LEExposure 08 by LEE Filters

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M LEE FILTERS O R EF N I AZ G A M

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Nikon D810 with 17-35mm f/2.8 lens at 17mm, 1.6 seconds at f/14, ISO 64, 0.6 ND medium grad, Landscape Polariser Photograph by Ross Hoddinott

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Welcome Whether you’re professional or amateur, you’re probably reading this magazine because you have a passion for photography. And photography is good for us in so many ways. It makes us think, it makes us view the world differently and it gets us out into the landscape so we exercise our brains and our bodies at the same time. However, what happens when you notice the passion is starting to wane – particularly if photography is how you make your living? This is what happened to Devon-based Lee Pengelly, who had been a professional for the best part of 20 years when he realised it had become a burden more than a joy. So he sold his gear – lock, stock and barrel. Find out what happened next on page 6. There are no such concerns for Ben Eaton-Williams, however. A mere 19 years old, he recently moved the 700 miles from southern England to Scotland’s Isle of Skye, in order to make a name for himself as a landscape photographer. His confidence and self-belief are enviable – as are the images he’s capturing in his beloved new home. He explains what drove him to make such a dramatic move while still a teenager on page 72. Creating mood in a landscape image is something we all strive for, but what do we do when we arrive at a location and find it isn’t quite living up to expectation? Don’t be tempted to pack up and go home, because it could be that a mist filter is the solution. Used with discretion, Mist Grad and Mist Stripe filters can introduce atmosphere where none existed before. Professional photographer Jeremy Walker is a huge fan of them, and reveals the secrets to their successful use on page 16. In addition, three photographers reveal how to get the best out of a super-wideangle lens (page 52), Steve Gosling explains how to control composition when shooting out on the street (page 24), and we have the usual hints and tips from the pros in The Knowledge (page 58). All this, and your images featured in The Gallery, too (page 29)! We hope you enjoy the issue.

Contributors > > > > > > > > > > >

Mark Bauer Pete Bridgwood Matthew Cattell Owen Clarke Ben Eaton-Williams Steve Gosling Till Haarmann Ross Hoddinott Neil Hulme Jack Lodge Verity Milligan

> > > > > > > > > >

Justin Minns Andrew Morris David Newton Lee Pengelly Alberto Perer Craig Roberts Helen Storer Jeremy Walker Nick Watson Andrew Weiss

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A FRESH START

MIST FILTERS

Lee Pengellyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name was once a regular fixture in photo magazines and as a leader of workshops, but then everything came to a sudden halt. What caused his crisis of confidence and how did he turn things around? Ailsa McWhinnie finds out

Generally speaking, the purpose of filters is to help the cameraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensor to replicate as closely as possible what we see with the human eye. Mist filters, however, are ideal for introducing atmosphere and mood where little or none existed before. We asked mist-filter aficionado Jeremy Walker how to get the best out of these useful accessories

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THE GALLERY Feast your eyes on our showcase of fine photography, all shot using LEE Filters

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THE KNOWLEDGE Get the best out of your filters with these tips from the pros

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24-28 COMPOSITION MASTERCLASS Street photography can be challenging, but when it all comes together in a fraction of a second, it’s one of the most satisfying genres to explore. Steve Gosling explains how he anticipates and reacts to what’s unfolding in front of him when he takes to the street

52-57 ANATOMY OF A SUPER-WIDE Every manufacturer now produces super-wideangle lenses, but they can be tricky to use effectively. Here, three photographers explain how they used such lenses to their best effect, for dynamic and eyecatching compositions

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YOURVIEW Each month, on our website, a different professional photographer critiques a range of images submitted by LEE Filters’ users. Here, it’s the turn of Wilco Dragt. To see more images from YourView, visit leefilters.com

72-81 NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED As soon as Ben Eaton-Williams set foot on the Isle of Skye, aged 16, he fell in love with its landscape. Within a couple of years, he’d made it his permanent home, and he’s now building up a reputation for his panoramic photography. Here, he tells LEExposure more about what drives him

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A fresh start LEE PENGELLY’S NAME WAS ONCE A REGULAR FIXTURE IN PHOTO MAGAZINES AND AS A LEADER OF WORKSHOPS, BUT THEN EVERYTHING CAME TO A SUDDEN HALT. WHAT CAUSED HIS CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE AND HOW DID HE TURN THINGS AROUND? AILSA MCWHINNIE FINDS OUT

Start Point, Devon “Start Point, Devon. This was a location I thought I’d done to death, but not so. Using a different viewpoint and a Little Stopper meant I was able to create a fresh take on an old image”

There can’t be many people left on the planet who truly believe that becoming a full-time landscape photographer is a one-way ticket to the land of milk and honey. The potential for income from stock photography has plummeted over the past 20 years, print sales are still in their infancy compared with countries such as the USA and, generally speaking, there are more photographers chasing fewer opportunities. There is a flipside, though. Despite all the occasions when the weather doesn’t do what you might want it to, when it does play ball, landscape photographers are often the only ones up early enough to witness it. Being out in nature – with all the physical and mental health benefits that brings – is a pretty good payoff for a somewhat unpredictable and unstable career choice. For Lee Pengelly, however, things reached something of a crunch point in 2012. The Devon-based photographer had been a full-time professional since the mid-1990s, and had built himself a solid reputation for both creativity and reliability. “I was up to the hilt with work,” he recalls. “I was away for six months of the year running workshops, as well as

Canon EOS 6D with EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 22mm, 1/20sec at f/16, ISO 400, Little Stopper

doing work for magazines and holding exhibitions. On a commercial level, everything was going well.” Trouble was, it wasn’t enough. Being paid to take pictures sounds great on the face of it, but Lee had begun to realise he was losing his way. “Every time I went out with my camera, it had to be with a good reason and with a brief in mind. Wherever I went, I found myself thinking, ‘Is this going to sell? Will it make a good cover?’ I always had to have an end result in mind, and I found I was doing less and less of my own photography. The inspiration to go out and shoot something new for the sake of it had gone.” Crucially, it was when running workshops that things really hit crunch point. “I was teaching other people how to take pictures, and going to the most fabulous places, but I was burnt out. I set up the workshop side of my business in 2003, when not many people were doing it. Nowadays, everybody is a tour leader and that side of things has become completely saturated. When you’re teaching other people and you’re not on top form, I think it shows. Nobody >>

8 Canon EOS 6D with EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 17mm, 1/15sec at f/16, ISO 100

Sharpitor tree, Dartmoor, Devon “This viewpoint is only a 10-minute walk from where I would usually shoot. One day, I decided to investigate and was pleased with this panoramic shot with Leather Tor in the distance”

ever said anything, but that was the part that scared me. How could I inspire these people if I wasn’t inspired myself? Deep down, I knew I needed a break.” A workshop to Slovakia at the end of 2014 was his last, and Lee’s overwhelming response was one of relief. “The pressure was off,” he explains. “I’d been to places like Iceland and Slovakia so many times, I’d become complacent – and that’s not how you should feel when you see the Northern Lights.”

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At this point, he took the biggest step so far, and sold his entire photographic kit, lock, stock and barrel. A musician on the side, he had started playing with bands again not long before, and it was there he found an outlet for his creative side. As for paying the mortgage and putting food on his family’s table, the choice was a simple one – he returned to his previous profession and started to pick up work in the building trade. “I was still self-employed,” he explains, “but the pressure to produce something that might sell had

gone. It’s a completely different pressure when you’re tiling a bathroom or fitting a sink.” The all-encompassing burden of social media was what Lee missed least. “It was a huge thing for me,” he reveals. “Things move so fast now, it’s a case of here one second, gone the next, and it’s easy to lose yourself in it. Trying to get likes and constantly asking yourself if people like a picture – it’s dangerous and you can end up shooting and sharing the same sort of thing, >>

Dawn mist at Sharpitor, Dartmoor

Canon EOS 7D with EF-S10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM at 10mm, 1/5sec at f/13, ISO 100, 0.9 ND soft grad, Benro tripod

