Photography Blog: Silhouettes
“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll
Silhouettes
Effective use of silhouettes in photography can lead to very striking images. These photos can convey a sense of mystery and drama, they can lead one to observe a familiar object in a new way, and they can simply be used as a design element creating shapes or frames in an image.
What is a silhouette? It is a subject that is backlit or contrasted against such a bright background that it is rendered as a nearly pure black shape. Often the having the sun directly behind your subject is a guaranteed way to produce this effect. Sometimes it just may be that your subject is in shade while the background is in direct sunlight.
Once you start experimenting with them, silhouettes become an exciting creative tool in your photo arsenal. Instead of putting your camera down when your subject has no light on it, start looking for the potential silhouette! I love them because they highlight the essential elements of an object. If done well you know exactly what the subject is but there is still the unknown that adds interest.
You must pay attention to the outline of your subject. You want to make sure that all the recognizable elements are readable. If you have a moose, for instance, silhouetted against a bright bank of fog, you want to make sure you have separation between the legs, that there is definition of its head etc. Otherwise you’ll end up with an unrecognizable black lump. Don’t get me wrong, you can have an unrecognizable object and still have a stunning image. You might be going for a straight graphic image of shapes and contrast. Just pay attention so you get the image you’re imagining.
How do you expose for silhouettes?
When I know I’m going for a silhouette I switch my camera into manual mode so that once my exposure is set it will stay that way. There is a possibility of varied exposures when using the program modes, especially if you vary your composition at all. (Which I hope you do!) In manual mode I set the exposure to render the bright background correctly. This will cause your subject to be so under exposed that it is black, or close to it, in your final image. A silhouette. If your subject is moving opt for a fast shutter speed. If depth of field is critical make sure your aperture is closed down.
If you have an in camera flash make sure it is turned off or it will try to add light and ruin your silhouette!
Photography Blog: Root Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias
“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll
Root Glacier, Wrangell –St. Elias National Park
It looks likes spring is actually going to take hold this time. Snow around Anchorage is rapidly disappearing, patches of green are starting to appear on lawns, and buds are appearing on the trees.
I’ve been busy planning photo excursions for this summer. I’m starting to get giddy with anticipation of the long, warm (relatively), days ahead. Sunset is already almost 9pm! While pouring over my maps and guidebooks I reflected on how many amazing places I visited last summer. I’m still editing and captioning images from those trips!
I just finished up some photos from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This is the largest National Park in the nation and the least visited. After visiting I can see why. The roads in are bumpy, long, and dusty. Once you arrive, it is unlike any national park you’ve ever been to. The only way to get into the never-ending wilderness is bushwhacking or by plane. There are few established trails and few amenities. It seems as if it were named a national park and then left to its own devices.
But what an amazing place! We stayed in McCarthy, once a bustling boom town in support of the Kennicott Copper Mill, now a tiny artist and adventurers community. The most accessible activities there are flightseeing (or being dropped off in the park for a serious adventure), exploring the Kennicott Mine, and hiking Root Glacier. All are worth your time and effort.
These images are from a guided day hike on the Root Glacier. Typically I’m not one to go in for guided hikes, as a photographer I like to go at my own pace, stop if I want to get a photo, run ahead if I feel, but I felt a little uncomfortable putting on crampons and traveling on a river of ice for the first time!
We were led by Greg Runyon, of Kennicott Wilderness Guides. Not only was Greg a skillful and patient guide, he was also extremely knowledgeable in terms of glaciers and the park. He answered questions, and modeled for me, and in general made the outing that much better.
It was amazing to know we were walking on ice that formed thousands of years ago. I never knew that a glacier held a landscape within itself. There were streams, pools, waterfalls, and caves. Greg swore that it was the purest water on earth and we all gladly drank our fill. What a treat!
Photographing on a huge sheet of ice was fairly challenging. With so much bright white it was important to keep a keen eye on my histogram and make sure my exposures were accurate. In every situation the cameras meter is trying to expose everything as a neutral gray, and while it seems counter-intuitive in such a bright scenario, I often had to increase my exposure to bring the whites back up to white. Even then it was difficult because the brighter portions where the sun was reflecting off the ice would still get blown out a bit. The trick was to keep those areas small and to a minimum in my photos. One key was to shoot at a ninety-degree angle from the sun to take advantage of any side lighting and gain some contrast with shadows.
I used a polarizer sometimes to cut down on reflection and add saturation to the colors present.
When the sun is so bright it is almost impossible to see the image on the back of your camera. Never use that to determine the accuracy of your exposure!
