Snows and nos

These are from last year I think... or the year before. Whichever it was, it was the first snow for the year that really covered the ground significantly. Shooting in heavy snow can be somewhat different during the day as a lot of depth is lost through the lack of shadows which means that images can tend to be flat unless the scene provides some strong contrasting lines to pull focus. It isn't hard to find the contrast but it generally isn't the way we see the scene as most tend to focus on the highlights, not the low.

I was talking with a friend the other night who was asking some questions about shooting in low-light conditions and my recommendation is, practice a lot when your picture doesn't depend on it. The beauty of digital photography is there is no cost to wasting images. Low light is challenging and requires a lot of tinkering to get right. I cheat a bit because I use long exposure, which means I can get enough light in over time without having to compromise on the clarity. This is impossible with moving subjects though, that is a whole new ball game and requires much faster glass than I have or, much higher ISO than I like to use.

With motion in the scene, it is always a trade off between quality of image and capturing the image itself. In general, it is better to capture a grainy picture than a nice smooth blur but it always feels somewhat disappointing these days considering the quality of images we consume. In many ways, we are very spoiled for imagery as the technology and lowering cost has increased the possibilities immensely, not to mention the ubiquitous use of photo editing tools to clean images up. It is very hard to tell the difference between what was captured and, what gets presented.

It is kind of the internet problem of never really knowing who one is talking to, who we might be taking advice from. People seem happy these days to take advice from strangers on all manner of things, health, exercise and investment without really considering who is providing it. It is easy to impress over the internet, easy to look professional and, there is very little chance of bad advice given ever coming with negatives consequences from those who took it. No cost to lie.

I still think that it is better to try something and fail than not try at all and if it comes with learning involved, all the better. I wouldn't stake my life on internet advice though and I would continually limit my exposure to risk by using multiple sources and finding through track history those who are able to be trusted. Everyone makes mistakes though, the trick is not to make fatal errors.

There is very little risk in taking a bad photo though and, the recovery is just a refocus and shutter button away. The initial shot might get missed but the followup might be even better.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]