Forum: Photography


Subject: Scotland - West Coast

ejn opened this issue on Jun 02, 2008 · 22 posts


MGD posted Mon, 02 June 2008 at 8:48 AM

I see that ejn responded,

A scan would be helpful

Sent by eMail as requested. 

ejn also mentioned,

I never seem to get good shots of stone circles

That is a worthy topic of discussion ... here is the little that I know. 

IMO, there are 2 main issues when taking pictures of rocks ... contrast and saturation on the one hand and shadow or texture on the other. 

--contrast and saturation-- rocks in the picture can look rather dull ... much less interesting than when you were there to get the shot. 

Don't shoot in the middle of the day; don't shoot with direct sunlight on the rock(s); they will look really lousy when they are dry -- try to get them with morning dew, fog, mist, possibly even light rain.  That might be a long exposure using a tripod and perhaps an umbrella. 

--shadow or texture-- here you want side lighting; early morning or late afternoon sunlight to throw long shadows.  In this case, step back to get the stone(s) and the associated shadow(s). Sometimes Standing Stones have ancient markings (cup, starburst, spirals, ...) side lighting would enhance that ... even if you had to use a flashlight or other artificial light source.  Getting one of those images with some nearby lichen for contrast would be even better Again, that would be long exposure with a tripod. 

Does anyone else have suggestions? 

Comments, Please ...

--
Martin