Great General Photography Tips Apply To Digital And FilmThese general photography tips are oldies but goodies and still as true as ever whether you are shooting film or digital and regardless of your favorite format or lens focal length. Most of the tips in this section will fit this description and that is the point. Hopefully beginners to photography will find them useful and more advanced photographers will find them to be a useful refresher to help stay on track.
"Use A Split Neutral-Density Filter To Control Contrast Betwee Bright Skies And Darker Land"
I always try to get the best exposure possible in the camera. This drastically reduces the time needed on the computer doing "correction" work with an image editing program. That, in turn, increases the amount of time I can spend making more images and/or planning what and where I want to shoot next. See the archives for tips on using the camera's histogram to judge in-camera exposure. When shooting outdoors, particularly on a sunny day, the contrast between the sky and the land or between the sunlit and shadowed portions of an image can be too extreme to get good detail in both areas at the same time. This leads to muddy shadows with no detail or to blown out highlights with no detail. Neither situation looks good on screen or in print. Software solutions are available to this problem. If it is not too extreme a single RAW file can be processed twice - once for the highlights and once for the shadows and then combined. Other solutions involve shooting multiple bracketed exposures with the same framing, then combining the different shots. Both of these solutions involve considerable time at the computer, finesse with the editing software, exact framing, focus, focal length and lens aperture for multiple exposures and still often have a vaguely "artificial" look. The best solution is the "old school" film solution of using a split neutral-density filter to reduce the brightness of the sky and allow detail in both brightest and darkest areas of the photo. These filters are half gray with no color cast and half clear. The most useful are rectangular to allow placing the split anywhere in the frame as needed. They are meant to be used with a lens-mounted holder but I usually find myself simply hand-holding it. Split filters are available as screw-ins, but these are not nearly as versatile, having the split always in the center of the frame. These filters also come with sharp of soft split lines and in several different densities to accommodate different shooting situations. I find myself mostly using a soft split 2-stop filter. At times I will combine it with a polarizing or UV filter to also cut atmospheric haze and intensify colors. Split neutral-density filters are not a perfect solution. If the horizon line is too irregular their use becomes apparent. But when possible they are a much quicker, easier and better solution than making multiple shots and relying on software. They produce a more natural looking image and require only a single exposure. To make best use of these filters, use the "Preview" feature with the lens at f16 or f22 so that you can more easily tell where the split is located. Line up the split with the horizon, set the shooting aperture, check exposure with the filter in place and make your shot. You should find both highlights and shadows within the range of the histogram. So whenever possible save yourself editing time and stay outside shooting more. Get a split neutral-density filter and experiment with it until you are comfortable with its use. Your landscape photos will thank you.
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