“This was my lightbulb moment. After a silly o’clock start, I arrived in dense fog but waited for two hours – shooting a time-lapse throughout. Just as I was about to give up, this happened”

rather than creating something that’s for yourself. Then you end up comparing yourself to other photographers and asking yourself what you’re doing wrong if you don’t have as many followers as they do.” However, he did have his regrets, and they manifested themselves pretty quickly following the sale of his camera kit. “My view on photography is that it’s more about finding the picture – the hunt, if you like – than the result. And it turned out I missed the enjoyment of going on to Dartmoor and searching out something new.” Lee held his ground for two more years, until the longing to be back in the landscape got too much, and he treated himself to a Canon PowerShot G1 X. “I hated it!” he says, laughing. “I didn’t get on with it at all. I went through a phase of buying little cameras just so that I had a camera, but they were never capable of doing what I wanted them to, and I wasn’t getting the sort of results I was accustomed to.” And so, inevitably, he ended up investing in a Canon DSLR kit again, plumping for an EOS 6D and a range

of L-series lenses. But he was conscious of not simply forging ahead down the same path as he had before. If he were to make a return to photography – even on a part-time basis – it would have to be with some careful thought and consideration. “It was about getting back into that creative process,” he explains. “And getting out and finding the shot. I didn’t want to go down the route I had before, where I was doing everything and taking on work I didn’t want to do, so I started to turn things down.” As a result, weddings and event photography was off the cards, but enjoyable commercial jobs for local businesses – such as one where he had to photograph some new-build luxury flats over a 10-month period – proved to be exactly the sort of thing he was looking for. As for the landscape itself, there was a lightbulb moment, and it revealed itself on Sharp Tor, in Lee’s beloved Dartmoor National Park. “It was in early 2017, and I’d planned a dawn shoot. I got up early, realising it was something I hadn’t done for a very long time. I went out in the pre-dawn; it was misty, and I couldn’t see a >>

LEExposure 11 Canon EOS 6D with EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 33mm, 30 seconds at f/4, ISO 3200, Benro tripod

Milky Way over St Michaels Mount, Cornwall â&#x20AC;&#x153;I met up with photographers David Clapp and Carla Regler, and Rob Cook from Canon, for a 2am Milky Way shoot that we planned using the PhotoPills app. We managed to stave off tiredness to capture it just at the right timeâ&#x20AC;?

Canon EOS 6D with EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 36mm, 1/10sec at f/11 ISO 400, panoramic stitch of seven images

thing. I set up my camera to shoot a time-lapse, then waited for an hour or two. Suddenly, the mist dropped away, revealing another tor below, and everything came together. It was then I realised why I needed to take pictures, and how much I’d missed it.” From this point on, there was no stopping him, and it was very much a case of him doing things his own way. “I would go out with no need to sell the pictures I was taking. The last time I’d felt that way had been back in the 1990s. And although I was revisiting places I’d shot many times before, the different mindset meant that when I compared my older and newer images side by side, I could see they were completely different. The newer ones are fresher and more personal.” Keeping things as varied as possible, Lee now photographs everything from landscapes to architecture, with a bit of food photography in between for good measure. He’s also started to shoot time-lapse footage and is increasingly producing video, too, which he uploads to his own YouTube channel. “It’s great to

have a project in mind and produce something for YouTube,” he says. “I’ve also done a few product reviews. It gives me something to focus on that’s different to what I was doing before.” He also continues to shoot for Getty Images, sending all his best work to the agency. “They have a better return than the other agencies, and a better contract. I also find them more proactive than they used to be.” Night photography in particular is one area that has provided inspiration and a new creative outlet for him. “Back in the film days, I shot Velvia, and you couldn’t possibly have shot the Milky Way using Velvia. The ability of modern cameras to shoot in near darkness is extraordinary, and now I find myself revisiting places I’ve been before, but at night instead. New technology has certainly helped me push my boundaries and change my perspective on photography.” With things looking bright, and with his income from photography, music and building work combining to >>

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Frankfurt skyline, Germany “This short city trip to Frankfurt was a breath of fresh air for me. No laptop, no processing in the evenings, just shooting and enjoying the process of finding and capturing new images. I planned locations before going and did my research, but with no pressure to ‘produce’, the trip was immensely enjoyable”

Holbeinsteg bridge, Frankfurt, Germany “Without the constraints of shooting to a brief, the freedom to shoot what I wanted was just what I needed. The results do go out to stock agencies such as Getty, and, yes, I do hope they sell, but now it’s all about ‘finding the shot’ – which is the part I’d lost touch with. This trip certainly brought that aspect of photography back”

Canon EOS 6D with EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM, 1/30sec at f/16, ISO 400

Canon EOS 6D with EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 17mm, 30 seconds at f/4, ISO 3200, Benro tripod

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Foggintor quarry, Dartmoor, Devon “The advances in the low-light capabilities of DSLRs have opened up the sort of shooting opportunities I would once have walked away from. This shot was light painted with my LED torch, balancing ambient and artificial light perfectly”

Plymouth Creative Arts building, Devon “Not only have I got my mojo back, but also I have rediscovered my eye for the unusual. I’m a landscaper at heart, but I’m happy in the built environment, too. Always happiest when I’m being creative, I spent nearly two hours at this local location, both shooting and vlogging”

Canon EOS 6D with EF1740mm f/4L USM at 33mm, Benro tripod, 1/45sec at f/11, ISO 100, polariser

keep the wolf from the door, how does Lee feel about the future? Has he been bruised by his experience? And, more importantly, is he worried it may happen again? “I certainly feel a bit wiser,” he says. “It’s one of those industries where you need quite a thick skin, because what you’re doing is so personal. Not everyone is going to like what you do, but who cares? You need to stay focused on the reasons why you fell in love with

photography in the first place. By keeping my photography on a part-time basis, it no longer defines me, and everything now seems like a new challenge. I’ve definitely got the balance right.” n Visit leepengelly.com, and watch Lee’s review of the LEE Filters Stopper range at https://youtu.be/ C8di6PnYH38

Play misty for me Nikon D810 with 24-70mm f/2.8 at 45mm, 1/13sec at f/11, ISO 64, 0.9 ND hard grad, Mist Stripe

LEExposure 17 GENERALLY SPEAKING, THE PURPOSE OF FILTERS IS TO HELP THE CAMERAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SENSOR TO REPLICATE AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE WHAT WE SEE WITH THE HUMAN EYE. MIST FILTERS, HOWEVER, ARE IDEAL FOR INTRODUCING ATMOSPHERE AND MOOD WHERE LITTLE OR NONE EXISTED BEFORE. WE ASKED MIST-FILTER AFICIONADO JEREMY WALKER HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF THESE USEFUL ACCESSORIES

The weather forecast had promised mist, but it turned out to be more of a light haze. Introducing a Mist Stripe helped hide the distracting fence, and gives the image and overall romantic feel. Jeremy increased the white balance in camera to boost the warmth of the scene. An ND grad comes down over part of the tree, while the Mist Stripe has been placed over the tree line.

Before Jeremy went to Coniston Water in the Lake District at sunset, but there was little colour or interest, so he decided to use a Mist Stripe to introduce more atmosphere to the scene.

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What is a mist filter and how does it work?

mist effect gradually fades away to clear as you go down the filter.

Jeremy Walker

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The Mist Stripe – which is the mist filter I use most frequently – is formed of a narrow band of coating on a clear resin filter. It’s extremely clever, in that it almost behaves in the same way as real mist. For example, if you shoot into the light, it has the same glow to it, as if the sun is breaking through an early-morning haze. The mist grad, which I use less often, is based on the same concept as a neutral-density grad, in that the

When would you use it?

The first thing to say is, a mist filter is no substitute for the real thing. Mist stripes and grads will certainly help you out of a hole if you’re in a location and have to get an image, but they cannot replace mother nature. Having said that, however, they are incredibly useful in a variety of situations. The first one that springs to mind is when

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19 After The Big Stopper got rid of any ripples in the water, while adding the Mist Stripe blended the horizon with the sky, and masked the hills in the distance, giving a more ethereal image.

shooting a body of water such as a lake. There might be some clutter on the horizon that doesn’t add anything to the composition, and that you’d prefer to remove. Placing the filter so that the stripe falls across the point at which the water meets the sky will blur out any extraneous detail, simplifying the image and keeping the viewer’s attention where you’d like it to be. In terms of time of day, like almost anything else in landscape photography, it’s best at the beginning and end of the day. You’re less likely to have mist in the middle of the day, so it wouldn’t be realistic to use it then. If you use when you’d usually have mist – during

Nikon D700 with 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm, 250 seconds at f/11, ISO 200, 0.6 ND hard grad, Big Stopper, Mist Stripe

winter, and in the early morning or late evening – it’s more believable.

