LEExposure 07 by LEE Filters

LEExposure/ E IN

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

TH E

ON L

ISSUE

Fuji GFX 50s with Fuji 23mm f/4 lens, 40 seconds at f/16, ISO 100, 0.9 ND Reverse Grad and 1.8 (six stop) ProGlass IRND Photograph by Mark Bauer

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Welcome When faced with a blank slate – be that a piece of paper or a studio space – it’s the natural reponse of many of us to panic. How do we go about creating something to fill that space in a way that’s engaging and will hold the attention of the person looking at it? UK-based photographer Jake Hicks has no such concerns. In fact, nothing makes him happier than walking into a pure white studio, knowing he can inject his individual, slick and vibrant style into it. How does he do this? Simply, by the use of coloured gels in front of his studio flash units. A plain white backdrop is anathema to him, but give him a pack of orange, teal or pink gels, and he’s a happy man. Given the extent to which he has made the technique his own, coupled with his understanding of the psychology of colour, it’s not surprising to learn that people now flock from all over the world to take part in his workshops. Find out more about his approach on page 6. Talking of global audiences, YouTuber Tom Heaton has found exactly that – so much so, that he now makes his living from the videos and tutorials he uploads weekly to his channel. The pressure to ‘feed’ the channel is immense, but it’s something he clearly thrives on. And it would appear that plenty of others enjoy it, too, because he now has well over 180,000 subscribers, and he even gets recognised in the pub on occasion. Discover how it all developed on page 62. Elsewhere in this issue, we bring you the lowdown on the ProGlass IRND range – LEE Filters’ newest additions to the neutral-density family. Originally developed for the television and film industries, the filters are now making waves in the photography world, too. Composition Masterclass is brought to you by self-confessed ‘Marmite’ photographer Doug Chinnery (page 22), while three other image-makers reveal how they went about capturing the raw essence of a storm (page 44). On page 56, landscape photographer Colin Prior critiques five images by LEE Filters users, while your best photographs are showcased in The Gallery (page 27). As always, we hope you enjoy the issue.

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

Sarah Alsayegh Mark Bauer Pete Bridgwood Alessandro Carpentiero Doug Chinnery Tom Heaton Chris Herring Jake Hicks Norman McCloskey Justin Minns Nicholas Parker

> > > > > > > > > > >

Colin Prior Carla Regler Leo Santana Mike Sheil Lizzie Shepherd Vadim Sherbakov Stephen Taylor Mauro Tronto Robert Warren Suranga Weeratunga Dirk Wiemer

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TRUE COLOURS

ON NEUTRAL TERRITORY

When faced with a blank white space, nothing makes photographer Jake Hicks happier than being able to imbue it with his slick, stylised and – above all – highly colourful approach. We find out what it is about colour that makes him tick

It’s the ambition of most photographers to nail the image in-camera and avoid spending hours on postproduction. The new proglass IRND range is designed to help achieve exactly that. We explain how they made the jump from the film and tv industry to stills photography

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

50-55 THE KNOWLEDGE There are numerous ways in which using filters can enhance your photography. Here, five professionals reveal their secrets to photographic success

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22-26 COMPOSITION MASTERCLASS When Doug Chinnery started out taking landscape photographs, his work followed all the standard conventions. Then, he stumbled across someone’s Flickr stream and his style changed forever…

44-49 ANATOMY OF A STORM Whether they take the form of waves crashing on to a beach or a lightning strike hitting the ground, storms can provide the kind of drama that few landscape photographers are strong enough to resist. Here, we show how to go about capturing their dramatic qualities

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YOURVIEW

AS SEEN ON SCREEN

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 landscape photographer Colin Prior to take a look at what you’ve been up to. To see more images from Your View, and to submit your own picture, visit leefilters.com

His channel has more than 180,000 subscribers, his most popular video has been viewed 483,000 times (and counting), and he now gets recognised when he’s out for a pint with his dad. We find out how Tom Heaton is riding the wave of the YouTube revolution

