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!

Fence and sand dune at Formby Point

Fence and sand dune, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dune and fencing at Formby Point, England. Winter storms and high spring tides had taken their toll on the landscape at Formby Point, and the in some places the dunes had been considerably eroded since I was last there only a few months ago. This area is owned by the National Trust and they were working hard at conserving this area of Britain's coast.

Sand dune tree

Sand dune tree, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Wind swept tree on the beach at Formby Point, England. I love these stark and barren images though I must admit that I am getting ready now to see some leaves on the trees to give a splash of colour and to soften the landscape.

Dune fence and wire

Dune fence and wire, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Dune fence and wire at Formby Point, England. late March saw another trip to Formby Point near Southport in England. It was an unexpectedly sunny day so I managed to get a few more shots of the sand dunes on the beach here.

Southport beach - minimalist shot

Southport beach, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Minimalist shot of Southport beach, Lancashire, England. Once again, I just love the emptiness and simplicity of these sorts of images. Notice again the principle of thirds: the horizon in one third up the frame, and the flagpole and person are each one third in from the sides. Convention is broken slightly by having the person walking out of the frame instead of into the centre of the picture. Knowing rules of composition and then breaking them slightly adds interest to the picture. Which do you think is more interesting, or looks more correct: the person walking out of the frame as they are now, or walking the other way, into the centre of the picture? Why do you have one preference over another?

FOOTPRINTS Tutorial - Camera details

FOOTPRINTS, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Footprints on a sand dune at Talacre beach in North Wales, U.K.

Most of the photos on this blog are taken with a Samsung Digimax V4 digital camera. It is now a few years old and has a resolution of 4 megapixels. It was was my first entry into digital photography, having used 35mm for some years. I chose it becuase of its low to mid range price and because of the features that it has. In the end I have only used some of its features, the most useful ones I have found to be are:

Night mode - for night shots

The +/- exposure control so that I can override the metering system when taking shots in difficult lighting conditions such bright sun on snow, or sand, or into the light shots.

S or shutter mode - if I want to freeze fast moving action. The ASM control gives me complete manual override over the automatic metering system which is sometimes useful.

The camera has automatic focussing and also close up or Macro mode, which I sometimes find useful for the ocasional close up shot.

The camera also has automatic flash - the flash works in poor light conditions, and again, it useful to be able to turn this off in certain situations.

The camera also has 3x optical zoom. Since I tend to do landscape photography, I often use the wide angle end of the zoom - I am a big fan of ultra wide angle. So much so that I still use my 35mm camera for some shots because I have 24mm and 18mm ultra wide angle lenses for that camera, which enables me to get some shots that I cannot get with the digital one. I rarely use the digital zoom, it just lowers the quality of theimage, though I may just use the lower end of the digital zoom very ocasionally.

Of course the great advantage of digital is the instant feedback of results and no film to load. So I can take lots of shots to make sure I get what I want, without worrying about film cost and wastage. Those shots that don't work can be instantly deleted.

LIFEBELT 2 Tutorial

LIFEBELT 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.

I love these more austere, minimalist type of photos, so put me on an empty beach that runs for miles and I am in my element. These kinds of shots depend upon strong simple shapes and colour. here, the bold colour of the lifebelt is the point of interest in this minimalist shot and is enhanced by its strong orange colour. This is as the photo was taken except in photoshot I clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto contrast, and then I increased the colour saturation by using the slider in Image/Adjust/Hue and Saturation. I increased this to about twenty. Cropping this image to reduce some of the foreground would also enhance this picture

DUNE AND FENCE

DUNE AND FENCE, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dune and fencing at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K.

LIFEBELT 3 Tutorial

LIFEBELT 3, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.

A minimalist shot. I love the austerity of these sorts of images - their bold simple lines and composition together with their use of colour. For me, because they require bold colour, these sorts of shots are best taken of sunny days, with the sun behind you to maximise colour brightness. This was taken about three o'clock on an August afternoon in Wales, when the sun was not too high. To enhance the colour I went into Photoshop and clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto Contrast, which gave it more vibrancy and sparkle, and then I increased the depth of colour further by going into Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation and increased the saturation slider control.

In terms of composition, this shot also makes use of the rule of thirds. If you can imagine your viewfinder with two vertical lines down it at equal distances apart, dividing it into three vertical strips and then imagine two lines horizontally as well, then where these lines fall and cross each other often makes a good place to frame an item of interest. In practice I find that these points of interest tend to be between divisions of one third and a quarter. Thus the life belt, our point of interest, is roughly one third along from the right edge of the frame. Where the dune meets the beach is roughly one third in from the left hand edge of the border. Perhaps a bit of cropping in Photoshop would improve this picture more by getting the horizon to fall about one third up from the base of the frame. Also I could go into Image/Adjust/Rotate and rotate the image about one degree anti clockwise in order to make sure that the horizon was perfectly level. It is a common error with seascapes to have a sloping horizon, whereas in fact it should be perfectly level. The lower the horizon is in this picture, the more sky there will be in proportion to the land and the more spacious it will feel andding to its minimalist feel.

LIGHTHOUSE 3

LIGHTHOUSE 3, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds and bold colour.

DUNE AND DRIFTWOOD

DUNE AND DRIFTWOOD, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dunes and driftwood at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K.

LIGHTHOUSE 4

LIGHTHOUSE 4, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. When using a wide angle lens, the depth of field is usually quite deep: items are in focus from about one or two feet to infinity. This can be capitialised on by having smaller items of interest placed prominently in the foreground to counterpoint a more distant item. In this case, the remains of a small concrete structure partly buried on the beach counterpoints the distant lighthouse. Notice that the horizon is not in the middle of the frame: this is a common mistake and serves only to divide the picture in two. Using the rule of thirds, the horizon has be placed on the lower third to maintain a feeling of space.

LIGHTHOUSE 2 - tutorial

LIGHTHOUSE 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds. The horizon is placed on the bottom third to maintain a feeling of spaciousness...there is twice as much sky as land. The wide angle lens enables the use of the foreground rocks to lead the eye into the picture from the bottom right of the frame to the line of the vertical third from the left. The lighthouse is slightly more than a third in from the left: it is not in the middle - this would split the picture in two. But it is not on the third because it competes with the figures on the beach. Thus the end of the rocks at one third from the left, lead the eye into the picture to both the people and the lighthouse, the average point of interest between them being at about one third from the left. Auto contrast and colour saturation in Photoshop were used to further enhance this picture.

BEACH

BEACH, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Beach at Prestatyn in North Wales