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And when wouldn’t you use it?

It doesn’t work well on a ‘normal’ landscape. For instance, a mountain scene with a Mist Stripe added would look wrong, because a mountain is an irregular shape, and mist naturally forms in wisps or in the folds of the mountainside. The stripe only works when you have a linear subject matter. >>

Before It was a typically drab Scottish day when Jeremy arrived at the ruins of Kilchurn Castle on Lochawe. The overall greyness needed a lift.

After A neutral-density grad brought the whiteness of sky under control, while a Mist Stripe filter over the foreground hid the reflections and gave mood and drama. Jeremy then converted the image to black and white, and boosted the contrast. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a sense of mist lifting off the water, and this complements the sky to balance the image.

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Nikon D700 with 50mm lens, 1/20sec at f/16, ISO 200, 0.9 ND hard grad, Mist Stripe

And don’t use it with the intention of recreating fog; there’s a difference between mist and fog. Mist tends to sit low in the landscape and it hugs the ground, whereas fog is a more of a big cloud that covers everything, and it very dense. Mist has a more ethereal, thinner, veillike feel to it, and that’s what you should be looking to recreate when you use a mist filter.

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Can you combine a mist filter with other types of filter?

I use them a great deal with ND grads. Any image I take that features the sky will have an ND grad on it, and these serve a different purpose from mist filters. I always fit my filters first and meter second. You have to be careful when combining it with a polariser, as this can cut any natural mist that’s in your frame. So you can use the polariser for the benefits it brings, then reintroduce any mist with a Mist Stripe or a Mist Grad filter.

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When do you use the Mist Grad?

I never use it on its own – I only ever combine it with the stripe. When I want mist at both the top and bottom of the frame, I’ll use the stripe at bottom and the grad at the top. The useful thing about the grad is you can invert it and use it upside down. It tends to knock colours back a bit and increase the drama, and as it is coated with more of the ‘mist’, you can cover more of the image with it. It can look false, however, so be careful and use it with

discretion. That’s where live view is so useful, though, as you can see the effect the filter is having in your screen.

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Are there any considerations you have to make?

The success or otherwise of a shot taken with a mist filter doesn’t depend only on your subject – your choice of focal length and aperture is crucial, too. If you go too wide with your lens choice, you end up with a white line in the middle of the shot. Too long a lens and the scene becomes mushy. You need a focal length that complements the filter – somewhere around 35-50mm is optimum. You need to be careful with aperture, too. Generally speaking, I work with f/5.6 or f/8, because if you stop down too much the stripe gets narrower and harder, and your image will have a more defined line across it, rather than a soft, misty one. Careful placement of the filters is crucial, as you could end up with the glowing effect of the Mist Stripe, then a gap, then the grad. You have to be quite precise, and make sure you blend them properly – you can safely use a medium or a hard ND grad, but not the very hard, while the soft would be too soft. Also, as I discovered when shooting alongside a friend who was using a 35mm Canon lens to my 35mm Nikon, two different manufacturers’ lenses can behave differently when using the same mist filter, so it’s important to do a bit of experimenting to learn which lens/aperture/filter combination works best for you. n

ABOUT MIST FILTERS LEE Filters manufactures three types of mist filter – the grad, the stripe and the clear spot. For landscape photography purposes, the grad and stripe are most popular. The clear spot has a clear section in the centre, with the mist effect surrounding it, the stripe has a thin section of mist in the centre, while the grad features the mist effect across half the filter, gradually fading out to clear. The clear spot is available for the 100mm system, while the grad and the stripe are available for all three of LEE Filters’ systems – the 100mm, the Seven5 and the SW150. Mist Grad

Mist Stripe

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Before Jeremy took this photograph of Spis Castle while travelling in Slovakia. The light was ideal, but the letters that had been carved into the grass in the foreground were not.

Nikon D810 with 50mm lens, 0.3sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND hard grad, Mist Stripe

After The Mist Stripe helps to balance the image, as well as blur out the messy foreground and the distracting tree. As Jeremy says, “If you’ve travelled to central Europe to photograph a particular castle, a Mist Stripe or Mist Grad will help you get the shot.”

Composition masterclass with Steve Gosling STREET PHOTOGRAPHY CAN BE CHALLENGING, BUT WHEN IT ALL COMES TOGETHER IN A FRACTION OF A SECOND, IT’S ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING GENRES TO EXPLORE. STEVE GOSLING EXPLAINS HOW HE ANTICIPATES AND REACTS TO WHAT’S UNFOLDING IN FRONT OF HIM WHEN HE TAKES TO THE STREET “I’m a photographer first, and a landscape photographer by choice,” says Steve Gosling of his approach to his work. “I don’t let the fact that I’m a landscape photographer stop me from shooting a whole range of other things.” The analogy Steve uses to describe the difference between landscape and street photography is that of the hunter and the fisherman. As he explains, “A fly fisherman picks their spot, puts on their waders, goes to the river and waits for the fish to come to him. It’s like that with my landscape work – I’m methodical and purposeful, and can wait for two to three hours for everything to come right. A hunter, on the other hand, stalks its prey and keeps on the move. And that’s what it’s like with street photography, in that I try to keep an open mind and stay responsive, rather than having a predetermined notion of what I want to take.” Giving up the control that’s associated with landscape photography is, Steve admits, quite a psychological leap to make, but as he says, “It’s good for me. It’s good to get out of my comfort zone and to force myself to work in a different way.”

On a trip to Antarctica, he took what he’s learned from street photography and applied it to his landscape work. Not only was the wildlife he saw constantly on the move, but also he was frequently shooting from a moving Zodiac, so there were few opportunities to set up a tripod and wait. “The responsiveness I’ve learned from street photography certainly helped me,” he says. More recently, he spent a week in New York and took a more classic approach to his street photography – the results of which you can see on these pages. As for kit, Steve likes to keep things simple. He carries two Olympus PEN-F bodies, one fitted with a 17mm lens (equivalent to 34mm in full frame), while the other has a 45mm attached (equivalent to 90mm). He also keeps a 12mm (24mm equivalent) in his bag but it rarely sees the light. “I just grab the camera that suits the scene best,” he says. “If the light is changing quite significantly, I set the lens to f/8, the shutter speed to 1/250sec, then set the camera to auto ISO. That way, I don’t need to think about re-setting the exposure before taking the shot.” Visit stevegoslingphotography.co.uk

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Olympus PEN-F with M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.8, 1/60sec at f/1.8, ISO 400

Cowboy, New York City New York is full of classic landmarks and architecture, and it was the Chrysler Building that Steve found himself particularly drawn to. As he wandered around, studying the art deco features, he found himself looking at the main door. “I liked the design and the lights,” he says, “and the 42nd street sign above. But it needed something else. I needed someone who looked identifiably American.” Just as the thought passed through his mind, a man who looked like a cowboy walked past and through the doors. If he’d turned to the right, the shot would have been lost, but he didn’t – he turned to the left. “He

paused for a second, I took one shot, and he was gone,” Steve recalls. In terms of composition, Steve went for something as symmetrical as possible. “This works well with the square format,” he says. “And that was one of the limitations I placed on myself. Quite often, when I’m setting out with my camera, I’ll impose certain limitations on myself. It might be that I shoot in the 16:9 panoramic format, or only in black and white, or on one particular lens. The more restrictions I impose on myself, the more creative I become, because I find that fewer choices tend to lead to better photographs.” >>