Spectrum of Desire â&#x20AC;&#x153;This editorial image was taken in a penthouse in London at about 2pm on a bright, sunny day. It looks as if it was taken at dusk, but with some careful underexposing of the daylight outside and some Kelvin adjustments, I was able to give the image a more interesting and engaging lookâ&#x20AC;? Nikon D600 with 28-105mm lens at 85mm, 1/160sec at f/5.6, ISO 80. Mint Green, Rose Pink and Peach filters from the Jake Hicks Pastels Colour Pack

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True colours WHEN FACED WITH A BLANK WHITE SPACE, NOTHING MAKES PHOTOGRAPHER JAKE HICKS HAPPIER THAN BEING ABLE TO IMBUE IT WITH HIS SLICK, STYLISED AND – ABOVE ALL – HIGHLY COLOURFUL APPROACH. WE FIND OUT WHAT IT IS ABOUT COLOUR THAT MAKES HIM TICK

Photographers, generally speaking, fall into one of two camps. There are those who are happy to work solely with natural light, waiting until it ‘paints’ their subject in exactly the right way, then releasing the shutter at the split second when everything comes together. Then there are – for want of a better term – the control freaks. These are the photographers whose aim is to take charge of every element in the frame, almost in the same way a film director would. For them, the subject, the props, the background and – most crucially – the lighting are all elements that can be controlled, manipulated and tweaked until everything is exactly as

it should be. Self-confessed studio-flash junkie Jake Hicks falls firmly into the latter category. Almost from the moment he first picked up a camera, the portrait and fashion photographer was obsessed with light and its capabilities within the studio. “I was fortunate with my tutors,” he recalls, speaking of the art foundation course he did in his hometown of Reading, where he is still based now. “They were incredibly creative and always trying to do things a bit differently. I was very lucky that that was the education and training I had.” After this, he went on to study >>

Nikon D600 with 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/125sec at f/2.2, ISO 50. Teal, Orange and Purple filters from the Jake Hicks Definitive Colour Pack

Lost Light “This was an editorial shoot, and took place in a 1970s mansion that was once owned by Led Zeppelin. The shoot’s ethos was to introduce the vivid colours of our modern neon world and overlay that on to the backdrop of a weathered and worn interior of times past”

Hair campaign “This was one of my early opportunities to use my colourful style in a commercial setting. The shoot was for the British Hairdressing Awards, and it was fantastic to finally see my coloured lighting being used in an industry that is notoriously reserved and passionate about black and white hair shots”

LEExposure xposure 9 Nikon D600 with 28-105mm lens at 62mm, 1/160sec at f/11, ISO 100. Teal and Orange filters from the Jake Hicks Definitive Colour Pack

Nikon D600 with Lensbaby Velvet 56mm lens, 1/60sec at f/4, ISO 50. Colour Temperature Orange filter from Jake Hicks Utility Gel Pack

Spectrum of Desire “This was a tricky shot to achieve, but the effort was worth it for the result. This image was taken at about 3pm on top of a high-rise building in London. The resulting image looks as if it was taken at a very different time, though. I heavily underexposed the daylight behind the model, then shone a Colour Temperature Orange (CTO) gel on to her, shifting the white balance in camera to compensate for the colour”

photography at university, where his main passion was for using flash in a controlled environment. Following graduation, he found himself a job in the industry, and everything went swimmingly – at first. “It was around 2003 and, at the time, it was great and the money was coming in,” Jake says. “But then digital came along, and we found we simply couldn’t continue charging what we were. We’d go to a client meeting, and they’d love our portfolio. Then, we’d get onto the subject of budget… One time, someone laughed in our face, saying, ‘We don’t pay.’” Disheartened by the drop in the perceived value of photography, and the difficulty in making a living from it, Jake left the industry. For two or three years, he worked in an outdoor store, went climbing and mountaineering, and used a camera only as a means to take snapshots of his experiences. But the call of photography was too strong for him to stay away permanently. “Plus,” he says, laughing, “I knew deep down it was the only thing I was good at. I had nothing else to fall back on!” His next step was to join a studio where he found himself doing around 300 shoots a year – and sometimes 16 at a weekend. While it was something