With only a four-day visit I only scratched the surface of this unique place. I look forward to a return trip soon!
Photo Blog: Black & White Conversion
“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll
Black & White Conversion
I was somewhat taken aback several weeks ago when I posted color and black and white images of bohemian waxwings in one of the blogs. Obviously I thought they were nice images but I was surprised at how many people just loved the black and white photo. It reminded me that we have a great love affair with the “traditional” way of making photographs.
As a digital photographer I shoot everything in color and in RAW. I can set my camera to shoot only in black and white but I am uncomfortable throwing out the possibility for a great color image. If you shoot in B&W you can’t bring back the color but you can go the other way around.
There are many ways to convert your color images into B&W’s, some are extremely complicated, though give amazing results, and some are very simple, and yield sub-par images.
I wanted to share with you a moderately simple process that I use to get very satisfying results.
In bygone days you would need to carry around a set of filters to achieve optimum results, even for black and white photography. If you wanted to make the puffy white clouds pop out against the blue sky you would use a red filter. If you had varying shades of green foliage a green filter would help add contrast between them. Etc. Etc. This method lets you use sliders to emulate the effect of filters.
I’m sorry if I exclude any of you but this is done in Photoshop, which is the premiere photo editing software, bar none. (I am still currently using version CS2)
Ok, first of all, not every photo looks good as a black and white image. There are many variables that make up a great image but for monotone images contrast is one of the biggies. Sure you can have wonderful images without contrast but the most striking have deep blacks and pure whites (in general). After you’ve taken a lot of images, or converted them from color files, you start to “see” what would make a good B&W photo. So experiment (a lot!) and have fun.
Here’s my procedure:
1) Open your image in Photoshop.
2) Go to the “Layers” screen and click on half white/half black the circle on the bottom. This will create an adjustment layer. Choose HUE/SATURATION and click.
3) Click on the SATURATION slider and drag it all the way to the left. Click OK. This creates a new layer that de-saturates the image and gives you a grayscale photo, but not the best you can achieve!
4) Now, go up to the selection bar that says “Normal”, click on it and scroll down to “color” and click on that. You’ll see your image change a bit. Now for the fun!
5) In your LAYERS palette click on the “background” photo so that it is highlighted. (selected)
6) At the top of your computer screen click on “Image”, then “ADJUSTMENTS”, then “HUE/SATURATION”.
7) Start experimenting by sliding the “HUE” and “Saturation” sliders slowly back and forth. Watch how the varying tones shift and emulate color filters. Adjust them to your liking and click “OK”.
8) Select “Layer” at the top of your screen. Scroll down to “Flatten Image” and click.
9) Save your image in whatever format you prefer. (JPG, TIFF etc.) If you shoot in JPG make sure you save your black and white conversion as a different name or you will lose your original color file!
10) Finally, I usually adjust the contrast a bit as a final step!
I’ve uploaded “before” and “after” images from a trip to Portage Lake and Whittier last weekend.
There you go! If you try it, let me know how it works out!
Photo Blog: 2008 Iditarod Re-Start, Willow, AK.
“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll
2008 Iditarod Re-Start, Willow, AK.
Ok, so much for well laid plans! I did indeed make it up to shoot the Iditarod re-start in Willow, just a few hours later than planned. I had a couple of unexpected delays, good and bad, that made me miss over half of the teams heading out.
The first delay turned out to be very good. I was making good time from Anchorage and was on schedule to arrive at the re-start about forty- five minutes before showtime. (Because I was planning on hiking a couple of miles down the trail to get to a spot where there weren’t so many onlookers, I knew I would still miss some teams but thought I’d still get plenty.) As I passed by the tiny town of Houston, which has a couple of year-round firework stands, I caught a glimpse of this fellow selling furs from his pick-up truck. I kept driving but couldn’t get the scene out of my head. I was on another mission, but from past experience I knew I might not get that photo-op again. (I can still vividly see several photos that I wish I had taken and then never had the opportunity again!) So after about ten miles I flipped a U-turn and made my way back to Houston.
My effort paid off. I introduced myself to trapper Don Craig and he agreed to let me get some great images. The type you can’t find in very many places in this country today. Not only that, but we discussed working on a photo documentary project of his trapping season next winter. I’m not a hunter myself but ever since reading “The Stars, The Snow, The Fire” by John Haines, I’ve been fascinated with the skill and dedication required to eek out a living, and lifestyle, in this age-old profession. I can’t wait until next winter!
