January 2011 SMB Photography Challenge - Contre Jour - Discussion thread

[Hue Jorgan]

a great theme, top marks there

I was an student (oh many moons ago), studying art, graphic design and the such

one of the things I always liked was when you had to produce a piece of work, and it had to be based on one of six titles written on the board or exam paper

quite a lot of the group would moan and groan, but I saw this as part of the challenge.

the theme should be kinda cryptic and open to interpretiation

[Les the Scientist]

Originally Posted by Icarebecauseyoudo

Cue 20 sunset pics

Can I just say.. mine's a sunrise not sunset

[clyde]

got my shot last night i think and has nowt to do with the sun

[black-cat]

Alright, here's the pic I mentioned in the other thread... (click thumbnail to view)

[AB22 Easy Tiger]

A wee bit blown out there marra.

[black-cat]

Originally Posted by AB22 Easy Tiger

A wee bit blown out there marra.

What you mean? Bearing in mind I'm a complete noob at photography, I like to take pictures now and again but have no skills to speak of

[AB22 Easy Tiger]

Originally Posted by black-cat

What you mean? Bearing in mind I'm a complete noob at photography, I like to take pictures now and again but have no skills to speak of

The area around the sun is over exposed so there's no detail there at all. Unfortunately there's bugger all you can do with a picture with blown out detail other than re-taking and stopping down or changing your shutter speed / aperture - but that would make your snow turn even bluer. You have to slightly over expose snow on a digital as the camera will be wanting to compensate and change the white to 18% grey.

You chose a tricky subject to shoot TBH, one that many experienced photographers can't pull off.

I really hope you join in with the challenge this year, it's a great excuse for us to get off our collective arses and pick up the camera.

[peachbum]

Well I'll explain it thus, but I guess others would explain it better. When you are shooting into light or bright conditions your lens shuts down (gets smaller) to let in less light. Unless you counteract this ie by opening up your lens again (or keeping it open for longer), the overall picture will be under exposed.

That strange beam of light only seems to happen with digital cameras, it doesn't seem to happen with film photography (though you can get glare and lens image in the picture). I think if you reposition yourself it won't happen. If you look at your picture, the sun is too "bright" and the rest of the picture is too dark. But, the only way to learn is to take pictures and work out out what you like/don't like and see/find out how to do/not do the same again.

I learnt the hard way. I was an impoverished traveller sitting on a beautiful beach one afternoon. Took some shots of the sun and the waves (olympus trip) on a glorious day, and never to go back etc. Developed the film some months later, and every single shot was under exposed as I just thought shooting away at the sun would provide me with realistic pictures.

[black-cat]

Originally Posted by AB22 Easy Tiger

The area around the sun is over exposed so there's no detail there at all. Unfortunately there's bugger all you can do with a picture with blown out detail other than re-taking and stopping down or changing your shutter speed / aperture - but that would make your snow turn even bluer. You have to slightly over expose snow on a digital as the camera will be wanting to compensate and change the white to 18% grey.

You chose a tricky subject to shoot TBH, one that many experienced photographers can't pull off.

I really hope you join in with the challenge this year, it's a great excuse for us to get off our collective arses and pick up the camera.

Thanks for the comment mate, the reason I took the photograph was because the sun looked awesome as it burst through the cloud on a day when it previously hadn't shown itself, my next aim was to get the sun in the centre of the pic...

As I said, I'm a complete novice at taking pictures.

[peachbum]

Originally Posted by black-cat

Thanks for the comment mate, the reason I took the photograph was because the sun looked awesome as it burst through the cloud on a day when it previously hadn't shown itself, my next aim was to get the sun in the centre of the pic...

As I said, I'm a complete novice at taking pictures.

Also read the rule of thirds! When you understand a rule, you can then break it.