LEExposure xposure 11 of a photographic conveyor belt, and could involve anything from headshots to images for a book about yoga, it was, Jake says, “phenomenal learning. I’m not going to lie, it was soul destroying at times, but there’s no substitute for standing behind the lens for hundreds of hours and learning exactly what’s going on. It was a major contributor in terms of where I am now.” As a result, he started on the road towards developing what has become his signature style. “I worked for hours in that studio, and the shoots were sometimes monotonous, so I started trying to find ways of making my days more interesting. Once I’d done what the client had asked for, I’d get out the coloured gels. Often, the client would be more interested in these images than the ones they’d commissioned me to do.” And if there’s one thing that characterises Jake’s work, it’s the use of coloured gels in front of his studio lights. It’s a technique he’s been championing for many years, despite, for a time, it having a distinctly uncool image. “The 1980s killed it,” he laughs. But this didn’t put him off perfecting the use of gels, and around five or six years ago, he found the technique gaining traction >>

Nikon D600 with Lensbaby Composer Pro II and Sweet 50 Optic, 1/125sec at f/5.6, ISO 50. Teal, Orange and Pink filters from the Jakes Hicks Definitive Colour Pack

Emily Anderson model shoot “It’s always tricky to shine vibrant colours on to skin, but with a little balancing and practice you can make it work”

Dark Desire “This shot was used in an advertisement for Bowens flash. Again, it was a fantastic opportunity to use my style for a brand that would normally choose more conservative imagery”

Nikon D600 with 28-105mm lens at 52mm, 1/125sec at f/5, ISO 50. Teal and Orange filters from the Jakes Hicks Definitive Colour Pack

again. “I was able to use them in different ways, so it was less cheesy,” he says. Nowadays, Jake and his pack of gels can be found photographing anything from beauty work and images for make-up artists’ portfolios to hairstyling campaigns and magazine editorials. A large proportion of his working life is also spent training other photographers – something he does worldwide, as well as in the UK. But what is it about the effect of colour that he is so obsessed with? “White lighting holds no interest for me at all,” he states, emphatically. “My core objective as a photographer is to create an image that is engaging. We see thousands of images every day, and we can become a bit blind to them. Using coloured gels, for me, was a way of trying to hold the viewer’s attention for more than a split second. As a result, when I’m setting up a shot, I always ask myself how I can photograph it in a way that’s not only visually pleasing, but also so that the viewer will stop and ask what’s going on.” There are several strands to Jake’s approach to a successfully gel-lit image, the most fundamental being an understanding of colour and its connotations to the human brain. For instance, he has become particularly well known for using orange and blue, which are complementary on the colour wheel and therefore aesthetically pleasing, in a single image. He also has to remain aware of the colours that do – and, more importantly, don’t – look good when projected on to human skin. Hence, green, with its suggestion of sickliness, is a strict no-no. Then there’s red and green, which is only really acceptable if you’re shooting a picture that’s going to be used on a Christmas card. Within each gel, there is a great deal of flexibility in terms of hue. Place an orange gel in front of a flash set to full output, and the result will be a very bright, yellowy-orange. Dial the flash power down, however, and you’ll get something closer to ochre. “There’s no correct exposure for a gel,” Jake >>

Nikon D600 with 24-70mm lens at 52mm, 1/125sec at f/3.2, ISO 50. Powder Blue, Peach and Dusty Pink filters from the Jake Hicks Pastels Colour Pack

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RGG EDU video tutorial “This image was taken as a part of a tutorial video I shot on using coloured gels in photography. This room was almost entirely white: white floor, white walls, white ceiling

– everything. It’s a great example of how coloured gels can literally transform a plain room into a completely different environment through coloured lighting alone”

Bitter Sweet “I’m always looking for an excuse to add an extra coloured light. What can I bounce colour off, through or on to? In this shot, I placed a massive fan behind the model. I added a little atmosphere via a haze machine, then placed an orange gel on the floor behind it. It doesn’t technically make sense that a fan is emitting light, but visually it doesn’t look out of place, and it adds drama and interest to the shot”

