Digital SLR Photography - UK (2020-01)

CHALLENGE2:

EXPLORE A LOCATION

After a pitstop in Castleton we quickly

walked up into Cave Dale to see how the

clear blue sky was affecting the location,

and as suspected it wasn’t looking good.

It was a beautiful day, but the clear sky and

bright sunshine meant that we’d have to

go to a location that protected us from the

light. It meant a slight change of plan but

responding to weather conditions, good or

bad, is often part of a landscape shoot so it

didn’t come as a surprise.

Knowing the area well, I suggested

Padley Gorge, which was just a short drive

awaytocompletethefinaltwochallenges.

Wejumpedin ourcarsanddroveover

toGrindlefordwhereweeasilyfounda

roadsideparkingspot,thenwalkeddown

tothefamousmillstonethatsitsbeneath

thebranchesofa beechtree.It’sa great

spotthroughouttheyear,butlooksmost

impressiveduringspringandthepeakof

autumn.Unfortunatelywhenwearrived

everythingwasstilllushgreen,butthat's

nota badthing.However,theharshlight

wasproblematicbecause,despitethetree

cover,thecontrastwasextremelyhigh.

As Jon set up his camera, I explained

that for this challenge we’d now focus on

exploring a subject; taking several images in

a small area that aim to capture the essence

of the location. The first shot was of the

millstone, with the plan to focus on details

afterwards. Jon framed up and turned

on Auto Exposure Bracketing to take the

required exposures for a HDR shot, which

would hopefully deal with some of the

high contrast in the scene; it would never

remove it, but would reduce the harshness

of the brighter areas.

To better deal with the contrast, I

suggested that Jon set his camera to shoot

five exposures in two-stop increments to

coverthelargegapbetweentheshadows

andhighlights.Jontrieda numberof

compositions,in bothlandscapeand

portraitformat,andsettledona landscape

compositionwiththemillstonein the

foreground,thebeechtreetothesidein

themiddle-groundandthepathleading

outintothebackground.

Afterwards,I suggestedthatJonget

in closertoshootsomeofthedetailsto

complementthemainimagehehadtaken;

thiswastoultimatelyexplorethelocation

andtoslowJondownbecausehe’sbeen

The (^) Photo Workshop
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LUSH GREENS

Despite being early autumn, Padley Gorge

was practically glowing green and the

classic millstone scene was no exception.

Exposure: 1/8sec at f/11 (ISO 100)

F/11

F/1.8

82 Digital SLR Photography Januar y 2020