The even light of sunrise and sunset comes during two distinct periods before the sun ever appears and after the sun has left our sight. The two periods of “magic light” are nautical twilight and civil twilight. During sunrise, nautical twilight is the period of the day when the environment first becomes visible. The sun is at a position of 12 degrees below the horizon. Although the light appears weak, it is the first visible light from the sun and provides an even light to photograph without harsh shadows and specular highlights. The intensity of the light will continue to grow as the sun reaches 6 degrees below the horizon. At this point civil twilight begins. This is the best time of the day to shoot. Everything around you can be distinguished and with longer exposures, captured dramatically. When the sun does become visible, the sunrise is often over. It can still provide warm directional light for a while; however the color and even light will vanish. During sunsets, the cycle is reversed. Civil twilight begins immediately after the sun drops below the horizon. Often you can still see the color and light play on the clouds. It continues to drop until it is 6 degrees below the horizon. Then, once again, you will find yourself in nautical twilight. The light continues to get weaker and weaker until it is completely dark, except for the light from the stars and moon. The evening’s nautical twilight still provides the same even light to take advantage of as before the sunrise.

During these periods, there is a distinct pattern to the way the light increases/decreases. As you can see in the example from NinePipes, the sun is still above the horizon in the first photograph. There are a couple of minutes before it dropped below the horizon and into the civil twilight period. The second photograph is a great example of the civil twilight period (as well as Serenity). You can see that the sun is below the horizon but the rays are still throwing light onto the clouds. The third

photograph is taken between civil and nautical twilight. The light from the sun is still evident but the intensity is growing weaker. The color from the sunset is still available and with a longer exposure, I was able to capture it. When photographing the sunrise/sunset period you must be careful whether or not to include the sun. If you look through the most dramatic shots during these periods, the majority of the images do not include sun, just the light from it in combination with the color of the period. A viewer’s eyes will automatically go to the point of greatest contrast during a shot. This will often take away from the overall composition of the shot. So if you do include it, make sure to do so in a thoughtful manner. Try a traditional landscape 90-10 composition with a dramatic foreground or another use that uses the element well. Don’t include it because you think you should. Remember, the reason you are there is the even light, the unconventional themes, or the dramatic color.

When I refer to unconventional themes, I am considering some dramatic moments that can happen at the beginning or end of the day. For example, a busy street is often easier to photograph with just a few people walking around at the twilight periods before sunrise. An unconventional view of something like this can provide for an uncommon feel to something many see everyday. An image produced during this period can also mix feelings by photographing something not traditionally thought of as pleasurable, such as a homeless shelter. The use of a soft, warm, colorful light maybe helpful if trying to present the facility during a fundraising function. Instead of a harsh light that could turn people off, the use of an image might draw people in and remind them of the good that is done. However, my favorite use of these twilight periods are the lack of people. I enjoy landscapes without the idea of human contact so these periods are one of the easiest times to avoid them. There are not too many people at the beach getting a tan after the sun is gone. Also, keep in mind, the best way to get great shots that other photographers won’t is to outwork them. The majority of photographers, myself included at times, are just to lazy to get up every morning and arrive on location in time to produce an outstanding image.

The dramatic colors during a sunrise or sunset shot can be produced by several different atmospheric conditions. Luckily as a photographer, I don’t need to know them. The only important thing to know is that the colors will be at there most intense point before the sunrise and after the sunset. In quite a few cases, the color of an image will make the photograph more appealing. Take for example the image “Serenity” taken at Pt. Reyes National Seashore, California. If I set the tripod at the exact same place in the middle of the day, this coastal abstraction wouldn’t be worth the price of the slide it was shot on. However, due to the great color of the day, I think the shot works.

