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Photo Articles
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How to Take Big Suns
by
Jan Linden
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Sure, these pictures may border on clichés, but they
are clichés that never fail to grab us. We're all suckers for that
frame-filling drama of Ol' Sol looming large on the horizon.
And we all know how to get those shots of big suns - just shoot
the horizon with that fabulously expensive, super-speed, extra
low-dispersion glass, panchromatic telephoto, right?
Wrong. You need a long lens, sure, but it needn't be a budget
buster. Some very good 500mm mirror lenses come in under $200,
store price. There are all-glass 400mm, 500mm, and 600mm designs
from major independents that sell for $300-500. And you can make
an existing telephoto longer by using a tele-converter. That fine
300mm f/4 you bought for nature work, for example, can be
converted to a 600mm f/8 with a 2X converter. That's a pretty good
focal length for big suns. Using a 3X converter will make a 900mm
f/12, and so on.
Besides a telephoto, you need a sturdy tripod - flimsy travel
models need not apply. For one thing, focusing and framing through
a long telephoto is far easier if the rig is well supported. For
another thing, even a little shake can blur a long-telephoto shot.
A spot or limited-area meter helps, although it is not essential.
An overall meter reading with an SLR will generally be far too
high, resulting in a shot that's too dark - even if the desired
effect is a silhouette. Most big-sun shooters use the strategy of
spot metering an area of the sky near but not immediately adjacent
to the sun - an area in which some sky tone appears. This will
give you a silhouette reading that will still maintain a little
shadow detail.
And how do you focus and compose with that big burning disk
staring you right in the eye? First, if everything in your frame
is a long distance from the camera, setting the lens to infinity
is the easiest way to focus without being dazzled. Otherwise, you
may pre focus the camera with the sun just out of the frame. You
can often recompose the scene by holding your eye a little away
from the finder to avoid being temporarily blinded by the sun.
The best big-sun shots are the ones that don't rely solely on the
sun; the big sun, in fact, is best used as a background. The
landscape, the harbor scene, the city skyline - each picture
should stand on its own for it to work with a big sun behind it.
There is a pitfall here, though. Even with objects at a far
distance, they can still be out of the plane of focus of the sun,
due to the effective shallow depth of long lenses. Generally, the
sun can stand to be a little soft, so try focusing on the nearest
large object in the composition. Also, use small apertures and
check the depth-of-field preview.
Big-sun shots can, on occasion, be surprisingly colorless; the sky
around the sun can range from blank white to dull gray. A filter
is called for here, from the standard warming (81A and similar)
for a warm sky tone, to amber for richer color, to full orange for
an exaggerated effect.
Jan Linden is a professional photographer and designer runs
Fine Art Photo Web store and
Hosting Directory. |
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Article Source:
http://www.articlejoe.com |
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