PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED
by John Peters A.R.P.S.
the SECRET TO GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY
Taken at Finnich Glen, the "Devils Pulpit" clearly shown in the photograph. The chances are, you don't have this photo from this angle. If you do, you either have wet feet or wellies. I wore waders!
In my opinion, GOOD PHOTOGRAHY often consists of a few simple things: good composition, tone management, good lighting and a good subject.
COMPOSITION is comprehensively covered under 'C', good LIGHTING and a good SUBJECT are promoted by my 'ETOILE' method, but TONE MANAGEMENT is critical for the chance of any success.
As well as increasing the range of tones to closer match what the eye/brain combination processes, we must learn to BALANCE the range of tones in a photograph, nothing too dark, nothing too light. We should strive to have no "blocked shadow" or dark areas, and no "washed out" or light areas devoid of tone or detail. Most judges will downmark "blocked shadow" areas or "washed out" highlight areas but in your everday photograph, with your camera set to JPG, you should get a satisfactory result most of the time.
Fortunately, if you "bracket" and use my EB (Extreme bracketing) method, tone management should not be a problem for you. Dont do this and you will join the many thousands producing "satisfactory" photos, do this and learn to produce winners! Ive taken thousands of photographs over the years, and have never switched the histogram on but simply relied on what I saw in the camera's viewfinder. In my days of film, a histogram wasn't an option. Quite simply, in digital, if a shot looked good in the viewfinder - it was good. I used bracketing or my EB method anyway, so I was bound to get one shot correctly exposed.
In extreme cases or for effect, a little burning or dodging can always be applied to improve an image. Remember if you are competing, you should produce the best image possible and that would involve editing/adjustment of some sort.