The dramatic color during the twilight periods can be used in several different ways. My favorite ways to use color are either as an element of the composition or to create a mood for the image. To use color as an element of composition, look again at Serenity. Although there are not many objects to view, the photograph feels as if several elements to it. This is created by the layers of color moving into another. Reflections of color on water always help ground the photo or lead a viewer’s eyes into the image. There are numerous ways a color can be used as an elements of composition so study several images that you enjoy the feel and try to decide for yourself how they can be used. Colors are also associated with certain emotions. If you use them wisely, it will strengthen the overall image. A sense of a calm setting can be portrayed with a light or pastel color palette where vibrant colors can express energy. I’ll go into the color/emotion relationship at a different time. You don’t have much time before your next opportunity to capture a great photograph.

Lets cover a few technical aspects first. Shutter speeds have the ability to portray motion in water. Regardless of how swiftly the body of water is moving, the motion can either be frozen or shown as a calm progression, often described as a milky blur. At a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second, water can be frozen. This is great to do this when trying to photograph waves crashing against a rocky coast. However, as you increase the time of the shutter (for example 1/60, 1/30, or 1/15 of a second) you tend to lose definition in the water without the ultimate desired effect. Once you are below 1/8 of a second on the shutter, you can achieve the calm blurring of water. The effectiveness of this practice only increases with longer times.

To photograph an image and freeze water, you can generally meter and shoot. Choose the corresponding aperture to allow a shutter speed at 1/125 of a second or greater. But when photographing water for a blurred effect, often the metered light will not allow us to shoot an exposure longer than 1/4 a second. The best suggestion to remedy the situation is through a circular polarizing filter. Most of these filters can remove at least two stops of light. (That means if the scene called for F22 at 1/15 of a second, adding a polarizing filter to the lens allows the shot to be taken at 1/4 a second.)

The motion of water also has several strong elements of composition to consider. Water can often act as a leading line for our eyes. Use it as an element to take a viewer through a photograph from the foreground to the background. Consider the shot of Glacier National Park. The small river in the foreground takes your eyes naturally to the mountains and then above. Using water such as this can help create simple, clean compositions that are pleasing to the eye.

Another way to use water as an element of composition is to utilize its reflective qualities. Lake reflection shots help a scene by adding an uncommon symmetry to any composition. But, consider placement when using this technique. There are several effective positions to place the scene in your frame besides the middle. If your not familiar with the “four power points,” the “2/3 - 1/3 rule,” or the “90 – 10 rule” then consult my Basic Compositions Article.

However, my favorite use of the motion of water is the creation of moods in photographs. Depending on the feeling you would like to convey, you can freeze the water for a turbulent scene or slowly blur the water for a calm, serene photograph. You’ll need to make those decisions when you decide what you want to communicate.
Note: For practice…

The best exercise to figure out the relationship between your shutter speeds and motion is to photograph the same scene nine times. Use the shutter speeds 125, 60, 30, 15, 8, 4, 2, 1,and 2 seconds. Obviously use the corresponding F-stops to properly expose the photos. If this is not self-explanatory, consult my Camera Basics Article for further explanation of relationships between F-stops and shutter speeds.

The first meters to concentrate on are the existing built in meters in the camera you already own. Depending upon the age and sophistication of the camera you are using it will have either a center weighted meter, matrix meter, spot meter or all of these above. Older cameras such as the Cannon AE-1 I learned on have a center weighted meter. The calculation of light is heavily influenced by the values in the center of the frame. The original thought was the subject would be centered so less importance was assigned on the fringes or even the power points of a composition. I have found that if the light is flat the center weighted meter can provide an accurate reading of exposure. But, if there is a great deal of contrast in the scene they can be quite inaccurate. I found that in sunrise shots with a center weighted meter taken without understanding the sky would be overexposed, foreground underexposed, and center just about right. For this reason I didn’t stop using the camera, I just use a different meter.

Matrix metering is the more advanced metering system installed by camera manufactures in modern SLRs. Although the terminology of different camera companies may refer to it as something else, the idea is the same. The frame is broken into quite a few sub-sections and all of the recorded light, except specular highlights, are averaged out. This metering system is much more reliable than the center weighted system. I found that it does a great job on the majority of lighting situations. The balance of values given to each section of the frame greatly enhances the speed of work and accuracy of the meter.

