Crossing the Pond
This exposure is one I composed and edited last year, however I came back to this fall pond side shot with a new understanding of editing. The original shot is a focus stack, this one is not. This photo captured my attention, the tree leading out to the pond, rough, rugged, a bit chaotic in its nature, leading to the reflected side of the pond, orderly subdued. In the original shot it looks like I used a soft grad filter in the scene to expose everything, and now looking back I see this was a drastic mistake. Unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do about using physical filters and the destructive effects they can have on a scene. I cropped the scene lower than usual and tried to put more focus into the rest of the scene.
So, filters and photography, the great debate. Some photographers swear by them, some hate them, the rest are mostly neutral on the subject and wish the rest of us would learn to lighten up. When I got into photography on a more regular, and much more serious basis I was convinced I NEEDED these filters. They were somehow the key to magical powers, and mystical images. They would make me “Better” [see About for context”]. What I have come to realize is, I could of saved a whole lot of time, money and heartache had I learned to exposure blend sooner. You can see in this image the tops of the taller trees are abnormally dark, and this was to compensate for the brighter than normal sky.
I’ve gone back and forth on the matter, there are cases where a gradient filter really helps, but many of those scenes do not exist here in the mountains, and certainty not in intimate landscapes such as this. A CPL, Neutral Density filters have a place. I even OCCASIONALLY use my light pollution filter, though with LED street lamps being so common, it’s rare I use it much. Take it from me, save money on the big kits of filters [seriously filters can cost a BUNDLE] and look for CPLs, and a few different ND filters.. .Variable if you must, but those have issues all their own! If you have any questions, send me an e-mail, and I’ll see what sort of answer I can give you!
Until Next Time!
Aperture: f7.1
ISO: 160
SS: 1/60th
Focal: 10mm
Fujinon 10-24mm