Now to embarrass myself: The second delay was costly to my pride and my schedule! I arrived in Willow and the first racers were already off. I was trying to find a place to park and found a nice spot just to the side of a small street. Within a matter of seconds I somehow managed to get into some snow just deep enough to leave my vehicle high-centered. Try as I might I couldn’t free my CRV. My tires just spun and spun as my chassis rested on top. I spent an hour trying to dig underneath and clear it. I stuck twigs beneath the tires hoping for traction to no avail. Finally a batch of latecomers lent a hand and pushed me free. Yeah! But my day was half gone.
I still snow-shoed a couple of miles down the trail and was able to try and capture about thirty of the ninety-six teams. I’m happy with the images you see here but I wish had the whole day as planned.
I hiked out because I wanted to try and get images that would simulate what it would be like to see the teams racing in the far out wilderness, without crowds and buildings present. For the first two images I wanted to try and frame the mushers and show some environment. The snowshoes were a blessing as I got off the beaten path. In all of the mushing images I used a two-stop graduated neutral density filter to bring down the brightness of the sky to the scene below.
I also wanted to try and get images unlike those I already have and planned on experimenting with slow shutter speed panning. In the fifth image you see one of the better results. I manually set my camera to 1/15th of a second to achieve the blur. I panned the action to try and keep elements of the animals identifiable instead of having a completely blurred image. I want to try more of this in the future.
The dogs are just too charismatic to not take some stop action photos as well. For these I set my auto focus to “tracking” mode, opened up my aperture to F4, and boosted my ISO to 400 so that I was able to shoot with shutter speeds around 1/2000th of a second.
The helicopter was a film crew getting images of the teams crossing Willow Lake. I just thought that the shape of the clouds echoing the propeller blades and the light coming through the blowing snow made for a striking image.
The last image is the aforementioned trapper from Houston, AK.
Not exactly the day I planned, but I’m more than thrilled to have lived it!
Alaska Photography Blog: Anticipating the Iditarod
“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll
Anticipating the Iditarod
Tomorrow morning is the ceremonial start of the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, also known as “The Last Great Race On Earth”, or simply The Iditarod. It is truly an amazing event and if you have any interest at all I strongly urge you to follow it through the official Iditarod web site, and the Anchorage Daily News. They give constant updates complete with photos and videos.
So far, I’m not one of the lucky few who get to photograph the race in its entirety-see Jeff Schultz’s work- but I still get a thrill out of photographing the ceremonial start on Saturday in Anchorage, and then the re-start in Willow on Sunday.
The first day is interesting because there has been a snow trail laid down throughout the city of Anchorage to allow for the running of sled dog teams. This includes roadways, overpasses and city parks, so there are numerous spots you can park and get to the trail and cheer on the musher’s as they go by. As stated, the first day is ceremonial and most musher’s even have an extra person on board, someone who had the highest bid to be able to ride this leg of the race, but it’s special to see. Often you’ll see racers high-fiveing fans on the sideline as they go by. And it’s wonderful to hear the panting of the dogs and the padding of their feet in the snow as they go by at a leisurely trot. Last year my son was able to gather a bootie that had fallen off one of the dogs. A treasure indeed!
For the restart in Willow on Sunday, I like to hike down the trail as far as I can so I can get some shots of the teams in a setting that more closely resembles them being out in the great Alaskan wilderness. There, I want photos with no crowds or buildings in the background. And, as you can tell from the images here, I really like to zoom in on the dogs and get action “portraits” of them at work. Their expressions are endless, ranging from intense to casual to comical. They are the athletes of this event and I never cease to marvel at their well-trained, fine tuned, muscular physiques.
So, in anticipation of this weekend, I’ve put up images from last year. As you can see the weather was beautiful (though very cold!) and exposure wasn’t a problem. For the most part I shot in aperture priority mode. This way I can set my aperture to it’s widest opening, F2.8 or F4, and then my camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed. It was so bright that having a fast shutter speed at ISO 100 was no problem. For any overall scenes with a lot of white snow I added one and a half stops to my exposure to keep the white areas white. Most cameras are capable of doing this even in a program mode-check your manual. For details and close-ups I just left the exposure alone.
I used my predictive auto-focus mode most of the time so I could easily keep my moving subjects in focus and occasionally I would pre-focus on a spot and shoot a burst of images without moving the camera. This would allow me to set my composition-background etc. and wait for the action to come into the frame.
This weekend I want to try some new things. I’ll show you the results next week!