Take your Time and Work the Scene
I recently shared this photo on Facebook, Google+, and Flickr, with a quick tip on how to create a starburst effect. In this article, I’d like to share the thought process behind the image, and a few of the less successful images that led up to this final shot.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF 40mm f/2.8 STM, 1/320, f/14, ISO 100
Here’s the first shot of the tree:
I shot this photo as soon as I saw the tree. It’s a fascinating tree, but not a very interesting photo. There’s just too much happening here. So I moved behind and tried a silhouette against the sky:
Sometimes your first few shots will not be the best, take your time to work the scene. Think about how you can best use the elements in the scene to create an interesting photo. There are 4 elements in this image:
1. The sun
2. The tree
3. The deep blue sky
4. The rocks
I liked the tree, and I wanted to shoot it as a silhouette against the blue sky. I also thought that I could use the sun to create a starburst and add a sense of drama. But after my first silhouette attempt, I realized the sun was just to big and bright to use as a separate visual element. It was upstaging my tree. Not cool. I also didn’t like all the rocks and fuzzy vegetation at the bottom of the frame. Too many distracting elements competing for the viewer’s attention.
So I moved closer, tilted the camera 45 degrees counterclockwise to eliminate some of the foreground, and put the sun behind the tree:
Then came the decisive moment. I realized that if I allowed just a bit of sun to shine through the ‘V’ formed by two branches, I could bring back a little of that starburst, while preventing it from overpowering the image.
All in all, I shot 12 photos in two minutes to arrive at the photo that I felt was the strongest, the image at the top of this post. The key is work the scene and make small changes until you arrive at the shot you want.
I hope this behinds the scenes look at been helpful. Many of the amazing photos you see have several less interesting shots leading up to them. Next time something catches your eye as interesting, but your first few shots don’t capture that feeling, slow down and work the scene.
I appreciate feedback, please comment below or feel free to connect with me through Facebook or Google+. I’ll do my best to answer questions and reply to comments.
23 Responses to “Take your Time and Work the Scene” - Add Yours
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:54 am
Lovely composition. And the number of shots and the time frame are really encouraging. No excuse that I didn’t had time.
http://blogs.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/
February 22nd, 2013 at 6:59 am
Excellent article. I have gotten better at slowing down to examine the scenes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/satesh/8482398544/
February 22nd, 2013 at 7:15 am
Nice write up – You’re right it’s very rare that your first shot will be the keeper. I usually find that I need to get warmed up and in the zone before I start putting the puzzle of all the various subjects in the scene together in the frame.
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:28 am
A great article and photo. It would be helpful to know what filter you were using (I’m assuming a filter was used, looks polarized), maybe a little info on the lens as well.
I completely agree with your topic and points.
Thanks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lendog64/5417928725/
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:29 am
And, i would add to walk the scene BEFORE you work it! It has really added to my successes to take the time before I start shooting to find the angles and points of interest before I ever snap the first shot.
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:51 am
Seeing your other photos from that scene was really useful. As a beginner, I wouldn’t have thought to do a silhouette against the sky like that, so mental note for the future. Also, with all the HDR photos that I keep seeing (on 500px for example), it’s so nice to finally see a silhouette again!
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:09 am
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Scottc – These were shot with the Canon 5D mkIII and the ef 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens. No filter, just the amazing dynamic range of the mkIII, and I slightly enhanced the blues in Lr by cooling the white balance and saturating the blue channel.
Dan – excellent point, walk the scene, then work the scene!
Lisa – don’t get me started on HDR, I’ll be glad when that fad has run it’s course!
Actually, HDR has it’s place. I just like photos that look like photos, sometimes HDR can help you get there, especially in the case of a difficult scene that the camera’s sensor just can’t handle in a single frame. But there’s a lot of HDR for the sake of HDR going on. Just like not every portrait needs the photoshop fake soft focus effect, not every image needs HDR.
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:10 am
Did you expose the scene so that It would already be a silhoutte in camera? or did you exposed it to the right then continued your desired product in post?