LEExposure 27 Wet dusk in New York City Taken towards the end of the day, this image is aided by the poor light, which adds to the general mood. “My wife and I were walking under these pillars, primarily to get some shelter from the rain,” says Steve, “when I looked up and saw this scene. When I’d imagined New York in the past, this was exactly how I thought it would look.” The pillars on the left and right of the image not only helped to frame the composition, but they also served a practical purpose. “I was tilting the camera upwards, but didn’t want any rain to fall on to my lens and spoil the shot, so the pillars not only provided some shelter, but also created a foreground and gave the scene a sense of depth.” The low contrast in the light levels meant that Steve was able to retain some detail both in the columns and in the Woolworth Building in the background. This would have been trickier to achieve earlier in the day when the light is more contrasty. The lampposts left and right are also important compositional elements. “The one on the left is more dominant, but I didn’t want to place it in the centre so that it fell in the middle of the building. And while the one on the right is less obvious, it’s an important counterbalance within the frame.” Often, we’re taught to avoid converging verticals, but Steve tends not to be too concerned about them. “They don’t bother me,” he says. “They’re only a problem when it looks like a mistake. If you’re going to have them, make them look deliberate. In a case such as this, I simply photographed what I was seeing, and I don’t mind if things are a little off kilter – it’s more about creating a mood and an atmosphere.” >>

Olympus PEN-F with M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.8, 1/60sec at f/8, ISO 2000

Olympus E-M10 with M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.8, 1/320sec at f/5.6, ISO 1600

Shhh “This is an example of an image where I adopted more of the ‘fisherman’ approach,” Steve says of this photograph, taken in East London. “I saw the sign on the right-hand side, at the entrance to an industrial estate, which said ‘Shhh. Please be quiet when entering and leaving our site.’ The graffiti of the lion next to it was pretty impressive.” Immediately, he recognised the potential for a good picture. It was simply a case of waiting for the right person to walk across the frame from right to left, and shooting at the moment when the lion appeared to be about to pounce. “I stood there for about half an hour,” he recalls. “Various people walked past, but some were going in the wrong direction, while others were in groups of two or three. I knew all I wanted was the ‘Shhh’ sign, the lion and a single person

who might appear distracted and unaware the lion was stalking them.” Eventually, the right one came along, in the form of this woman who was studying her mobile phone. “In the same way as I reduce everything in my landscape compositions to their essential elements, with nothing extraneous, I kept this frame restricted to the graffiti, the sign and the woman. The curve of the pavement at the bottom of the frame gives an anchor point, while the brick wall on the left counterbalances the brick wall on the right. Anything else would have destroyed the simplicity of the composition. I took just one frame, and as soon as I saw I had it, that was enough for me. If I’ve previsualised something, the moment it comes together, that’s it – I won’t hang around trying to improve on it, I’ll walk away and find something else.” n

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the

Gallery FEAST YOUR EYES ON OUR SHOWCASE OF FINE PHOTOGRAPHY, ALL SHOT USING LEE FILTERS

Nick Watson Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Northumberland

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We stopped en route to the Lake District as there was low-lying mist in the Tyne Valley, and while looking for a spot to photograph it from, we spied this group of sheep. They were pretty chilled out and werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really fussed about us being there, so we turned our attention to them. I shot this with my telephoto to compress the scene and give some separation between the lambs and the background. The earlymorning light created some beautiful colours and was diffused enough to not cause too much contrast. >>

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II at 145mm, 1/500sec at f/2.8, ISO 200, 0.6 ND soft grad

Llyn Padarn, Snowdonia We visited this tree three times over the course of a long weekend in Snowdonia, in the hope of capturing it in some decent light. The weather, however, didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t play ball, so to add some drama I opted for my Little Stopper to create a long exposure. The water levels

were lower than normal, so it was tough to find a balanced composition due to the big slate slabs on the shore, but I managed to find a clear spot to catch the treeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reflection.

Canon EOS 6D with 17-40mm f/4L USM at 17mm, 30 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad, Little Stopper

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Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 16-35mm f/4L IS USM at 16mm, 75 seconds at f/16, ISO 50, 0.9 ND medium grad, Big Stopper

Northton Saltmarsh, Isle of Harris This image was taken while scouting locations for an upcoming Harris and Lewis workshop in 2019. We arrived around midday and set about finding a decent composition. I have to credit my friend Jonathan with originally spotting this small pool with the cracked mud. I set up with my wideangle lens and fitted a 0.9

ND medium grad and a Big Stopper to capture the cloud movement. >>

Visit njw-images.co.uk

Helen Storer Norfolk

Sunset at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk This is a cheeky shot taken at the end of a photography workshop I was leading this summer; it was a beautiful warm evening on the north Norfolk coast. I rarely take images when I am facilitating a workshop, but with the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blessing, I got this one in the bag as the sun disappeared. On this workshop, the aim is to get the participants thinking more creatively and using manual exposure settings.

Wells-next-the-Sea is a very popular tourist destination, situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the centre of the north Norfolk coast. It boasts one of the best beaches in the country. Norfolkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 90 miles of coastline has everything from rugged marshes to fascinating wildlife, and each port of call has something for photographers.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 24-70mm Sigma f/2.8 lens at 28mm, 1/6sec at f/13, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod, 0.6 ND soft grad, polariser

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Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 35mm Sigma Art lens, 10 seconds at f/9, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod, 0.6 ND medium grad, polariser

Benacre in the midday sun I had seen images of the trees in the sands of Benacre on the Suffolk coast many times on social media, and I felt the need to go and explore. However, I had read that this particular area on the beach was not easy to get to, so I opted to go in daylight hours. Much of the reserve is private property and access outside of public rights of way is by permission only. Despite 45 minutes spent walking in the heat of the August sun, I was not disappointed with what I found. It was the nearest thing I was going to get to the Bahamas.

I used my go-to polarising filter for this shot. I would argue it is one of the most essential tools in a landscape photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bag. It instantly enhanced the image by increasing the blues in the sky (both saturation and contrast) as well as reducing the reflections on the water. I made very little adjustment when processing in Lightroom. >>

Visit storersphotos.com

Neil Hulme Manchester

Gone fishing This image was captured just outside of the magical city of Venice. These fishing nets make a beautiful subject, but there was quite a bit of distraction in the background. A gradient in Photoshop cleaned up the top half of the image. The bottom half was captured using the Big Stopper, to smooth out the water and gave the image a much simpler look. I also fitted a 0.6 ND soft grad upside down to help draw the eye to the these wonderful fishing nets. >>

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Nikon D7100 with 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, 77 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 0.6 ND soft grad (used upside down), Big Stopper

Curves This image was captured at Llandudno paddling pool, and on this day the conditions were perfect for what I had in mind. Using a Big Stopper, my exposure time was 45 seconds â&#x20AC;&#x201C; short enough to keep the drama in the sky, but long enough to flatten out the water in the paddling pool. The 0.6 soft grad helped to balance the exposure.

Nikon D7100 with 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 at 17mm, 45 seconds at f/13, ISO 100, 0.6 ND soft grad, Big Stopper

It was important to compose so that the curve of the pool started in the bottom right corner, as this helps to lead the eye through the image. I also kept the horizon in line with the top railing. This helped to keep the image clean, without too many distractions. The image is all about textures, tones and curves.

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Nikon D7100 with 17-50mm f/2.8 lens at 50mm, one minute at f/16, ISO 100, 0.6 ND medium grad, Big Stopper

The lookout This image was captured on one of those very rare occasions when the tide comes in at Southport beach, and it was a game of patience. Just as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d got the telescope nice and square, along came a couple of children who disturbed my composition, so I had to wait and bide my time. The Big Stopper gave me a 60-second exposure, which helped to smooth out the water. The background sky has been removed and a gradient in Photoshop imported to give the image a clean look. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very simple composition but an effective one, too. >> Visit neilhulme.smugmug.com

Jack Lodge Dorset

The Jurassic moon, Durdle Door, Dorset Every time I visit this location, something special always seems to happen. Last time it was the mysterious blue water when shooting the Milky Way, and this time, I was in the right place at the right time to capture the September full moon rising behind this iconic Dorset landmark. I arrived a good hour before sunset, and made the steep climb up to Swyre Head with the intention of capturing the last light of the day on the face of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;doorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This is where I got a bit lucky. Shortly after the sun had set, the sky filled with some lovely pink, pastel tones, and out of nowhere, I noticed the September full moon rising above the horizon. I was completely unready for it. I switched my wideangle lens for the 24-105mm, attached my Landscape Polariser and a 0.6 ND hard grad and compressed my composition to centre the moon rising above Durdle Door.

