Visions of Torridon Part 1

AliB said:
It certainly was!

The old schoolhouse right on the shore. I truly loved it there. I can honestly say that it was the first time in my life I had heard silence.

It does tend to have a lifelong effect on you too. I still love walking in the hills but I don't get to spend the time there. I did go back two years ago. I took my camper up there in January but it snowed so heavily I had to head right over to Inverness or I might not have got out of Wester Ross for weeks! lol.
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:LOL:

IIRC Stonelaw and Cathkin High owned the place between them back then. I'm sure I've got an album of pics from a trip up there back in about 1981 or thereabouts.

Stunning part of the world, as the op's pics confirm :)
 
Great set again Sie. The torridons are a fave of mine and only a one-hour drive from my house.
 
Thanks again everyone :D


HIMUPNORTH said:
Great set again Sie. The torridons are a fave of mine and only a one-hour drive from my house.
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Cheers mate :) Your a luck man sir!
 
Great stuff. Would £100 off an ex-demo Gitzo encourage more? They've got `em at Ffordes.
 
photon said:
Great stuff. Would £100 off an ex-demo Gitzo encourage more? They've got `em at Ffordes.
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Thanks :)

I just outlayed silly money for this one I have don't tempt me ;)
 
These are great. My favourite one is the first, just for the beautiful colours in(y)
 
Thanks to all those who have commented :)

discodavor said:
number one is a real cracker, the colour of the mountains with the sun on them looks fabulous. where was this one taken from?

cheers

dave
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Cheers :)

After a lot of mooching around 2 of the lochs in this area I finally settled at a point on to the west of Loch Clair looking toward Liathach
 
Once again thanks guys every comment is appreciated :D
 
Torridon- my favourite part of Scotland. What great a great set of photos #1 is a corker! I remember climbing up there in my younger (and fitter!!) days on Christmas Day in 1987. I didn't have such a good camera then but here's a picture I took on the top.

TORRIDON_006.jpg


Happy times.
 
laser_jock99 said:
Torridon- my favourite part of Scotland. What great a great set of photos #1 is a corker! I remember climbing up there in my younger (and fitter!!) days on Christmas Day in 1987. I didn't have such a good camera then but here's a picture I took on the top.

TORRIDON_006.jpg


Happy times.
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Thanks :)

I really like your picture it gives a great sence of being there and scale and the blue gives it a cold feel whcih suits the subject. I can't work out which one this is though. Is this on Liathach?
 
A superb set, I just wish I had the skill and the dedication to getting such great captures.

I read you use spot metering most of the time. Excuse my ignorance, but I have only ever used spot for portrait or moon shots. Can you enlighten me (as it obviously works a treat) to exactly where you are taking a spot reading from in your landscape shots??
Do you use foreground, a prominent feature, a distant hill or readings from all and decide. I'd love to get some good landscapes on my forthcoming USA trip.

MTIA
 
Matty777 said:
A superb set, I just wish I had the skill and the dedication to getting such great captures.

I read you use spot metering most of the time. Excuse my ignorance, but I have only ever used spot for portrait or moon shots. Can you enlighten me (as it obviously works a treat) to exactly where you are taking a spot reading from in your landscape shots??
Do you use foreground, a prominent feature, a distant hill or readings from all and decide. I'd love to get some good landscapes on my forthcoming USA trip.

MTIA
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Thanks very much :)

As much as I would love to give you a quick and easy technique how to spot meter scene unfortunatly there is no such thing and you need to understand exactly how your meter works before using it properly. Let me explain myself.

Most of us know after learning the basics of exposure that for the balanced exposure in matrix meter mode the needle should sit in the middle of the meter reading in your viewfinder. This is also true of the partial meter mode but it is not true in spot metering and this is where the most mistakes are made. Don't get me wrong sometimes you may meter off a subect that requires the needle to be in the centre but you have to know when. Most of the meter readings I take are not centred at all.

The spot meter it's self is the dumbest exposure reading your camera offers. The matrix meter is way more intellegent and makes an evaluation of the scene by breaking it down into segments. It gathers a meter reading from all these segments then finds the average based on the brightest and darkest readings. Modern digital camera are even more intellegent as the not only do this but they use the information taken from the readings and put it through a mini database of similar matrix readings and tries it's best to guess what you are trying to do based on a database of photograph exposures that work well creatively with these readings. Hope that makes sence ;)
The partial meter does the same but this time the evaluation is taken from a smaller number of segments towards the center and ignoring the edges of the scene. Both these settings most of the time make a good balanced exposures but sometimes in certain lighting conditions or strong predominant colours it might not produce what you expected. You can of coarse learn to try and predict how the matrix meter will calculate the scene and use your exposure compensation but there is still no guarantee that you will get it right and newer cameras may fool you again by using a different database and not producing the same exposure you old camera did. The spot meter does no evaluation at all. It just gives a single reading based on the spot at the center of your viewfinder. Auto mode is off now and you need to understand how the meter works with an idea of your cameras dynamic range to give you full control over the exposure you want.

