Here’s a fun exercise; Take your camera (digital or conventional film) out to a place you like to photograph early in the morning just before the sun rises. Proceed with your photos of this site as the sun rises and casts its morning light! Notice the variations! Now, do the same site, only take the pictures at sunset and continue until the sun is nearly gone! Again, notice the changes in lighting (colors, textures, and contracts) This is a fun exercise and you will be surprised in the dynamic variations in lighting and contrast you will see from morning to night!
I recommend taking oh, say 200 or so photos for a good sampling of night and morning light. You may then wish to down load them into your favorite photo program for a few tweeks. I like using picasa and Corel Paint Shop Pro (includes RAW treatment capability). Corel allows numerous types of treatments including contrast, color, gamma, and many others. It’s fun just playing around within this program to see just what you can come up with! This program will also allow you to maximize your morning and evening lighting shots to achieve dynamic results.
These types of programs also allow filter adjustments that will change the mood and feel of your photography quite a bit! They will add a bit of pazaz to your morning and evening lighting subjects!
I also recommend that you take your telephoto and wide angle lenses along with you and your tripod for the opportunity to vary your lighting captures from a wide perspective to a zoomed in affect that can be quite nice! If your are lucky, you may capture a sun flair or a sunset behind a mountain or hill that is an all around eye catcher! Bringing your star filter, UV, polarizer, orange, smoke, sepia, and other filters can also add dynamic punch to your evening and morning lighting photos!
Printing those morning and evening lighting shots on your ink jet printer is now another adventure! Just think of all of those colors and hues that you can represent with your color printer!
Using photo inks, specialized papers (mats, rags, silks, and others) will also add another spectrum to your final product and can really punch it up! Bright yellows mixed with oranges and reds with a slight intermixing of pinks and white light really brings it all to life! This exercise can be a very rewarding experience and one worthy of doing! You’ll be surprised with the quality and overall rewarding experience this activity will bring you!
Fill up that camera bag with the goods and get ready for the night trek and early morning photo experiences to be had each and every day! Don’t forget your extra batteries and lens cleaners. Clear images are very rewarding; however, smudged and marked up images just don’t capture the moment!
Contributed by Dave Corn
More on Corel paint techniques & tips here
Original post by Administrator