Sony A7 II with Sony 24-105mm f/4 at 70mm, 1/3sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.6 ND hard grad, Landscape Polariser

Sony A7 II with Zeiss Batis 18mm lens, 0.6sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.6 ND hard grad, Landscape Polariser

Frosty reflections on the river, Wimborne, Dorset

After capturing the intense pre-sunrise colours the morning before, I decided to take a wander along my local river, the Stour, stepping across the freshly frost-covered grass and taking in the wonderful views before work. What really caught my eye was the amazing reflections in the river. The complete lack of wind made for glasslike reflections as golden hour started to unveil the autumn colours in the trees. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help but use the frosty ground as a lead-in line, taking your eyes down the river and into the sky. >>

LEExposure 43 Bluebell woods, Wimborne, Dorset

This was an incredible experience that I was lucky enough to share with my girlfriend, Rianna, even if it did mean dragging her out of the house at 4am. As we arrived at this very popular part of the woods, we were all alone. The birds were singing, the mist was rolling in from the neighbouring field and after I set up this composition, we waited for over an hour for the sun to burst through the trees. It was totally worth every minute. >> Visit jacklodgephotography.co.uk

Sony A7 II with Sony 24-105mm f/4 at 82mm, 0.4sec at f/11, ISO 100, Landscape Polariser

Verity Milligan Birmingham

Aston Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m always trying to look for new perspectives on Birmingham, so when I was given the opportunity to shoot from the top of Aston University, I was excited to see how I could capture the city in a different light. It was cloudy and moody, but dusk was descending, which provided a really nice dramatic backdrop. The light trails

are caused by cars leaving the city, and I was drawn to the S-curve created by the flyover. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a much more glittery image of Birmingham than my usual fodder, but signalled a change in direction and is one of my favourite captures of the city.

Canon EOS 5D Mk IV with 24mm TS-E, 67 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, Little Stopper

Horgabost I was staying in Rodel on the Isle of Harris, and even though it was April, it was cold enough to snow overnight. As I drove towards Luskentyre, I could see a storm in the distance. On my way, I stopped off at Horgabost and watched the weather move over the Harris Hills. I wanted to capture the movement of

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 16-35mm lens at 27mm, 2.5 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 0.6 ND ProGlass, Landscape Polariser

the water, along with the drama of the sky, and bring out the deep blues and turquoise colours that are so distinctive in the Outer Hebrides. About five minutes later, I was caught in a tremendous hailstorm, but it was entirely worth it. >>

Sun Voyager Arriving in Iceland, we stayed for a night in Reykjavik before heading down to Vik. I was excited to be there and wanted to get shooting as soon as possible. On the first morning, there was an epic sunrise and it seemed rude not to pop down to the Sun Voyager sculpture, which stands on the seafront, and capture a long exposure of the dawn sky. It was the perfect start to the trip. >> Visit veritymilliganphotography.com

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 16-35mm lens at 16mm, 101 seconds at f/14, ISO 125, Landscape Polariser, Little Stopper

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Owen Clarke Suffolk

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Nikon D7200 with Sigma 17-55mm f/2.8 at 36mm, two minutes at f/8, ISO 100, 0.9 ND hard grad, Landscape Polariser, Little Stopper

Blue I love exploring the coast with my camera. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always changing to reveal new compositions. Timing the tide just right comes with experience, and from previous visits I knew exactly when this location would be at its best during the evening blue hour. Normally, I like to work with a receding tide, but in this case I was shooting against an incoming tide, and any compositions I spotted were swallowed as quickly as I could discover them. Just as it was getting too dark to focus, I happened across this lonely rock sitting proud among the rippling tide. I quickly set up my camera and achieved the perfect exposure before slotting in my Little Stopper. Conditions were windy and blowing across the frame. I anxiously waited as the tide slowly crept up my boots, hoping the two-minute exposure would complete before Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be going home with wet feet. Luckily for me it did, allowing me to capture one of my favourite images. >>

Amidst This was one of those mornings where the forecast looked perfect and you awake full of hope. Arriving at my location, I was greeted by a thick bank of cloud that lacked any texture stretching out over the horizon. My hopes of a dramatic sunrise quickly diminished. I decided to stick around â&#x20AC;&#x201C; after all, those early alarm clocks instil in me a determination not to head home empty handed. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also the perfect excuse to experiment with new ideas. Long after the golden

Nikon D7200 with Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8, 87 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND hard grad, Landscape Polariser, Little Stopper

hour, the clouds began to come to life and the tide had receded just enough to start revealing these finger-like clay structures, acting as perfect lead-in lines. I composed my image and attached my Landscape Polariser to cut the glare from the wet clay, along with my Little Stopper to get the perfect exposure time. With such a calm sea, the long exposure transformed the waves into mist, and I headed home having captured something special.

Nikon D850 with 16-35mm f/4 at 16mm, one second at f/16, ISO 3200, 0.9 reverse ND, Landscape Polariser

Light the way Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always a challenge when photographing such a wellknown location, so trying to be original is key to coming away with something special. I often find blue hour to be a much more compelling time to be out making photographs. The deep blues create a harmonious ambiance I find enchanting. I arrived on location with plenty of time to scout my composition. Immediately, the steps and how they snaked down towards the lighthouse caught my eye. It was then just a case of finding the right vantage point to balance the key elements.

My vision for this image was to blend a long exposure during the blue hour with the beam of light as it patrolled the coastline. I shot right the way through the blue hour, and once night had fallen I adapted my camera settings to capture multiple exposures of the light beam at various positions. Timing was key for this in order to capture the beam illuminating the foreground, and to achieve perfectly symmetrical angles. n

Visit owenclarkephotography.co.uk

Anatomy of a super-wideangle EVERY MANUFACTURER NOW PRODUCES SUPER-WIDEANGLE LENSES, BUT THEY CAN BE TRICKY TO USE EFFECTIVELY. HERE, THREE PHOTOGRAPHERS EXPLAIN HOW THEY USED SUCH LENSES TO THEIR BEST EFFECT, FOR DYNAMIC AND EYECATCHING COMPOSITIONS

Pier 7, San Francisco By Mark Bauer Dorset Mark Bauer took this shot while leading a winter workshop in Yosemite and San Francisco. He scouted a few locations beforehand, and this well-known location featured high on his list. “It’s mostly shot looking straight down the pier towards the Transamerica Pyramid,” he says, “but I felt that composing with the lamppost on the left of the frame could work well.” He knew immediately that the scene would require a super-wideangle, so fitted a 23mm (equivalent to 18mm on full frame) to his Fujifilm GFX 50S. “Using a prime lens such as this is a good discipline,” he explains, “because you

Fujifilm GFX 50S with GF23mm f/4 R LM WR, two minutes at f/16, ISO 100, ProGlass 1.2 IRND

LEExposure 53 can’t just zoom in and out to tweak the composition. It makes you think a bit more.” He set up within a couple of metres of the lamppost, to make it prominent in the frame. To avoid having to make too many corrections later, he raised the centre column of his tripod as high as it would go, so that the back of the camera was on the same plane as the lamppost, as far as was possible. “With a shot like this, all the architectural elements need to be straight,” he says,

“and if your camera is even slightly at an angle, any posts are going to lean one way or another, and you’ll get keystoning in the buildings. I’m not particularly tall, and the camera was above head height. That’s when live view with a read LCS comes into its own, because I was able to compose without looking through the viewfinder. If you can’t compose with the back of the camera as upright as possible, you’ll need to leave extra space around the edges of the frame to allow for cropping and tweaking in postproduction.”

By keeping the line of lampposts below the tops of the buildings, they don’t interfere with the flow of the composition.

It was crucial for the lamppost to be absolutely upright, so Mark composed with the camera as high as possible, and on the same plane as the lamppost.

The super-wideangle lens makes the skyscraper appear further away than it would to the naked eye, but it still remains a prominent part of the composition. The lights converging at its base help lead the eye towards it.

The water was rippling slightly when Mark took the shot, so he used a fourstop ProGlass IRND filter to lengthen the exposure and keep everything as smooth as possible.

