B
uildingsareoften
ju stconsideredto be partof
the furniturewhenlooking
atci tyscenes.unlesst here’s
somethingto specificallydraw
the viewer’seye,theycanbe
easilydistractedfromtheimpactof the
st ructuresby otherthingsin thescene.
dramaticskiesarea primeexample
ofa distraction,drawingattentionaway
fr omthebuildingyouareshooting.
one wayof keepingattentionfocused
onkeypartsof a sceneis to haveonly
thatelementin sharpfocus.rendering
the subjectandbackgroundequally
sharpwon’tcreatea cleardistinction
betweenthetwoareas,andthereforethe
vi ewer’sattentionwillinevitablybe split.
sincebuildingsdon’tmove,we cankeep
the focuson themby usinga slowshutter
speedto bluroutanyeye-catchingskies
thatcouldbe competingforattention.
Gr aban ND filter
to bl urthecloudsyou’llneedto use
a shutterspeedin excessof 20secs.this
requiresseverelylimitingtheamount
oflightreachingyoursensor.stopping
yourapertureall thewaydownto f/22
will likelynotbe enough,so graba neutral
densityfilterandyoucangreatlyincrease
yourexposuretime.
anndfilterattachesto a lensand
reducestheintensityof lightableto
passthrough.theamountof lightit
st opsis givenby itsstoprating.foran
exposuretimeof over20secsin daylight,
you’llneeda 6-stopndfilteror greater.
Choosea daywitha lightbreezefor
pl entyof movementin theskies.setup
ona tripodandswitchyourcamerato
aperture-priority.dialan apertureof
f/ 16andisoof100.Makea noteof the
shutterspeed.switchto manualmode
and keeptheaperturethesame,but
decreasetheshutterspeedyougotby
6 st opsforthe6-stopndfilter,whichis
18 clickson thecommanddial.it should
nowbe closeto 30sec.setyourfocusand
switchit to manual.nowcarefullyattach
thendfilter,makingsurenotto alter
yourfocus,andyou’regoodto go.
64 PraCtiCalPhotograPhy
project three
use selective
Blur to remove
Di stractins
blur out any
di stracting
elements that
compete for
attention
AboveIt helpsto havea flip-outscreento
av oidawkwardshootingangles.
