EXPERIMENT WITH EXPOSURE
Work in challenging light while also using exposure for creative and practical applications
By their very nature cities are static features of a landscape, in that once a building is constructed, it rarely changes during its lifetime. For some buildings their design and position has remained the same for several hundred years. This makes capturing unique and surprising images of well-known city locations a challenge, since there are only so many angles a building, square, street or courtyard can be shot from. The instinctive thing to do for many photographers is to rethink focal length and attempt to find a detail in the scene which might be more often overlooked, by zooming in or capturing an ultrawide view. This can work, but will often introduce further difficulties, such as unwanted edge detail. In many cases it also feels like a compromise, since it requires the context of the shot to be changed.
What we really need is a way to shoot a composition which is both familiar but which has a lesser-seen aspect or character. A great way to achieve this is by getting creative with exposure. Extended shutter speeds are regularly used to reduce traffic trails to colourful streaks, but there are other benefits of slowing the exposure down to several seconds. Firstly it can introduce some movement into the sky, drawing patterns across the top of the frame, as clouds move through the scene. This adds energy to the cityscape and offers an ephemeral contrast to the static buildings. Secondly it softens the impact of distracting elements like cars and tourists.
Exposure can also be used to play with the balance of natural and artificial light. By underexposing you can create silhouetted shapes of recognisable landmarks, offering a more interpretive representation of a well-photographed subject. Conversely, overexposing can produce minimalist studies.
Whatever your aim, experimenting with exposure settings allows you to alter the tone of a scene, independently of composition and what is visible within the frame. Often we need to capture a scene as it appears naturally, however there are times when capturing something which the human eye can’t see will inject intrigue to views our audience may think they know well.