Some cameras with the matrix metering systems also include a built-in spot meter. This function will give a meter reading of only the small portion of the frame it is centered on. When trying to determine whether the contrast range is too great for your film or transparency, this is the meter to use. This is also the only meter that can provide an accurate basis for the zone system, which is still the most sophisticated exposure system developed. It is important to know that the “spot” can be a measurement of 1, 2, 5, or 10 degrees. The 1 degree spot meter is the best for its intended use. A 2 degree or sometimes 5 degree meter can be acceptable but I would not use the 10 degree. The intention of this meter is to get an extremely accurate reading of a small space. The larger the spot meter the less likely you will get only what you want to register. Even if you’re not using the zone system this is a great tool. In the situation that you are shooting a backlit subject, if you wanted to expose it correctly and blow out (overexpose) the background the spot meter evaluates what is necessary for the subject, set and shoot. This can be an effective technique for creative portraits or used in cases where the landscape has to many stops of contrast for your film. In that case, you can determine the exposure and shoot for the most important subject.

As for the built in exposure meters, the center weighted, matrix, and spot are going to be the primary choices in cameras today. However, if you want a bit more flexibility or need a meter for specific purposes such as studio work, a hand-held meter may fit your needs. There are two types of hand-held meters; the reflected light meter and the incident light meter. All of the built-in meters were in the class of reflective meters. A reflective meter is a meter that measures the light bouncing back from the subject. Normally, a hand-held reflective meter is just an independent spot meter. Again, my opinion is the smaller the spot (1 degree) the better. If you are typically a landscape photographer, this is the meter you want.

The reflective meters work in the same way as the built in light meter. Point it at the subject and it will give you a combination of f-stop and shutter speeds that will work. An incident light meter measures the amount of light falling on a subject. Place the meter in front of the subject, facing the camera, and read the combinations of f-stops and shutter speeds. More advanced meters today are offering both reflective and incident measurements. If you shoot a bit of everything this is the best bet. If you want to shoot subjects in a studio or controlled environment the incident meter is what you will rely upon the majority of the time. Once again, if you shoot landscapes, a dedicated spot meter is all you need.

With a reflective light meter, whether it is a spot, matrix, or center-weighted meter, there will be instances where the measurement will be wrong. To understand why, we need to look at what the meters are attempting to measure. All of these meters are designed to measure“middle gray.” The term middle gray refers to the absolute middle of the spectrum between white and black. Its density reflects at 18 percent and is the value that the camera meters have to match. So with subjects that are mostly lighter or darker than middle gray it will result in an underexposed or overexposed negative. As you photograph subjects it is important to understand that you can make the corrections necessary when needed. With a white subject it is important to open up and allow more light because the meters exposure will underexpose the subject matter. Likewise, when the subject is darker or black, the meters reading would underexpose the frame again because it reads it as gray.

From what I have found there are three easy ways to compensate for your meters weakness with light or dark subjects. The first is to use a gray card. A gray card can be purchased from photography supply stores inexpensively. The card reflects the 18 percent necessary for the camera to read. Put the card in the same light as the subject, take a meter reading and shoot the photograph ignoring the meter reading on the subject. The second option involves a natural gray card. In many circumstances you will not be able to put a gray card in the scene so metering off green grass or blue jeans has approximately the same reflective value. The third option is simply by knowing how much to compensate when in the situation. Do you open up one stop, one and a half, or more? If you complete this great exercise I learned at the RMSP summer intensive you can probably figure out how many stops you open up or close down depending upon the subject.