The benches provide an important lead-in line, along with the railings. It’s important that everything in the scene has its own space, with no elements overlapping.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Bauer has been a professional landscape photographer for more than ten years. He is the author of four books and has won numerous awards. While he enjoys shooting in many different locations around the world, it is the landscape near his home in Dorset, with its rugged coastline and unique geology, which inspires him the most. Mark likes to shoot ‘classic’ landscapes and the aim of his work is straightforward: to convey the simple

beauty and drama of the landscape around us. As well as undertaking commissions for clients such as the AA and First Great Western Rail, Mark is a regular contributor the UK photographic press and runs a number of one-to-one and group workshops throughout the year. Visit markbauerphotography.com

Puffins, Skomer Island By Matthew Cattell Reading “I’ve been interested in photographing sea birds for several years, and this was my second trip to Skomer,” says Matthew. “I particularly wanted to come away with some wider-angle that told a bigger story about the colony and the environment in which the birds live.” Just before he captured this image, he was concentrating on a group of puffins that was backlit in the low sun, when he noticed an interesting cloud formation developing. Recognising that something special was forming, he put down the camera body with telephoto lens that he’d been shooting with, and picked up his Nikon D810, which was fitted with a 16-35mm f/4 lens. He found a spot where he could lie down among the chamomile, and waited to see what might happen. “The clouds formed this convergence, then, almost on cue, a puffin flew in, followed by another couple,” he recalls. “I managed to take four photographs and this was the best arrangement, where I managed to compose so that the main bird’s head was within the clearing in the cloud. Very rapidly, the moment was gone and the clouds had moved on.” For Matthew, one of the benefits of shooting with a super-wideangle lens is the ability to get extremely close to the main subject and make good use of the foreground, as well as dynamic compositions with strong lead-in lines. He describes it as “filled with energy”. However, it can have its down sides,

Nikon D810 with 16-35mm f/4 at 16mm, 1/100sec at f/8, ISO 800, 0.6 ND soft grad, Landscape Polariser

LEExposure 55 too. “The images can end up rather impersonal,” he explains, “and you can fall in the habit of including too much. Also, it can be tricky to get a strong relationship between the foreground and the background of a scene. However, if you persevere, you can get great results.”

A Landscape Polariser not only increases the definition of the clouds, making them pop out against the blue sky, but also introduces warmth to the scene

What’s particularly serendipitous about this image is that he originally planned to take his 24-70mm lens, but dropped it just before the trip. “If that hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have had my 16-35mm lens on the camera, and I would have missed the shot.”

It was about an hour before sunset, so the sun is low in the sky and almost at 90 degrees to the camera, so Matthew only needed to turn the polariser slightly in order to get a strong effect

The dynamic shape of the clouds leads the eye to the main puffin, and the superwideangle lens ensures plenty of sky is included in the frame Matthew used a 0.6 ND soft grad pulled down to just above the central bird’s head, to bring out more detail in the sky

As the chamomile is soft and out of focus, it helps to pull attention to the puffin and makes the birds stand out

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Matthew Cattell started photography in the same way as many others – by inheriting an old SLR (a Praktica, of course) from his grandfather. A college course introduced him to the pleasure of developing and printing, and this, combined with a love of the outdoors, was enough to kick off a long-term interest in photography. “It was all fairly casual until a few years ago,” he says. “Then, one day I decided I wanted to take it more seriously.” So he started to make sure he was out with his camera at the right time of day, as well as researching locations and making trips with the intention of capturing a particular image. This approach paid dividends in 2016, when he won the overall prize in the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, with his semi-abstract image of the starling murmuration around Brighton’s derelict West Pier. It’s a typical example of his style, which combines nature and landscape, often giving

equal weight to each. “I describe myself as an outdoor photographer,” he explains. “I like bringing landscape and wildlife together, and covering a broad spectrum.” Matthew’s background is in architecture, and his training plays a part in his approach to photography. Both disciplines require the ability to communicate ideas, as well as dedication and perseverance. Currently, he is three years into a long-term project to photograph the deer that inhabit the London parks, working year-round rather than only during the rut. In addition, he spends a great deal of time on the south coast, anywhere between Southampton and Eastbourne. “It doesn’t have the grandeur of other areas like Cornwall or Scotland,” he says, “but it’s very rewarding when it works.” Visit matthewcattellphotography.com

Godrevy Lighthouse, Cornwall By Ross Hoddinott Cornwall Godrevy Lighthouse, near Hale in West Cornwall, is a well-photographed location, but Ross always tries to find different approaches to shooting popular locations. On this occasion, he waited for the thrift to come out in spring, and shoot from the clifftops overlooking the sea and lighthouse. “With this shot, I had to select my angle very carefully,” he recalls. “When you go very wideangle, camera placement becomes even more important, because even the slightest adjustment can radically alter the foreground. You have to spend longer fine-tuning the composition in order to get the right balance. The other risk with shooting super-wide is that you end up including a lot of ‘clutter’, with all the elements competing.” In this shot, however, using a super-wide meant that the cliff on the right of the frame was less dominant than it would have been with a longer lens. As a result, it balances better with the main feature of the image – the foreground thrift – with the rocky ledges in the middle and the lighthouse in the distance providing the middle and distant interest. “The lighthouse anchors the horizon and gives you that important final element,” he says. “I needed to shoot at high tide,” Ross continues, “because at low tide the shore is quite rocky, so would have merged with the cliff edge. Although I planned this shot carefully, I couldn’t have predicted the beautiful sky. I rarely include the sun in my images, but the level of cloud made it less intense, and the pinkish hues complement the thrift nicely.” Nikon D810 with 17-35mm f/2.8 lens at 22mm, 30 seconds at f/13, ISO 64, 0.6 ND medium grad, 1.2 ND filter

LEExposure 57 Ross rarely includes the sun in his images, but on this occasion the clouds created enough haze that it didn’t become overpowering. A 0.6 ND medium grad ensures the exposure is balanced across the frame.

A 30-second exposure softens the water and creates some pleasing shapes.

Ross placed himself only a metre from the clumps of pink thrift, composing so that they create a strong triangle in the bottom left of the frame. Using the live depth-of-field function on his camera, he was able to review the image’s sharpness instantly.

With a 1.2 ND filter attached, the exposure was lengthened just enough to create movement in the sky, but not so much that all detail was lost.

Despite the lighthouse’s relatively small size in the frame, there’s no doubt that it is the main subject of the image.

Super-wideangle lenses have the effect of increasing the distance between objects. Because of this, the cliff appears less dominant in the frame than it would if shooting with a longer lens.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Ross Hoddinott has been passionate about wildlife photography since the age of 10, when his parents gave him his first camera. Only a year later, he won the junior flora and fauna category in BBC Country File’s annual photography competition. Nowadays, Ross is as much at home in the landscape as he is with a macro lens, stalking the tiniest of insect subjects. He is author of a number of books, including Digital Macro & Close-up Photography and The Landscape Photography

Workshop, and he has been on the judging panel of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. He is particularly inspired by the subjects around his home in Cornwall, in the southwest of England, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Visit rosshoddinott.co.uk

The knowledge GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR FILTERS WITH THESE TIPS FROM THE PROS

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Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM at 17mm, four seconds at f/22, ISO 100, Little Stopper

Out of sight Everyone’s been there. You’re trying to shoot a scene, but people keep wandering into your shot. There’s a simple solution, and it comes in the form of a long-exposure filter – a Little, Big or Super Stopper (or one of the new IRND ProGlass filters). By lengthening your shutter speed to several seconds, anyone moving around should be sufficiently blurred to not show up in the image, allowing you to get a shot that’s apparently free of people. The longer the shutter speed the better, as the more chance there is of everyone moving and blurring out. >> David Newton Visit photopositive.co.uk

“It’s virtually impossible to shoot the Great Wall of China without other people being there. However, a four-second exposure was long enough to render any moving people invisible”

Stack and stagger We often concentrate our creative efforts around the hours either side of dawn and dusk, when scenes are filled with crepuscular colours. However, it can be just as worthwhile seeking out compelling images during daylight hours, too. I made my image on a glorious bright November afternoon and, rather than use blended bracketed images or HDR, I decided to rise to the challenge of taming the massive dynamic range of this cerulean skyscape in-camera. Six stops of neutral-density graduated filtration was required to bring the dynamic range of the scene within the capabilities of the sensor. So I stacked three neutral-density graduated filters in front of my lens with the gradation lines staggered to avoid any obvious delineations in the final image. Because of the heavy filtration used to hold back the sun, the sky in the upper part of the image became unavoidably underexposed, creating this slightly unreal result. >> Pete Bridgwood Visit petebridgwood.com

â&#x20AC;&#x153;By deliberately over-gradding during the middle of the day, the sun and sky take on a strange and intriguing appearanceâ&#x20AC;?

