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Category: How'd You Do That?

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Camden, Maine


	Camden, Maine Brenda Tharp

Frank P. Luongo

Brenda, I love this photo. As I peruse your gallery, I continue to be impressed by your clever use of light. Can I ask what kind of sidelighting you used? Presumably light comes from the right, but at which angle?

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September 10, 2004

Brenda Tharp

Thanks for the nice comments about my use of light. Of course, that's what photography is, writing with light, so it's great when you can use it to bring out your subjects in a dramatic way. In this case, as in many cases, I don't really pay attention to the actual angle of its direction, but it was somewhere around 60 degrees to my right, maybe less. You can see that the light is hitting both the sides of the building, but not the boats, because the angle they were to the light. Hope this helps!

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September 10, 2004

Frank P. Luongo

Thanks Brenda!
For promptly responding to my questions.
Your responses are very insightful.

Frank

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September 22, 2004

Frank P. Luongo

Brenda,where did you take your meter reading for this scene?

A general question; when metering a scene at or near sunset,(backlit with small area of setting sun in one part of the frame,otherwise blue skies) in which you don't want a silhouette,but rather details in both highlights and shadows,how do you meter such a scene?
Heard many ideas,thought I would ask you for your input.

I uploaded 2 examples

Thanks
Frank

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November 29, 2004

Brenda Tharp

Frank, I used my evaluative metering system on my Canon for this exposure. In looking at the scene, I felt the light/dark values were pretty much in balance, along with neutral values, and went with it. Over time, I have tested and learned to trust the in-camera meter. But if I had been concerned about the light areas of the boats overexposing, I would have taken some readings from those areas and adjusted according to what I felt was correct. The key for sunset metering where you don't want total silhouettes of everything is to first, meter the scene just to the left or right of the sun, without the sun in the frame. This is a basic starting point; then, you can recompose with the sun in the picture, but keep that same meter reading. It's easiest to do in manual metering mode, but you can also do it using meter lock buttons. This won't guarantee that everything in the shadows will have detail, by any means, but it will help. So much depends upon the moment at hand - how much contrast there is, etc. is a factor, too. Hope this helps!

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November 30, 2004

Kris M. Hartley

Great shot, Brenda! I absolutely love the feel and atmosphere in your photo. It's a nice warm feeling on this chilly night. As one who struggles with the lighting issues, I am definitely impressed!

kris

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November 30, 2004

Brenda Tharp

Thanks, Kris!