Digital SLR Photography - UK (2019-07)

CHALLENGE 2:

NEW PERSPECTIVES

After waiting for the light to be where we

wanted it to be, over two hours had already

passed since we’d first met – time was

passing quickly. At this point the cloud cover

had thickened and the light was extremely

diffused but not quite flat, which was

perfect for the next two challenges. The

temperaturehadalsorisen,whichmadethe

coolspringmorningmuchmorepleasant.

Forthischallenge,theideawastofind

unusualviewpointstoshoottreesfromto

contrastwiththemoremethodicaland

visuallyorganisedapproachStephenhad

takenduringthefirstchallenge.Theplan

wasnowtoworkin amongstthetrees,so

I suggestedthatStephenswitchedtohis

Sigma24-70mmf/2.8becausethiswould

providea muchmoreworkablefocalrange.

ThefirstfocallengthStephenwouldneed

wouldbe24mmtocapturea wideshot

lookingupintothetreecanopy,usingthe

treesthemselvesaslead-inlines.

Thesekindsofshotslookbestwhen

pointingstraightupand,dependingon

theheightofthetrees,youcaneitherdo

thisstandingorbylayingontheground.

Stephenbeganbyshootingstoodupand

spentsometimemovingaroundtofind

treesthatprovidedthelead-inlineswe

wereaimingfor,aswellasaesthetically

pleasingshapesin thecanopy.Aftertaking

a fewshotstofinda compositionandan

exposurethatworked,weagreedthata

lowerviewpointwasneeded.

Stephenwasshootingat f/8totake

advantageofhiszoom's'sweetspot'and

thisalsoprovidedsufficientdepth-of-field

forthistypeofimage.Withthecamera

nowattachedtothetripodandtiltedback

topointstraightupwards,Stephenshot

a seriesofbracketedexposurestoseeif

hecouldmaintaindetailthroughoutthe

high-contrastscene.

Afterthis,I suggestedthathetrysome

defocusedshotsofthetreecanopyforan

abstractlookandtointroducesomebokeh,

butwithanf/2.8lensit justwasn’tpossible

toachievetherightamountofblur.So,

instead,I broughtoutmyglasssphereto

shootthroughtotrya moreunusualview

ofthewood,albeitupsidedown.

Whenusingwhat’softenreferredto as

a ‘lensball’therearetwomainlow-tech

methods:holdingtheballorplacingit on

something.Bothapproachesrequireyou

to focus on the upside-down image visible

in the ball and to shoot at around f/5.6 to

ensure this image is sharp.

We spent around 20 minutes

experimenting with different viewpoints

andswitching between both of us holding

theball, and also placing it down on a log.

I preferred the result from the latter because

theabsence of a hand created a more

pleasing overall image, but the other images

of the ball being held also worked well.

The (^) Photo Workshop
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68 Digital SLR Photography July 2019