Metering modes have also changed with the modern cameras. When I consider which mode to use I need to understand what is important to capture the final image. First, let’s look at the options. There is a fully automatic option, aperture priority, shutter priority and the manual mode. In the fully automatic mode the camera takes the decision process out of your hands entirely. It uses the meters combination of f-stop and shutter speed and sets them automatically. I find that this is never a good option. In the fully automatic mode I can’t make the decision to blur the background of a portrait with a shallow depth of field. Or in a landscape the camera may select a shallow depth of field that takes quite a bit of the depth out of the image. You do not have the option to select what is important to you. In the aperture priority mode of your camera you choose the f-stop and the shutter speed is automatically set for you. In the situation where the critical decision revolves around depth of field this is the selection to use. The shutter priority mode allows you to choose the shutter speed and the f-stop is set automatically for you. The shutter priority and aperture priority are the modes I shoot from the majority of the time. I normally have my camera on a tripod, set the aperture or depth of field I want and let the speed falls where it may. Unless I want to slow water or another technique where again a tripod is necessary, set the shutter speed and let the aperture set automatically.

First, lets get some terminology out of the way.  The aperture in your camera is a mechanical device that determines how much light travels from your lens to the film plane.  The aperture is often referred to as an F-stop (Ex. F2.8) and for simplicity, can be considered a circle in-between the lens and film.  The control will either be found on the lens itself or in modern slrs on the lcd screen.

Shutter speeds also determine how much light reaches the film.  For simplicity, consider the shutter a mechanical curtain that opens and closes on your command.  The settings on the camera refer to a time such as 1/125 of a second.  However, the camera setting will appear as a whole number.  That means the 125 on the camera means 1/125 of a second, 60 equals 1/60 of a second and so on.  From here, I will refer to the shutter speeds as the whole numbers for ease.

Film speed (ISO) is the third variable that you control with the camera to determine exposure.  The range of film speeds vary from 25-6400 ISO.  With lower ISOs,   more light is required to affect the exposure.  Therefore a film with an ISO of 50 would be considered a “slow film.”  Film with an ISO of 800 would be considered a “fast” film, meaning a shorter amount of time is necessary for exposure .Consider each control equal to the other.   Moving from an ISO of 100 to an ISO of 200 (film speed) is on “stop” of light.  Increasing the size of your aperture (F-stop) from f4 to f2.8 is also one “stop” of light.  Each of these actions are allowing the same amount of light increase.  Each measure doubles your previous light, just as slowing down the shutter speed from 125 to 60 allows the same light increase, one “stop.”  Here is a chart to further your understanding of how “stops” of light are controlled by the reciprocal valued mechanisms of the camera.

Hypothetical Camera Settings:
ISO 100            F2.8            1/60 sec
To double your light: (1 stop)
ISO 100            F2.8            1/30 sec
Or    ISO 100            F1.8            1/60 sec
Or    ISO 200            F2.8            1/60 sec

Each control individually can double the amount of light!

Another Example:
ISO 400            F11            1/250 sec
To halve your light: (1 stop)
ISO 200            F11            1/250 sec
Or     ISO 400            F16            1/250 sec
Or     ISO 400            F11            1/500 sec

Another Example:  In this case you are shooting a landscape, so the same aperture is required to maintain depth of field (focus).  You’re photographing a sunset so it is great light but it is decreasing.  You’re near the end of the roll of film with many other choices in the bag.  The settings now are:

ISO 50                F11            1/8 sec

15 minutes later, the light has decreased by 2 stop of light.  You can adjust 2 ways to attain the proper exposure.  You’re film is ready to change, so it’s either film speed, shutter speed, or a combination of both.  Here are some of your choices:

ISO 100            F11            ¼ sec
ISO 200            F11            1/8 sec
ISO 50              F11            ½ sec

All of these would work to adjust for the conditions.  You would need to make the decisions so that exposure is correct and you are able to express what you want to with the photograph.  If you decided in this scenario that the depth of field is not as important then you could decide to alter the aperture to also reach the desired exposure.

Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of exposure and how you can manipulate your camera to assure you get the image you want.  If you have any questions on another situation, please contract me through email on the contacts page.