Fujifilm GFX 50S with 63mm f/2.8 lens, 1/125sec at f/2.8 ,ISO 100. Teal and Orange filters from the Jake Hicks Definitive Colour Pack

explains. “I can get pretty much any colour I want, simply by adjusting the power of the flash.” Also crucial to an image’s success is the ability to separate each coloured element within the set-up. “You have to break it down into sections,” Jake explains, “and you can’t have different-coloured gels overlapping, otherwise they start bleeding together and you lose all the saturation. So you might have one colour on the back wall of a room, another on the side, and another on the model.” In his mind’s eye, he breaks down the scene into planes of light, and, he says, these planes aren’t only formed by the inanimate objects in the frame, such as walls and tables, but they are also created by the models themselves. Hence, the left side of a model’s body might count as one plane of light, and the right side as another. And, if there’s a fill light, that counts as a third. “This is how you can get away with using multiple colours, as long as you keep them all separate,” he reveals. “But the more you do it, the more intuitive it becomes.”

The only time it becomes tricky is if Jake finds himself working in a confined space. “You have to use your model’s body and pose to separate the lights,” he explains, “which can be difficult if they don’t have much room. You have to work very closely with the pose to make sure the lighting remains separate, but at the same time you’re looking for a synergy between the pose and the lighting. There’s a lot to think about.” As mentioned earlier, aside from commissioned work, Jake increasingly finds himself running training workshops on lighting techniques. So, what can people expect from one of his sessions? “People should come with a fairly good understanding of off-camera flash,” he says. “We’ll spend an hour or so on colour theory, then we’ll go over some of the ideas we’ll be working with throughout the day, with me explaining how they take shape and why I do them.” What Jake remains acutely aware of during his workshops, however, is not just the ‘how’ but the ‘why’. “It’s very easy to show someone how to do

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It all feels a very long way from the days when using coloured gel was sneered at for being naff, and Jake is a fine example of why it pays to follow your own path and passion, as the result will nearly always be a style that’s recognisably yours. “I get asked all the time how to go about developing a style, and it’s a sensible question,” he concludes. “But there’s only one answer – and that’s time. There’s no shortcut, because it takes time for your voice to come through, whatever area of art you’re working in.” n

To see more of Jake’s work and find out about his LEE Filters gel packs, visit jakehicksphotography.com

something simply because that’s the way you do it, but I like to explain why I do it. I give reasons for absolutely everything I do, and that’s what people seem to find particularly useful, because it means they can then apply this knowledge to their own situation.”

Nikon D600 with 28-105mm lens at 28mm, 1/160sec at f/10, ISO 100. Teal and Orange filters from the Jake Hicks Definitive Colour Pack

Old English Neon “Once again, I am playing with the juxtaposition of colour and adding neon colours to a very traditional-looking setting. There is certainly no way this room would be lit like this normally, but it’s about creating engaging visuals rather than simply lighting a scene”

On neutral territory IT’S THE AMBITION OF MOST PHOTOGRAPHERS TO NAIL THE IMAGE IN-CAMERA AND AVOID SPENDING HOURS ON POSTPRODUCTION. THE NEW PROGLASS IRND RANGE IS DESIGNED TO HELP ACHIEVE EXACTLY THAT. WE EXPLAIN HOW THEY MADE THE JUMP FROM THE FILM AND TV INDUSTRY TO STILLS PHOTOGRAPHY

Putting the ‘neutral’ into a neutral-density filter is notoriously tricky. The stronger the light-blocking effect, the more dye is required, and therefore the greater the chances are of colour casts being introduced. It was with this in mind that the technicians at LEE Filters began work on a new range of neutral-density filters. More than two years of research and development later, the ProGlass IRND family of filters was introduced. Initially, the range was developed for the TV and movie industries. Neutral-density filters are a crucial part of the production process, but the shift in casts between strengths of filter can be a real headache for directors

of photography (DOP), whose job it is to ensure everything is consistent in terms of lighting style. Andy McDonnell, who has worked on such high-profile TV dramas as Humans, Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, describes his role as director of photography as, “Anything to do with visuals, apart from design. My responsibilities are to organise the camera department and the lighting department, and to make sure we have the right equipment to produce what the director and producer would like.” He continues, “Neutral-density filters are important to what we we do, because everything to do with colour