When you have full control of the camera (instead of vice versa) you can not only nail a balanced exposure first time but YOU get to choose the exposure creatively. Once you understand it a whole new world of possibilities opens up to you as you start to see the world through limited range of light that your camera can see. It is at this point you being to realise that a restrictive dynamic range is not a disadvantage but a way of playing with the light in a scene to your creative advantage. Most of the world's best photography was taken by photographers that not only knew this but learnt to predict it so well that they saw the world as the way a camera would and then used that to their advantage.

There is no such thing as "the correct exposure". There may be a best balanced exposure for any one scene but that doesn't mean it will produce effect you want or indeed be the most attractive exposure of the available light.

You need to learn how to read a scene and decide how you want to expose it then using the spot meter understand how each element will be reproduced given the reading you see. Unfortunatly the scope of this is to big for me to cover here and there are better sources of information already available on the net. Here's one from a quick and dirty search I did:

http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/af9/index.shtml#54488 Although having a quick peep through this I see it's not the best way to explain it sorry :( There are probably better explanations out there.

It finally clicked for me when I read "the zone system" from Ansel Adam's book "the negative". You can make a good argument why the zone system is not really useful these days as parts of it do not fit in to modern digital colour photography but it does make you understand exposure and how your camera's meter works. Not only does the brightness of your subject have an effect on your meter reading but so does colour. You need to be able to recognise this and cater for it.

Right I am going to stop there or I will babble of forever ;)
 
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siejones said:
Thanks :)

I really like your picture it gives a great sence of being there and scale and the blue gives it a cold feel whcih suits the subject. I can't work out which one this is though. Is this on Liathach?
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Yes - Northern end Liathach- famous for the steep drops on either side of the 'path'! The blue cast is from the old Kodachrome slide film stock.
 
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laser_jock99 said:
Yes - Northern end Liathach- famous for the steep drops on either side of the 'path'!
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Thought so...I have planned to do it but not in snow and ice ;) Well cetainly not alone anyway :)
 
Not quite a simple as I hoped then :p
Crikey! :eek: ... a most informative and time spent thought out answer, thank you! (So much better than just a one liner!!)

However, lol, I think for my upcoming USA trip, which will include the Sierra Nevada and Death Valley, I'll be best to stick to Evaluative/Pattern metering and do some bracketing on some too. I don't think a trip costing many 000's of £'s will be the best time to start experimenting in what looks like something that has taken you some time to master. I'd hate to muck up beyond all rescue a gem (if I can capture one) just becuase I thought I'd "have a go" :bonk:

I'll read up and have a play around either side of my trip, and once again I'd like to say thanks for the time and effort of your reply!
 
Matty777 said:
Not quite a simple as I hoped then :p
Crikey! :eek: ... a most informative and time spent thought out answer, thank you! (So much better than just a one liner!!)

However, lol, I think for my upcoming USA trip, which will include the Sierra Nevada and Death Valley, I'll be best to stick to Evaluative/Pattern metering and do some bracketing on some too. I don't think a trip costing many 000's of £'s will be the best time to start experimenting in what looks like something that has taken you some time to master. I'd hate to muck up beyond all rescue a gem (if I can capture one) just becuase I thought I'd "have a go" :bonk:

I'll read up and have a play around either side of my trip, and once again I'd like to say thanks for the time and effort of your reply!
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Yeah if you use your evauative modes and keep your eye on the histogram you will be fine for balanced exposures. Hope you have a great time in USA :) Have to say a little jealous here :razz:

Just remember that learning how to expose properly is not just about taking a balanced exposure it's about being able to recognise the lighting conditions and chosing a creative exposure.

A set of grads would help in USA as well if you don't have some now. All though not necessary if you are aware of digital blending there are still excuses to use them as a preferance.

Also something we togs get thumped into us is to only shoot morning and evening light but at this time of year the sun is relatively low most of the day. So get out there and shoot that glourious landscape as much as possible and after you have taken the "safe" shots don't be afraid to do a little metering experiments ;)
 
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