A closer view of the Corus limestone works in Cumbria.
Like what you see here and are interested in photographic composition?.....the blog section of my website now has a complete set of 5 articles covering my personal approach to the subject: Ian Bramham Photography - Blog
For purchasing high quality archival prints of any of these photos you can send me an email by clicking here or by going to my website Ian Bramham - Fine Art Photography where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.
@Alun: Thanks Alun!
@tim: Thanks Tim!
I occasionally get asked about it but I never remember which particular photo it was where I posted replies so inevitably I end up rewriting it:
I photograph using the ETTR (expose to the right) exposure method using RAW format rather than Jpeg which gives better sharpness and the extra bit depth (12 bit in the case of my Nikon D40) of the RAW files can help in avoiding issues such as tonal banding in later post processing.
You'll also see from the data at the side of each photo here that lots of my photos are taken at around f8 or F11 which is the sweet spot for most lenses and iso 200 (the lowest native iso for my D40). At these settings the difference between an extremely expensive lens and camera body and the cheapo ones I use is quite minimal which makes me feel warm all over! :-)
ETTR gives a better signal to noise ratio than relying on the camera's automatic systems but it's only really suitable for static subjects or for where the light is unchanging. Also it means more work in post processing as often images can initially look overexposed until they are adjusted (read darkened)
For those who do little or no post processing of their photos the advantage of using ETTR and RAW is much reduced and Jpeg may be a better solution for ease and speed.
As I use a Nikon I open my RAW files in Nikon's 'Capture NX2' software rather than Adobe's ACR as I've found the Nikon proprietary software gives much better dynamic range and colour and the results are faithful to the image as it appeared on the camera's lcd screen.
After making basic exposure adjustments in NX2 I save the image as a 16 bit Tif file (again for the greater bit depth over Jpeg) and convert the image to B&W using Photoshop CS3 which has an excellent dedicated B&W converter. I then add contrast and adjust the light and dark parts of the photo selectively....so for example that dry stone wall that runs through the image has had a lot more contrast applied to it than the factory and I darkened the sky a little but left the white smoke unchanged to seperate the two tonally.
I only save a Jpeg copy for posting here when all the post processing is complete. (I'm sure you must know this but a tip specific to here at Aminus3 is to resize your images to a maximum width of 800 pixels otherwise the Aminus3 computer will do it for you which can make the photo look mushy)
I hope that gives you an idea of the basic post processing involved but feel free to ask any further questions you may have and I'll try to help. It may all sound complicated but I promise you it's all very basic stuff.
@Babzy: Thanks Babzy!
@OpenSpace Images: Thanks very much!
@Brian: Thanks for the link which I've read before but i'm afraid it didn't make much sense to me then and it wasn't much better this time around. I've been using the ETTR method for most of my time with a DSLR (about 2 years now) and it has other obvious major benefits beyond the optimisation of signal to noise ratio which I guess is the part you dispute. As far as I'm concerned the histogram is an extremely useful tool for judging exposure and I'd be lost without it.
I'm sure you will have seen this link in favour of ETTR exposure but it's a well respected website specialising in landscape photography so here it is for the benefit of those who may want to read links both for and against: Luminous Landscape
Edit - and here's a whitepaper from the experts at Adobe that supports the ETTR method of exposure that I use:
Adobe ETTR Recommendations
@Alexey: Thanks Alexey,
maybe things have changed with regard to the 800 pixel max horizontal size here here on AM3 but I doubt it very much. Here's the official guidance note from the forum: http://forum.aminus3.com/discussion/273/image-upload-guide/#Item_0
It's not really a question of maximum or minimum - AM3 photos are 800 pixels wide so I've found it's best to resize my photos myself to this size in Photoshop rather than letting AM3's computer do it for me otherwise it results in a mushy image.
NIKON D40
1/250 second
F/8.0
ISO 200
30 mm (35mm equiv.)