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ProGlass IRND

0.6 ND – 2 stop

0.9 ND – 3 stop

ProGlass IRND

1.8 ND – 6 stop

3.0 ND – 10 stop

representation and light control is all down to the DOP, and ND filters allow us to work with the lens stop we need for a particular scene.” Where the problems can arise is when the DOP has to switch from, say, a 0.6 ND filter to a 1.2, because the potential for a shift in colour can mean additional fiddly, time-consuming and expensive work in the ‘grade’ (this is the film and TV industry equivalent of Photoshop, in which colours are tweaked and re-set to make them appear the desired way). Fellow DOP John Lee, who has been responsible for the

ProGlass IRND 1.2 ND – 4 stop

ProGlass IRND 4.5 ND – 15 stop

appearance of the likes of Victoria, Snatch and new Jed Mercurio project The Bodyguard, explains further. “You might be shooting a wide shot and want a large depth of field. A close-up from the same scene would require a shallower depth of field, so you need a stronger ND filter in order to achieve it – but what you don’t want is a huge colour shift between the two shots. And grading is always a compromise, because you have to take the worst colour shift and make everything match that – it’s like working backwards.” However, the introduction of the ProGlass IRND range of filters has dramatically reduced the need for >>

such compromises. “There’s no colour shift at all,” says Lee. “You can go as far as using a 2.1 ND outside in sunny conditions and there’s no degradation of the image. Other filters can make greenery outdoors almost appear ‘electric’, and you simply couldn’t get natural-looking colours, but with ProGlass filters the effect is invisible.” McDonnell agrees. “Every DOP will tell you that the stronger the ND filter, the more its colour changes, but with the ProGlass filters I couldn’t see a change. With other manufacturers, you can even see a difference in colour between one 1.2 and another 1.2 by the same manufacturer. This doesn’t happen with ProGlass – they’re all the same.” The other crucial aspect of the ProGlass filters is their consistent stop values. If it says it’s a 0.9 ND, it is a 0.9 ND – not a fraction weaker or stronger. This means all the cameras on a movie set will match and be reading the same levels of light, without the need to tweak them to ensure consistency. But what does this all mean for the stills photographer? Landscape photographer Mark Bauer has been putting the ProGlass range through its paces since it was first launched, and his findings tally with those of the DOPs who use them for controlling the light and appearance of moving images. “I’ve been working with the Pro Glass IRND filters since they were first released, and it didn’t take very long for them to find a permanent place in my filter bag,” he says. “It’s no exaggeration to say they are by far the best ND filters I’ve worked with. The stop values are completely accurate, which makes calculating exposures a simple matter, and in terms of colour, they are absolutely neutral. I’ve done with and without comparisons, using the same white balance and the colours match perfectly. And it’s not just that there’s no colour cast – they also seem to >>

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0.6 ND medium grad and 4.5 (15 stop) ND ProGlass IRND, with no postproduction work carried out. Photograph by Mark Bauer

deliver really punchy colour – something which is very important to me.” He continues, “This might all sound a bit ‘salesy’ – but it’s my honest opinion!” Not surprisingly, LEE Filters is loath to reveal too many manufacturing secrets, but the reason for such precision is not only down to the optically flat glass that’s used to create each ProGlass filter, but also the

way in which they are coated. And their neutrality is complemented by the ability to block both ultraviolet and infrared pollution, which is what keeps the colours so clean and punchy. Some of you are probably wondering where all this leaves the hugely popular Big, Little and Super Stopper filters. These will continue to be manufactured and made