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II with Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM at 43mm, 1/10sec at f/16, ISO 50, 1-stop, 2-stop and 3-stop ND grads, stacked and staggered

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LEExposure 63 Add punch with a polariser Changeable weather, passing showers and sunny spells often provide wonderful dramatic light and rainbows. This particular rainbow appeared over the Essex coast while I was on my way somewhere else, and it was something of a mad dash to get set up before it faded. Circular polarisers are most often associated with adding punch to skies or reducing glare from the surface of water, but they have uses beyond this, and I fitted one here with the aim of enhancing the colours of the rainbow. I also used a Big Stopper to slow down the shutter speed, adding motion to the clouds to emphasise the feeling of passing showers. >> Justin Minns Visit justinminns.co.uk

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Polarisers are useful and versatile, and can be used to enhance the colours of a rainbowâ&#x20AC;?

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 16-35mm lens at 32mm,65 seconds at f//16, ISO 100, Landscape Polariser, Big Stopper

Less is more The Big Stopper or 10-stop ProGlass IRND filters are great for capturing creative and evocative images, but don’t forget the less-dense neutral-density filters – they are particularly useful in the urban environment. You can use the Little Stopper or perhaps a three-stop ProGlass to slow down your shutter speeds just enough to add some creative blur to your image. n Craig Roberts Visit craigrobertsphotography.co.uk

“It’s easy to reach for the denser longexposure filters when you’re looking for creative effects, but the ‘shorter’ versions can be just as useful”

Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm lens at 17mm, 1/10sec at f/4, ISO 100, three-stop ProGlass IRND

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YourView EACH MONTH, ON OUR WEBSITE, A DIFFERENT PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER CRITIQUES A RANGE OF IMAGES SUBMITTED BY LEE FILTERS’ USERS. HERE, IT’S THE TURN OF WILCO DRAGT. TO SEE MORE IMAGES FROM YOURVIEW, VISIT LEEFILTERS.COM

Sunset on the Marmolada, Dolomites by Alberto Perer Visit albertoperer.com Wilco Dragt “A gorgeous mountain range with gorgeous light. The Dolomites are among the finest mountain ranges in Europe, and very photogenic. The sheer cliffs and reddish rock walls demand to be photographed. The challenge is to limit yourself, and the photographer succeeded in this very well here. The dramatic light accentuates the colour of the Dolomite rock.

Canon EOS 6D with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM, 30 seconds at f/7.1, ISO 100, 0.6 ND soft grad, Big Stopper

The 16:9 panorama aspect ratio helps to reduce the composition to the essentials: cliffs and light. I do like the cliff on the right, as it gives depth to the picture. Alas, the patch of snow on the right bottom side is distracting, but this can easily be fixed with a little burning in Lightroom or Photoshop.”

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Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM at 70mm, 179 seconds at f/11, ISO 50, Little Stopper

Tree and birds, Wanaka, New Zealand by Till Haarmann Visit www.till-haarmann.de Wilco Dragt â&#x20AC;&#x153;This image is all about colour. The opposing colours of yellow and blue immediately draw our attention. I like the placement of the tree on the left, where the ridge with pine trees on the right creates balance. The use of the Little Stopper resulted in an exposure time of three minutes, leaving some structure

in the water. A longer exposure would have flattened the water surface entirely, rendering it featureless. The image could have been further improved by using a soft or medium ND grad over the sky. The brightness of the sky pulls the eye away from the main focal point.â&#x20AC;? >>

Scarista curves

Nikon D800 with 16mm, 15 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 0.6 ND soft grad

by Xavier Beaudoux Visit www.xavierbeaudoux.com Wilco Dragt “What a shot! Simplicity is crucial, and this image definitely proves less is more. The composition is very elegant, with all the elements very well placed. The black line in the sand draws you into the scene, to the sea and the mountain in the distance. The small triangle of sand on the left-hand side adds a nice touch. I do like the dramatic sky, with lots of movement in it. With an exposure time of ‘only’ 15 seconds, the clouds

are still visible, and the ND and ND grad were both very well used. Processing is excellent, with a nice balance between soft, light and dark tones. The dark mountain in the background is crucial: without it, the tones would be rather flat. A processing suggestion: by subtly burning in the lower part of the frame, an entrance into the image is created, drawing the viewer in even more.”

LEExposure 69 San Francisco by Andrew Weiss Visit www.instagram.com/adwphillyphoto Wilco Dragt “A very minimalist image of San Francisco, where you can barely see the two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge above the sea of clouds. Black and white supports the graphic nature of the picture. A true fine-art image that would work beautifully as a large print. In a graphic image, the ‘styling’ and design is very important – that is, where to place the elements in the composition. There is a little room for improvement

Sony A7 III with Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM, 124 seconds at f/9, ISO 100, Big Stopper, Little Stopper

here, in my opinion. The right side is empty, while on the left the bridge is rather tightly cropped. With the composition as it is now, a 5:4 or 4:3 aspect ratio, with the right side cropped, would make it stronger. The clouds are blown out, especially around the bridge. It might be possible to fix this in postproduction, but it would have been preferable to use an extra-hard ND grad upside down.” >>

LEExposure 71 Encinitas, California by Andrew Morris Visit Instagram.com/andymorrisphoto Wilco Dragt “This is a rather daring composition, with lots of empty space, and it demonstrates that a beautiful photo does not have to be about something beautiful in itself. It is the skill of the photographer that can create beauty out of something quite ordinary. The blue of the tower and the yellow of the beach are pleasing contrasting colours. Including more of the beach in the composition would not have made the image any stronger. It is the expanse of sky that creates a specific mood and atmosphere, giving the viewer plenty of room for their own thoughts and feelings. An overcast sky is ideal for an image such as this – soft light and enough cloud to give a visible structure. Without the horizontal line halfway up, the composition would be less interesting. With long-exposure photography, it is important to pay close attention to the direction of the movement of the clouds.” n

Canon EOS-1D X Mark II with EF 16-35 F/4L IS USM at 18mm, three minutes at f/16, ISO 50, 0.9 ND hard grad, Big Stopper

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

LEExposure

When did you start taking pictures?

Ben Eaton-Williams

It was 2014, when I was in my last year at school. I’d always been more creative than academic, but at that point, taking photographs was just a hobby. I lived in Lewes, in East Sussex, and I’d go to the local nature reserve to take pictures of the birds and surroundings there, but I didn’t really have a clear focus about where

I was going with my photography. My interest was kickstarted properly when I did work experience at Park Cameras in Burgess Hill. Prior to that, I’d never been around people who were so involved in photography, and it gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to other photographers from varied backgrounds. It helped me discover what it was I wanted to do.

LEExposure

Did you have a lightbulb moment?

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AS SOON AS BEN EATON-WILLIAMS SET FOOT ON THE ISLE OF SKYE, AGED 16, HE FELL IN LOVE WITH ITS LANDSCAPE. WITHIN A COUPLE OF YEARS, HE’D MADE IT HIS PERMANENT HOME, AND HE’S NOW BUILDING UP A REPUTATION FOR HIS PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY. HERE, HE TELLS LEEXPOSURE MORE ABOUT WHAT DRIVES HIM

Ben Cleat “The weather on this evening was particularly still as the light slowly crept down the mountains”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70mm f/4 at 47mm, 1/8sec at f/11, ISO 100

BEW

Yes – the first time I came to Skye on a family holiday when I was 16. I was up at the Old Man of Storr, and my first attempt to photograph it didn’t pan out, so I went again the next day to try again. I was rewarded with such fantastic light, it made me realise that spending time in these great landscapes was what I wanted to do. Of course, I was still at school at this point. The south east is lovely, but every holiday – Easter, Christmas,

half-terms – I’d go to Skye to take photographs. The trouble was, though, I could come up during half-term, have a whole week of very poor weather, and leave disheartened. I became more and more passionate about visiting, and realised I’d need to move here if I was to jump into landscape photography fully. I was doing A-levels in media studies and woodwork, but was counting the days until I could move. We planned to head up there in the middle of July 2017, but a week before we were due to move, a car crashed into >>

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 24-70mm f/4 at 50mm, two seconds at f/13, ISO 100, 0.9 ND soft grad

mine and I fractured my spine in three places. Once I recovered, we eventually got to Skye permanently in October 2017.

