Take better shots “in the dark”
by Alberto Bregani
A quick tip for those who think that framing and composition are key factors in taking a good landscape shot.
In the vast majority of cases, landscape photos are taken in broad daylight, when the sun is shining, I mean. So when the sun’s rays are shining directly on you and on your subject, as well as on your camera.
Personally, I find these sunrays to be a great bother when composing a shot, because they cause a great disturbance in the tragic situation of having to compose a shot using the live view on that tiny camera screen and even when framing the shot through the camera’s viewfinder. In either case, we’ll get tons of reflection, rays, and lateral light that will prevent us from seeing the subject clearly.
My advice, which comes from years of large-format analogue photography, is to handle the situation as if we were actually using a large-format camera on a big tripod, the ones you see people using under a big black tarp so that they can compose the shot on the ground glass in the dark.
Even if your camera is tiny compared to those elephants, your needs don’t really change. You still need darkness around your field of vision in order for the picture to be as clear as possible-none of that lateral light filtering in as it does when you’re looking through the viewfinder. Try blocking the light with one hand cupped around the viewfinder (which is something I’ve seen done over and over again).
I’m not saying you need to keep a big black tarp in your backpack. All you need is the sweatshirt of jacket that’s already in there (you are in the mountains after all), take the corners of the collar in your hands and put it over your head and the back of the camera. In this way, you create a makeshift dark cloth around your eyes, which is enough to block out light and other distractions. Your photographic vision will greatly improve.
That takes time? Sure, I know. Landscape photography does take time.
As does any quality photograph.
Try it sometime and let me know how it goes.