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0.6 ND hard grad and 3.0 (10 stop) ND ProGlass IRND, with no postproduction work carried out. Photograph by Mark Bauer

available alongside the ProGlass IRND range, because their qualities are quite different. For a start, Stoppers have always been known as long-exposure filters, because they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t neutral. Where ProGlass IRND filters are coated, with Stoppers, the dye is added when the glass is still molten. Their blue tone and natural vignette give a classic Stopper look that many photographers still love and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to change in

any way. (The vignetting occurs on wideangle lenses, because the angle at which light hits the filter means it has to pass through more of the dye than it does in the centre of the filter.) However, for those who want a pure, clean image that requires virtually no additional work in postproduction, the ProGlass IRND range is the one for you. n

Composition masterclass with Doug Chinnery WHEN DOUG CHINNERY STARTED OUT TAKING LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHS, HIS WORK FOLLOWED ALL THE STANDARD CONVENTIONS. THEN, HE STUMBLED ACROSS SOMEONE’S FLICKR STREAM AND HIS STYLE CHANGED FOREVER… “With this style of photography, you have to get over the fact that 85% of people aren’t going to like what you produce.” So says Doug Chinnery of his distinctive, intriguingly abstract style. “It’s like Marmite – you will polarise opinion, but the people who really do like your work will absolutely adore your work.” When he first started shooting landscapes, Doug’s concerns were precise focus and foreground-tobackground sharpness – the same as most other photographers who are inspired to work in this discipline. But one day, he had what he describes as an epiphany. Sitting at his computer, looking at Flickr for inspiration, he stumbled across the work of Chris Friel. “I had never seen anything like it,” Doug recalls. “Up until that moment, everything I’d been fed from other photographers was all about sharpness. But here was this image looking back at me from the screen where almost nothing was sharp. I went back to his photostream constantly over the next two or three days, and I realised there was another way of expressing myself with photography.” It’s the serendipity and sheer lack of control that appeals so much to Doug. As he puts it, “Nobody can duplicate one of your images, but even I can’t duplicate an image I’ve just taken. You can get something similar, but it won’t be identical.” The lack of control means he shoots a lot. And we mean a lot. A typical session in the field might result in him coming home with between 500 and 1,000 images. Of these, he will keep no more than a couple out of every 100.

None of this means he takes a shoot-and-hope approach, however. When photographing a landscape using intentional camera movement (ICM), it’s not a case of simply waving the camera around during an exposure of a couple of seconds. “As you see something beginning to work, you can begin to take control,” he reveals. “It might be that everything is in the right place, but there’s not enough detail – or even too much detail. It can be about the amount of movement and the direction of that movement. Or it might be a case of tweaking the filtration or aperture. It’s a refining process. Often, I’ll stand in one place for 20-30 minutes until the balance is exactly right.” In terms of composition, Doug explains he still makes the same decisions as any classical landscape photographer. He chooses where to point the camera and what to include in or exclude from the frame. And, very often, he prefers a tree, hill or cottage, say, to remain identifiable, so they can’t be placed randomly within the image. When it comes to processing, the creativity continues. “When I processed my classic landscapes, my intention was to preserve the integrity of the landscape. When I process these images, however, I don’t want to be constrained at all. As far as I’m concerned, anything goes. I’ll flip an image, turn it upside down, alter the colours – basically, whatever it takes to make an image that conveys something I want to express.”

Visit dougchinnery.com

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Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, four seconds at f/11, ISO 200, two 0.9 ND filters, 0.6 ND soft grad, polariser

Storm surge “The beauty of working with abstract forms is that you are disguising and altering reality, and as a result you can be much more creative with your locations. At first, it’s easy to obsess about technique, but you have to get past that as quickly as you can. It’s about the image, not the technique – it’s much more important to get to a location and think about the place, how you feel about it and how to interpret it. This image was taken in Northumberland on a trip that was characterised by stormy and turbulent conditions, and I wanted to create a feeling of being out in the water, like a sailor in a boat. I love the paintings of JMW Turner, with their heavy skies and swirling water, and emulating that effect is difficult. The processing in this image was more complex than the others. My base exposure was four seconds, which

is longer than I would usually shoot. I achieved this by using two 0.9 ND filters and a polariser, as well as a 0.6 ND soft grad to make the sky darker. I then created a composite image using a second ICM image – as a result, the fine texture you can see over the top is marram grass from some sand dunes, which I blended in very gently to give texture in areas where I felt there wasn’t enough in the water alone. Although I abhor the rule of thirds, I’ve used it in this picture, plus there are compositional devices such as diagonal lines and triangles, and the bright patch at the bottom balances with the top. With ICM and multiple exposures, your images still have to work compositionally. They can’t be random – they have to connect with the audience and draw them in.” >>