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:20 am
Laurence – I shot on Av, stopped down to f/14, without exposure bias. Shooting straight into the sun like that with center-weighted averaging meter mode, usually renders the foreground subject as a silhouette, if the subject is small enough. There is a tiny bit of detail on the rock at the bottom of the frame in the original raw file, but after increasing contrast and adjusting the tone curve, that also appears black.
February 23rd, 2013 at 2:10 am
I agree that a good shot is often worked hard. Experimenting with different settings can sometimes produce interesting results and also I always walk the scene to get the most interesting angle.
In this shot I walked for an hour before deciding this was the scene I wanted:
http://wildlifeencounters.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Wales/G0000Exlf55keW7Y/I0000TAXLDsZ_3uE/C00006idB3II8aC4
February 23rd, 2013 at 4:47 am
Thank you so much for sharing Jason. I really enjoyed seeing what kind of work goes into a final shot. 2 minutes seems pretty quick. Is there an average amount of time you usually take working a scene to come away with a “keeper”? I would love to see more of these behind the scenes to see how one might go about the difficulties of varying situations. Thanks!
February 23rd, 2013 at 5:15 am
Very simple but highly effective lesson and congrats on keeping it light! I think this has been one of the most valuable approaches I’ve adopted in the last year and I’m enjoying it. The simple scene could have had many outcomes before I settled on the angle I wanted.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69604456@N07/8488810495/in/photostream
February 23rd, 2013 at 6:42 am
This is by far one of the most helpful articles I have read on here. It was great to see the thought process that went into the shot and how you arrived at a great image as opposed to just studying the “keeper image” and why it works. I would love to see more articles like this
February 23rd, 2013 at 7:30 am
Steve – thanks for sharing, I’d be interested to her more about your experience with Photoshelter. I’ve been thinking of giving them a try.
Paul – Two minutes is quick. It’s because this is a technique I’ve used before with a different subject (Model on a Sand Dune. So it only took a couple of minutes of playing around before realizing I could fit this scene into one of the shots in my mental catalogue.
When I’m trying something knew and need to figure it out, rather than drawing from experience, it takes much longer. This shot of my Canon AE-1 took about 1 hour and 100 images to get right. Now that I’ve figured out how to nail the lighting though, I could do it again in 5 minutes. It turned out that simple was better, I started out trying something more complicated.
Guigphotography – thanks! Interesting shot there with the strong shadows. It looks good in BW.
dave – Good to know! I’ll do more of these when I have a sequence of shots leading to a keeper.
February 23rd, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Thank you very much, that was quite helpful.
February 24th, 2013 at 2:51 am
Such a great article. Thank you for showing every step – that will definitely help me to work on my composition!
February 24th, 2013 at 3:53 am
Excellent post, love your final shot! I love silhouettes, starbursts, and blue skies.
February 25th, 2013 at 5:37 am
great post! this is the type of article i always hope to see when i click through a promising title. thanks!
February 28th, 2013 at 8:15 am
One of the best advices you can give to a photographer doing the transition from begginer to intermediate and even advanced. I confess I have read it before in “On Being a Photographer” by David Hurn, and thought about it seeing the Contacst series, but you have made a very practical demostration and a very nice explanation in your article. Finally, maybe two minutes is nothing in landscape photography but in street photography is an eternity. Big thanks.
March 1st, 2013 at 5:13 am
I really like this advice. Makes me happy I found this site.
March 1st, 2013 at 5:49 am
What a really good read that was! I would not have thought about doing any shot like that but now I know how sensible it is and how it helps make for a great photo I will be trying it out all the time and practicing like crazy. thanks for the very useful tip.
March 1st, 2013 at 6:24 am
If you are interested in studying how more pros work through a scene then you should definitely check out Magnum Contact Sheets: http://www.amazon.com/Magnum-Contact-Sheets-Kristen-Lubben/dp/0500543992. It is a collection of “naked” contact sheets shot by Magnum Photographers. It’s an incredible way to see how some of the best photographers in the world worked through scenes to capture their iconic images.
March 1st, 2013 at 8:06 am
Fantastic article, especially for its simplicity and common sense approach to taking an amazing shot. I sort of intuitively/naturally adopted this same approach since i have recently realized photography to be a passion of mine. I’m adding you as on facebook.
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