Expose for atmosphere
Learn how the amount of light you choose to capture can determine mood and depth
Beyond the essentials of exposure management such as maintaining highlight and shadow information, the brightness of a file has a significant impact on the tone of the image. As brightness increases, apparent colour saturation falls, sometimes producing a washed-out look that diminishes the richness of tone expected by viewers. While overall exposure can be pulled back by increasing the shutter speed or closing down the aperture, selectively controlling highlights is a common challenge. The high-contrast nature of the golden hours means that even if colour and detail are rendered well in shadow areas, highlights can still appear devoid of saturation or structure. While there are numerous methods of controlling contrast, expert landscape photographer christian hering takes several steps in-camera to increase shadow and highlight drama. “Bring a tripod – shooting at base iso helps to use the full dynamic range of the sensor, but handheld shots will be impossible. having a set of graduated nD filters handy helps to capture the whole dynamic range of the scene,” says christian. Further difficulties arise when shooting highly textured subjects or when moving water is preset. The ‘peaks’ in the topography of these surfaces can become overexposed and form distracting points of light in the frame. Water is a common challenge, since the surface of streams and oceans can quickly lose highlight information. Furthermore, the horizon is often the brightest area of the frame and can not be easily managed by nD grads. Many of these problems arise because the photographer forgets to compensate for the rapidly changing position of the sun. in these cases, first try adjusting your shooting angle, dependant on the time, to control how many bright highlights are included in the composition. secondly, use a hard-edged grad or a strip filter, so that the lower sky receives adequate filtration. For a more creative use of light and colour, try underexposing by two or more stops to work with silhouettes. Lower your camera angle to create good subject separation from the environment and a clearly distinct graphic shape. conversely, overexpose by around half a stop to produce a bright, airy feel in diffused light.