Showers Over Luskentyre â&#x20AC;&#x153;This image was shot on a campervan trip to Lewis and Harris one autumn. Very few people were there at the time, and the Atlantic storms and constantly changing skies meant we saw the Outer Hebridean island at its very best. In conditions such as these, intentional camera movement comes into its own. I feel that classic landscape photography can become very sterile, so a technique such as ICM enables me to capture the mood and emotion of a place, rather than simply

showing what it looks like. With my photography, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather try to convey what I felt when I stood there. On this day, my wife had retreated to the campervan, and even our dog felt it was better to dodge the showers. I stuck it out, because as each squally shower passed over, the silvery light following behind it was magical. The tide was out, the light was reflecting on the sand and the curtains of rain falling were wonderful.

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Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8, 1/15sec at f/22, ISO 50, 0.9 ND filter, polariser

I handheld the camera in one hand, and the lens was fitted with a polariser and a 0.9 ND filter to make my exposure five stops slower. You can tell from the direction of the movement in the shot that I would have been flicking the camera downwards as I exposed the image, to accentuate the flow of the rain. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to lose the shape of the hills and the patterns of light on the sand, hence the short shutter speed. Any slower, and the image would have been too abstract.â&#x20AC;? >>

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8, one second at f/22, ISO 100, 0.9 ND soft grad, 0.9 ND filter

High tide “Taken in 2011, this was a very early ICM image that I took as I was trying to learn the art of the abstract – with its blocks of colour, it’s about as simple as the technique gets. I panned from left to right, and used a bit of ‘wobble’ to get the curve. Basically, I kicked my hand up to mimic the wave action and create the swirling feel.

letting go and experimenting. For instance, I over-grad some of my images in order to artificially make the sky look stormy or dark, and that’s what I did with this image. It’s the sort of thing that would be anathema to classic landscape photographers, but it can create very pleasing effects in the right image.

I don’t tend to make many images like this any more, but that being said, I like the simplicity of it. It’s a graphic image and the colour combinations work well, with the contrast between warm and cool, and the textures in the foamy water in the middle.

There’s no such thing as the photography police. Nobody should tell us how our images should look, so I always tell people to experiment and give something new a go – you have nothing to lose. You can be sure that the artists who make an impact on the world are those who do things differently. And if we want to make an impact, we have to think differently and sometimes be prepared to fail.” n

Nowadays, I tend to move the camera more, and in different directions within the same image. It’s all about

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the

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

Vadim Sherbakov Moscow, Russia

Ponte dei Sospiri, Venice

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I was walking back to my hotel from another location where Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been shooting, when I saw that this spot was completely free of tourists, which was extremely unusual. I stopped to look, and noticed that the light was particularly pleasing. I wanted to shoot something a bit different, so I decided to combine a long exposure with the gondola. I set up my camera on a tripod and fitted a Big Stopper. Because there was no traffic on the canal, the water was pretty smooth. I waited a few minutes for a gondola to pass by. Later on, at the computer, I combined a few different exposures â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one for the sky, another for the long exposure and then the gondola â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in one image. The trickiest element to capture was actually the gondola, as I wanted it to be sharp. The fact that it combines a long exposure with still subjects is what makes this photograph stand out. >>

Canon EOS 80D with Canon 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, 43 seconds at f/8, ISO 100, Big Stopper

Moscow State University This is a very popular location in Moscow, so, rather like the photograph on the previous page, I decided to create my own take on it, by making a composite image. I spent about two hours standing in front of the building, capturing exposures right through from the golden hour to the blue hour, and later combined them

into one image. I took several shots of the sky and a long exposure of the water. The most difficult part was the postproduction, combining different qualities of light with a long exposure and the various clouds. I like to take a new spin on popular locations, and I hope this approach has worked well in this image.