Thanks,
Jonathan Jackson

To further this argument, let’s consider we are outside looking at a wonderful landscape.  (I don’t want to consider studio because the entire scene is contrived from props and artificial lighting).  This is where the staunchest, traditional photographer may consider manipulation a sacrilege.  But, as we visualize the image we want to produce, we consider how best to portray what we see.  First, let’s consider the films we use.  The traditional black and white films are altering what we would naturally see because the majority of us have the ability to see color.  For those of us familiar with the dark room, we know perfectly well the amount of alterations we make as we crop, dodge and burn, add or subtract contrast, and the other various techniques involved in producing a quality print.  However, color films also alter the natural scene as well.  Many landscape photographers today use a saturated color film called Velvia.  This slide film is extremely color saturated so it enhances and at times distorts the actual scene.  Even a portrait in this wonderful landscape would call for a special film to even the tones of the subjects.  So, before we are able to photograph a scene, we make a decision that will in some way alter it from reality.

Our film is chosen, so the next question is what part (or element) of the entire scene we will photograph.  This is the second option that automatically alters what people would see if they were in our shoes.  After we select our scene we either move to line up the composition, change lenses to frame the subject, or both.  The lens selection alters the natural scene.  Wide-angle lenses are often used in landscape photography and no human eye can see in the way the lens translates the image on film.  Telephoto lenses act as if we are wearing binoculars, once again an altering effect.  So the only “natural lens” would be equivalent to the human eye.  However, the 50mm lens (for 35mm cameras) still doesn’t account for an unaltered image.

There are also other various ways that we alter and manipulate scenes without ever converting an image to a digital file.  Take for example the filters used in several types of photography that help create the finished image.  There are the traditional filters for black and white photography, such as the red filter #25, used to darken the sky and increase contrast.  Or the polarizing filter for color photography, used to increase contrast in the sky or reduce light so that water can appear blurred and milky.  So we must acknowledge that there are ways we automatically manipulate images before the digital process.

That is why I don’t understand the thought that photographers can “cross a line” when manipulating images digitally.  It is all in an effort to portray a feeling or communicate a thought through an image.  But, for arguments sake, let’s go through some of the ways that an image can be altered digitally.  I think that you will see even though done on a computer, the decisions are similar to those made on site or in a darkroom.

To manipulate an image on the computer it must first be changed to a digital file.  If it wasn’t shot digitally to begin with you must scan the film or print.  When I have scanned an image, I found that the result did not match the slide I was working from.  So besides the general corrections made to return the image to its original form, let’s look at the other options.  Increasing the color saturation is often a first step.  But, this can be done traditionally with a film choice.  Increase the contrast of a flat negative?  We do it everyday in the dark room with various filters and papers.  I think you can see where I’m going with this argument.  There can’t be anything wrong with enhancements done digitally if you could have done them with a slightly different choice in “traditional photography.”

So what about the other ways an image can be manipulated?  Let’s look at an example from my own work.  The photograph was taken at sunset in British Columbia.  The shot was from a boat on my way from Victoria to Vancouver.  I enjoy the original image.  In the process of taking the image, I used a wide-angle lens and shot it on a color saturated film, Velvia.  When I manipulated the image digitally, I added a lighting effect and sun-beams to enhance the image a bit more.  This is a manipulation that could not be done in camera.  I used software that works as a plug-in filter through Photoshop.  Guess what?  I like this image too.  I don’t feel as though I have crossed any sort of “line” in photography.  I altered what you would have seen in several different ways, both traditionally and digitally.  The process took longer and involved a different set of skills but the intention was still the same.  To produce an image that you enjoy, evoke a mood or emotion, or simply to create a scene that makes people look more closely.  However, until this process is more accepted and appreciated, I will continue to openly admit to viewers when I have “manipulated” an image digitally.  Even if I think it is part of the same process.

Once again, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,
Jonathan Jackson