (as the workbook suggests) to find the correct relationship with yellow/purple. The blog reads from bottom to top again, and may contain an extra image as I can't seem to delete them from the blog on my new iMac. I guess I'll find the button some day.

OCA Course Assignment 3 re-submission (text).

OCA COURSE

THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY

IAN GLAVES

504473

 

ASSIGNMENT 3: Colour (re-submission).

 

Harmony Through Complimentary Colours:

 

1. Trees against blue sky: Canon 40D, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/1600 @ F4, ISO 800.A well used cliché, but always a nice combination. The leaves were turning (almost) orange quite early this Autumn. I was caught out with the high ISO setting, as I had just been shooting in the shadows.
   
2. Sir Nigel Gresley: Canon 10D, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/60 @ F 5.6, ISO 100. The National Railway Museum at York run heritage trains down the line to Scarborough now and then. You can tell when one is due by all the photographers on the bridges. The harmony here is between the blue engine and the dirty orange overall.
   
3. Poppy field: Canon S90 Compact, 18.2mm, 1/250 @ F 8, Auto ISO 250. The red and green are complete opposites.
   
4. Crescent moon: Canon EOS 10D, 24mm, 1/8 @ F9, ISO 200. The orange afterglow harmonises with the blue sky in about the right proportions.
   

 

 

Harmony Through Similar Colours:

 

 

1. Open-air Theatre: Canon 40D, 17-40mm @ 22mm, 1/400 @ F8, ISO 400. Derelict until the Council secured a multi-million pound grant for its refurbishment, the venue has just been re-opened by HMQ. They have colour coded the green seating and even labeled the colours. What more could you ask for?
   
2. Elephant Hawk Moth: Canon 40D, 150mm macro, 1/160 @ F5.6, ISO 1600. A birding friend of mine is also into moths, and sets a trap up at night when he comes to stay. We caught several of these beauties this summer. You need to be up at the crack of dawn to empty the trap, so the light is poor. This one kindly settled on a tile of similar colour. It's a shame the antennae aren't sharp, but you don't always get a second chance.
   
3. Kiosk and Flag: Canon 40D, 17-40mm @ 22mm, 1/500 @ F 5.6, ISO 400. This is the crazy golf kiosk in crazy purple, but I thought the red flag was reasonably harmonious, if anything can be harmonious with this edifice.
   
4. Chalets, North Bay: Canon 40D, 17-40mm @ 29mm, 1/100 @ F 5.6, ISO 400. Another renovation job by the Council. You can actually buy one of these seaside boxes for £35,000! The rainbow effect stands out for miles, but the red/orange/yellow ones are harmonious enough.
   

 

 

Colour Contrast:

 

 

1. Mandarin drake: Canon EOS 1D Mk 111, 500mm, 1/250 @ F5.6, ISO 800. These ducks are the dandies of the lake. Their orange and purple plumage contrast well with a hint of green also providing added contrast.
   
2. Autumn trees: Canon EOS 40D, 17-40mm zoom @ 17mm, 1/125 @ F11, ISO 400. The orange/brown of the autumn leaves contrast with the remaining evergreen fragments of this forest image taken in sunlight against a lowering sky.
   
3. Telescope: Canon 40D, 17-40mm @ 20mm, 1/320 @ F5.6, ISO 400. There are several of these bright yellow telescopes around the sea-front, although their magnification is unspectacular to say the least! They are a nice contrast to the blue sea (if the sun shines).
   
4. Lupin: Canon 10D, 100mm macro, 1/125 @ F 25, ISO 200, tripod. I grew this! Subtle contrast between yellow and purple.
   

 

 

Colour Accent:

 

 

1. Post box: Canon 40D, 50mm macro, 1/80 @ F 5.6, ISO 100, tripod. This is our local postbox on a farm shed wall. You can't miss it.
   
2. Purolator filter: Canon 1D Mk 111, 100-400mm @ 170mm, 1/125 @ F 5.6, ISO 800. This was at the tractor show as featured on my blog. The yellow label stands out to make sure the owner takes note of the instructions.
   
3. Fordson Tractor: Canon 1D Mk 111, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/160 @ F 8, ISO 100. The red wire stands out, it's probably high voltage!
   
4. Chalets and Flats, North Bay: Canon 40D, 17-40mm @ 31mm, 1/125 @ F 5.6, ISO 400. Another big new development – I wish I knew where they get the money! The highly coloured chalets stand out against the bland apartment block. (Sorry – they are all sold).
   

 

        

OCA Course: ASSIGNMENT 3: COLOUR (re-submission). IMAGES

These are the re-submitted images that go with the revised text in the next blog.

HARMONY THROUGH COMPLIMENTARY COLOURS.

1. Trees against blue sky.

2. Sir Nigel Gresley.

3. Crescent moon.

4. Poppy field.

HARMONY THROUGH SIMILAR COLOURS.

5. Open-air Theatre.

6. Elephant Hawk Moth.

7. Kiosk and flag.

8. Beach chalets.

HARMONY THROUGH CONTRASTING COLOURS.


9. Telescope.

10. Wykeham Forest.

11. Drake Mandarin duck.


12. Lupin.
COLOUR ACCENT.

13. Postbox.

14. Purolator filter.

15. Fordson tractor.

16. Chalets and flats.