The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

As promised in my last post, here is the first in a series of articles about the types of light I encountered at Donna Nook last weekend.

This article is about shooting well lit subjects in front of a background of a contrasting, usually blue, tone.

In photography we encounter three types of contrast. The first of these is where two or more subjects in an image contrast with each other. For example a steam train in front of a gleaming skyscraper-adorned cityscape would be a perfect example of contrasting subject types.

The second type of contrast is contrast between bright and dark areas of a subject. A perfect example of this is a silhouette where the tones of the foreground are so much darker than those of the background that no detail is preserved except the subject's outline.

The type of contrast important to this article is colour contrast. Warm colours such as reds and yellows contrast with cooler colours such as blues and purples, even if they are of the same luminosity.

A perfect example of this is when a subject is lit by the first warm light rays of the day against a blue sky background. Here is an example of this from Saturday morning.

The matrix metering systems in most cameras normally copes admirably with situations such as this. However, I prefer to underexpose all of my shots a little to prevent colour information being lost in the highlights and to produce a more vibrant image. This is particularly important when your aim is to showcase natural colour contrast.

In this case I used Aperture priority and underexposed by two thirds of a stop, resulting in an exposure of 1/250th of a second at F11 at ISO 400.

In some cases, colour contrast can be even more severe than in the case above. An example of this is when a storm cloud moves behind a brightly lit subject. This weekend at Donna Nook, not only did this occur but a triple rainbow formed behind the seal I was photographing.

I shot this photograph using my usual tactic of underexposing by two thirds of a stop. However, because the scene was significantly darker than the previous scene, this was not quite enough to accurately render the image.

Luckily, the highlights in this image were not clipped colour so I was able to decrease the exposure of this image by roughly half a stop without losing too much information. Despite the fact that this image turned out well, I have learned my lesson and will underexpose similar scenes more markedly in the future.

A Great Weekend at Donna Nook

I am afraid once again the promised Wollaton Park and Bradgate Park articles are going to have to wait. After a weekend with Sam Waldron and Lee Webb at Donna Nook my poor little mind is bursting with thoughts and tips just waiting to explode onto the page. As I am pretty tired after the weekends travel and photography I am just going to give you a sneak peak of what should be appearing in this (hopefully watched) space over the next few days.

I have visited Donna Nook three weekends over the last two years resulting in images like the two above. Although the seals have always behaved themselves, practicing perfect poses in front of my lens, the weather has ranged from "ten foot visibility fog" to "slightly overcast", never reaching the heady heights of "low-angle winter sunshine".

Not only was this the case this weekend, but the light somehow managed to be perfect in every direction in a way I never thought possible. Saturday was a full day of winter sunshine, and during Sunday morning I had a beautiful sunrise behind me, pink fluffy cumulus clouds to my left, spotless blue sky to my right, and a huge stormcloud flanked by a triple rainbow ahead of me.

With stunning light hitting my retinas from all angles, I tried my best to document as much as this as I could through my sensor. I will share how I attempted to deal with the different light types in the next few posts. In the meantime here a few images so you can judge whether I failed or succeeded.

Although they are approachable, photogenic, and extremely cute, Donna Nook is not only about the seals. The area's most approachable wader is the Sanderling. Photographing these birds is quite a challenge as they never stop for a second, constantly feeding to keep their plump physique. An article on Sanderling photography can be found here.

Unfortunately, I am afraid I am going to have to add another less upbeat article. The Grey Seals at Donna Nook are wild animals and deserve the respect due of any wild animal. I will be adding an article on how best to approach the seals to cause minimum disturbance as it appears not all photographers are doing so.

I seem to have promised a lot of articles here, but before getting around to writing them I really must get some sleep.

Until I blog again!