You may be pleased - or maybe not - to know that my posts will again be getting more regular as I am now back home after my 'summer' sailing. I thought I might just give you one more blast of salt air by embedding a very short seafaring video here. It shows my boat Moonshadow rounding the notorious Mull of Galloway in SW Scotland. This headland can be a very nasty place to be in bad weather. On this trip there was little or no wind. Even so, the tide was whipping along and giving me a speed of 11.9 knots - that's a lot in a sailing boat.
The video was shot on my Canon G9 and, even considering the loss of quality of YouTube compression, it has done a pretty good job.
You will notice that some filming techniques are exactly the same as those used for stills photography. Towards the end, notice the slight lowering of the shooting angle in order to get a clearer view of the distant headland between the gear on the back of the boat. This is followed by zooming back to view the wider scene including the foreground - with stills photography, the shutter button would have been pressed to take a picture at each separate stage.
And for those of you who love shooting sunsets - the video finishes with a really spectacular one. We carried on sailing into the night.
16 Aug 2008
Video with Canon G9
30 Dec 2007
How to photograph sunsets - part 2
Photographs of sunsets are really very simple to record because once you have arrived at the correct exposure for the sky, you can adjust your shooting angle and move around to silhouette subjects between you and the sky without worrying about changing exposures at all – you are really just photographing a colourful backdrop (the sky) with shapes in front of it (silhouettes). It is how you position yourself and arrange those shapes that can make or break the picture – and that’s all about good composition.
You will generally create a yawn if you include nothing but sky – no matter how dramatic or colourful it is. Neither will you create any feeling of the place in which the picture was taken. So look for interesting buildings, objects, trees and people doing things and try to include them in your sunset pictures. Often these subjects can be researched and found well before the sun actually sets – we all know it’s going to go down in the west – so a bit of pre-planning can pay dividends.
If we photograph a colourful sunset across an expanse of water, down a rain-soaked street or a snow-covered field, the rich colours will be reflected right into the foreground of the picture. The eye will then be led along these reflections. Photographing over reflective surfaces like this can almost double the colour of the sky.
People can make wonderful subjects for these outline shapes (silhouettes). Depending on what the person is doing, the inclusion of people in your sunset picture can add an immediate sense of romance, atmosphere, action or stillness. However it is vital that the outline of the person included is kept ‘clean’. It’s no use photographing someone running across the beach with a wonderful sunset behind him if his outline shape is obscured by a boat pulled up on the sand, for instance.
Top photograph
Having photographed the Taj Mahal during the day I was determined to return at sunset. I had worked out roughly where the sun would go down and found my way to a spot beside the river where I could position the setting sun behind the building. The atmosphere was absolutely still and a slight haze has diffused the sunlight and put subtle detail in the shadows. The inclusion of the man has added human interest, scale and narrative. Centre-weighted metering mode was used and although the light reading was taken mostly from the sky, part of the building was included. This has helped retain detail in the shadows without over exposing the sky
Centre photograph
For all I know, this couple might have been planning a divorce, but photographed against a setting sun the message is a romantic one. All detail the figures and the bridge has been removed by exposing for the brightness of the sky – this has created strong silhouettes. Even the hard, angular structure of the bridge has added to the composition
Bottom photograph
Even a poor Thai fisherman gathering supper for his family will stop to appreciate the beauty of a sunset over the sea. Don’t be afraid to point your camera straight into the light in these situations. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The Rule of Thirds is used here – horizon on a top third, man on 
right hand third, sun on intersection of two lines
29 Dec 2007
How to photograph sunsets - part 1
Sunsets have always attracted photographers and artists, and so they should. But there’s more to capturing a great sunset photograph than just pointing a camera at a colourful sky. It is unlikely that you will need to improve on the colour of a really good sunset, either with filters or in Photoshop, but if you want to capture the romance and spectacle of the moment, you simply must resort to sound composition and good camera craft.
Strangely, it is rarely the glory of the sky alone that rivets the viewer or stirs the imagination in a successful sunset picture. It is more likely to be the inclusion of a foreground: people, landscape or other objects that the sunset is actually lighting or silhouetting. It will be the whole scene that will tell of the romance or drama, not just the sky. In an exotic location, a picture of the setting sun can express the thrill of travel like few other subjects. However, the most common mistake leading to boring pictures is to get so dazzled by the splendour of the scene that you cease to look at it objectively – you must bear in mind the way the camera will record it.
TOP PICTURE: an interesting foreground has been included in the picture of the lighthouse. There is no detail in the silhouettes of the rocks – just outline shape, that’s fine. The eye is moves over them and across the bay to the island and the sky, taking in detail as it goes. The pictures has much more to say about the subject and is far more rewarding to look at. Notice how that colour has been reflected right into the foregound
SECOND PICTURE: Yawwwwn… okay, nice colours. But where is the real visual impact? The only thing that can be said about this is that it is correctly exposed and the lighthouse has been placed on one of the vertical lines of our Rule of Thirds. The picture has no depth. Bin it!BOTTOM PICTURE: A wide angle lens has been used to include lots of interesting foreground details. Notice how the reflected colour of the setting sun has been brought right into the foreground adding more value to the whole image. The camera
was put on a tripod and a shutter speed 1/30sec was used at f11. The exposure was taken from the foreground. The small aperture has helped created a nice sparkle flare around the sun
