Tutorial - Exposure compensation - Frigiliana, Costa del Sol, Spain

I think that these Mediterranean whitewashed villages present great opportunities for photographer. The blue sky compliments the white wall perfectly and the buildings and alleyways form a maze of lines and shapes creating interesting perspectives. I took a couple of pictures from this viewpoint, one of them with exposure compensation where the aperture was opened up by about 1 f stop. This of course is the opposite of what what you might think, but what happens is that the light is so bright that the camera is fooled into making the image a little darker than normal. The same thing happens with bright sunshine on snow or on a white sandy beach. So this can be compensated for by either opening the aperture up by 1 f stop, or by using the exposure compensation control, or by activating the bracketing feature on the camera, which then takes about three images: on standard and one opened up and one closed down by one f stop. Alternatively, a dark photo may be rescued by using Photoshop and going into Image/Auto Contrast or by using Images/Curves.

Contre Jour - Nerja, Costa del Sol, Spain




Nerja, Spain

 

I have always been a fan of Contre-Jour or 'into the light' photography. I love the dynamic and bold shapes that it can create. An early morning walk on this beach in Spain meant that people were just arriving onto the beach after breakfast for an early bit of exercise or a session of yoga. The sun, though warm, was still low in the sky and reflecting wonderfully on the sea. Digital cameras seem to handle this sort of shot so well. I did nothing but point and shoot - all in a matter of seconds, to get this evocative shot. This has had no retouching or cropping at all. This is the great advantage of the compact digital camera - small enough to carry in a pocket or the palm of one's hand - and no messing about with lenses, apertures and shutter speeds, just pot and shoot!

Mediterranean village

Mediterranean village, originally uploaded by foto-art.

This pretty Spanish village is made even more picturesque by the use of art effect filters in Photoshop. This was a spur of the moment shot. I was on holiday in Spain and visiting this village which was a local tourist spot. Fortunately I had my camera in hand and as I was walking along, I turned to my right and saw this image, which I took within a second. Sometimes, when I am out with a camera, I manage to get into that state of mind that is just receptive to images around me and find myself taking a flurry of shots. It is a nice state of mind to be able to acheive for a photographer.