LEExposure

What did your friends and family think?

BEW

My friends are still determined that I should move back down south any day! They think I’m not really enjoying myself. It’s so difficult for them to understand how I could live somewhere like this. My family was supportive, and my mum would come with me every school holiday – as a result, her love for the island grew to the point where she decided she would move with me, and she bought a holiday cottage there.

LEExposure

Did you have a plan about how you would approach the move, and how has your photography evolved since you arrived in Skye?

BEW

Although I was moving up here in order to focus fully on my photography, I knew I’d have to pick up part-time work to support myself at the same time, so I started doing house painting. Every house on the island is white, so they need painting every couple of years, and I can be flexible with it and work around my photography. It’s

hard work, but I have never painted a house with a bad view yet. Although I mainly concentrate on photography of Skye, I’m now beginning to go further afield, and am starting to transition into mountain photography, as I’m slowly building up my knowledge of the mountains in this region. Being here gives me the chance to immerse myself fully in my surroundings, as one photograph can take up to 10 hours. It might involve a three-hour walk, three or four hours on the mountain, then back down again. I’m not particularly dependent and have always been happy in my own company, so I don’t mind that it’s a solitary pursuit.

LEExposure

Are you starting to build a ‘mental’ portfolio of places you’d like to photograph?

BEW

A lot of my time is spent climbing hills I haven’t been to before, then making notes about where the light is likely be best at a particular time of year. If I have a certain image in mind, there’s usually only a narrow window during which I can get it. I have a big calendar in my room, and I use it to mark off where to go and when would be the best time to photograph. For instance, I was up at 2.30am >>

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The Fairy Loch “In summer, the sun drops enough to allow the Cuillin to burn red. With no wind comes beautiful reflections, but unfortunately also clouds of midges so thick I thought I had left the lens cap on”

Blaven Cracks “As the day closes, Blaven is thrown into darkness. I composed so that this rock was a very prominent element, as it is such an anomaly in the landscape”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70mm f/4 at 32mm, 1/4sec at f/16, ISO 100

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70mm f/4 at 24mm, 1/13sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad, landscape polariser

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70mm f/4 at 41mm, 1/13sec at f/16, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad

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Sligachan “A still and surprisingly midge-free summer’s evening drew to a close as the sun set behind some cloud on the horizon. With a paper thin sliver of sky opening up, the landscape was left in shadow apart from the loch in the foreground that was glowing gold”

yesterday to drive to Bla Bheinn and climb about three-quarters of the way up to photograph the ridge line of Clach Glas. I’d gone up the day before and found some interesting rocks for foreground interest, then realised I had to get back as soon as possible as the light would be tracking too far round later in the year. I’m quite focused and I go to one place with the idea of getting one photograph. Of course, the joy of being on a mountain is the different possibilities, and if the light isn’t working in one direction, there are other things to photograph, but I try not to get too distracted.

LEExposure

How are you working towards making a living solely from photography?

BEW

I’m part of 3 Legged Thing pro team, which is good for my profile. For the moment I’m concentrating on building my portfolio, and soon I’ll have a new website where I can sell prints. Mainly, at the moment, I’m concentrating on exploring Skye and making a name for myself here, with the intention of travelling more around Scotland and further afield to places like Greenland and Antarctica. Eventually, I’ll probably run workshops and see if there are opportunities to expand into galleries on Skye.

LEExposure

What equipment do you use?

BEW

Neist Point “With weather warnings plastering the forecasts, I headed to Neist Point, as I knew the towering sea cliffs would be taking the full force of the storm”

I use a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, and I have a few lenses, but mainly stick to the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM and EF 2470mm f/2.8L II USM. If I get to a location and realise a scene needs a lens with more reach, I come back another time – I try to carry as little kit as possible. As far as filters are concerned, I purely use grads. I always have two filter holders with me with different >>

set-ups. One has a polariser permanently attached, and one filter slot. The other has two slots, so I’m able to react fast if I need to change systems. I have all the soft grads, but they rarely come out of my case now that medium grads have been introduced – I use the 0.6 and 0.9 all the time. The mediums are ideal for mountains and you don’t see their line of gradation on your final image.

LEExposure

You currently have more than 26,000 followers on Instagram. How useful a tool is it to you?

BEW

I used to use Instagram as a behind-the-scenes tool, showing what I was doing and the camera – all that sort of stuff. I wouldn’t necessarily always have a lot of content to post, as landscape photography isn’t really like that. With the changing of the algorithms, Instagram isn’t as useful as it used to be, although it’s still a great platform and it helps direct people towards my website. As much as anything, it’s great to be able to connect with others, chat with them and hear what they think about your work.

LEExposure

Why do you choose to shoot panoramic?

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70mm f/4 at 41mm, 1/13sec at f/16, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad

BEW

The main reason is simply that I like the format, and when printed, panoramics look fantastic. I’ve never been a fan of small prints. Scotland suits the panoramic format because of its vastness. I always leave room at the top and bottom of the frame to allow for stitching and cropping, as a lot of the success of a panoramic image depends on fine-tuning at the postproduction stage. It takes me quite a while to get the crop perfect – although I generally have a clear idea in my head when I shoot the scene, some images take a while to get just right. One frustrating thing, however, is that not all my images are in the same format. Whereas someone like Colin Prior shot all his panoramics in the 6x17cm aspect ratio, shooting digitally means you can’t frame your images up in the same way. I’ve made myself a panoramic composer that I carry around with me – I got the idea from the viewfinder attachments you used to get on top of old 6x17cm cameras. It’s a piece of sheet metal, and I used an angle grinder to make a peephole in the 6x17cm aspect ratio. I move it towards or away from my eye to give me an idea of what the scene will look like at a particular focal length. This makes life so much easier, as it allows me to put >>

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Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70mm f/4 at 24mm, 1/13sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad, landscape polariser

Golden Glimpse “After a promising looking walk up Glamaig, I soon found myself shrouded in cloud on the summit with my tripod set up where I thought the view was. A gust of wind then blew then a hole in the clouds, which lasted only seconds, revealing the view”

Ridge Rays “While waiting for the light to illuminate the mountains I had intended to photograph that evening, I happened to look over my shoulder and was greeted with these passing rays shining between the ridges’ summits”

down my camera bag and walk around freely. It’s also much easier than looking through a tiny viewfinder. As for lenses, I use my 16-35mm quite frequently across the whole focal range. I’m not really a detail shot kind of photographer, and I try to shoot on the wider end, as I feel more drawn into the scene that way.

LEExposure

What’s the best bit about living on Skye?

BEW

Being able to experience it in all conditions. On my weather app, the icon for Skye is always rain/cloud/sun. The best light is usually after a storm, or when there’s

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Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 16-35mm f/4 at 16mm, 1/30sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad

rain and sun at the same time. Having the luxury of going out in all conditions is fantastic.

Moving here has without a doubt been the best decision I’ve made – I have no regrets at all and I plan to be here for the foreseeable future. I want to travel more in the future, but I’ll always come back to Skye. n

Blà Bheinn “I trudged through knee-deep snow to photograph the soft morning light being cast on the frozen slopes of Blaven”

Visit www.brew.photography

Your pictures, critiqued by the professionals Each month, LEE Filters invites a guest photographer to analyse five images of their choice – submitted by you Ever wanted feedback on your images from the top photographers in the business? Well, now’s your chance. YourView showcases the best of our users’ pictures, whether they’ve been shot using a polariser, an ND grad or a Stopper filter. Critiques so far have come from names that will be familiar to readers of Xposure, including Colin Prior, Jeremy Walker, Mark Bauer and Antony Spencer. To be in with a chance of having your image featured in YourView, simply visit the LEE Filters website and upload your chosen photograph.

Go to www.leefilters.com to submit your image

Look out for the next issue of LEExposure later in 2019 Editor: Ailsa McWhinnie LEE Filters: Graham Merritt and Peter Sturt To contact LEExposure, email feedback@leefilters.com, putting LEExposure in the subject line