Canon EOS 6D with Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 lens at 20mm, eight seconds at f/8, ISO 100, Little Stopper

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Canon EOS 6D with Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 lens at 18mm, 46 seconds at f/8, ISO 100, Big Stopper

Neist Point, Isle of Skye Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d seen a number of pictures of this lighthouse, and was keen to photograph it, so my wife and I made a point of going there when we were on holiday on Skye. She stayed at the top of the cliff overlooking the peninsula and lighthouse, while I went off to search for a good angle. Finally, I settled on a composition and waited for the sunset, but while I was waiting, I explored a bit more

and found an even better spot. I just had enough time to move before the sunset started in earnest. As with the previous images, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a composite of sky, foreground and long exposure on the water. >> Visit vadimsherbakov.com

Stephen Taylor Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute

Millau Viaduct, France

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Nikon D800 with Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 32mm, 1/40sec at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND soft grad

The Millau Viaduct is one of the most famous bridges in Europe and is comfortably the highest in Europe, if not the world. It is an absolute triumph of design and engineering. France is an amazing country to visit and the Millau Viaduct stands out as one of the best things to see. I have a real love of car travel and it was a dream come true to finally drive over the bridge – and, being a photographer, I couldn’t resist taking a photograph of it. In the image, I wanted to convey our relationship with the landscape and perhaps illustrate that despite our interference with nature our own impact on the landscape can be striking and beautiful. It is a marvellous design and proves that contemporary architecture needn’t be seen as an eyesore. In terms of the photograph, this was taken from the viewpoint on the A75 services heading north. The timing of the photograph required careful planning. I wanted to capture the bridge without moving traffic. A moment came when it was completely car free and I fired the shutter. While you can Photoshop these things out, with all the railings on the bridge, it would be difficult and time consuming to do it well. I had thought about using a long exposure to ghost out moving traffic, but there was a fair wind blowing and I didn’t want the foreground foliage to be blurred. Finally, I used a 0.9 ND soft grad to allow a little more shutter time to allow the foreground foliage to be exposed correctly without blowing out the sky. Using a soft-edged filter got round the issue of an obvious filter line. Keeping the camera level on both planes was also vital to avoid converging verticals and unwanted distortion. It can be corrected in postproduction but you start to lose the edges of the image while doing it. The weather in the south of France is usually excellent and the lovely late-evening sunlight brought out the metalwork of the bridge wonderfully. >>

Visit sftphotography.co.uk

Suranga Weeratunga Colombo, Sri Lanka

Ice cave, Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland Iceland is an amazing country for landscape photography. I’ve been fortunate enough to be there in both winter and summer, and it is always a paradise for photographers. I particularly enjoy shooting the ice caves and the northern lights. To reach these amazing caves, I had to contact a local

guide and book a number of tours with him. He is the subject in this photograph, waving the sparkler. It was a very cold day and I didn’t have a chance to try any test shots, but I was lucky with this one and the exposure was perfect. I would love to visit these caves again and again. Nature is amazing, and on each visit you can expect different conditions, and so get different images.

Nikon D810, with 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at 14mm, ten seconds at f/6.3, ISO 400, Little Stopper, tripod

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Nikon D810 with 16-35mm f/4 lens at 35mm, 1/800sec at f/4, ISO 400, polariser

Glacier rivers, Iceland No, this image isn’t a painting or a drawing – it’s from a series I took of this mind-blowing view of glacier rivers in Iceland. Taken from a height of more than 1,000ft, it’s hard to believe the colours and patterns are real, but they are. In order to capture this image, and the others in the series, I flew for more than three hours in an open-windowed Cessna aircraft. Not surprisingly, it was a challenge to shoot in the strong winds, and at temperatures of minus 10-15°C.

My pilot explained that the colours are due to the way in which the sunlight hits the sediment from the glaciers, which are at varying depths in the river. They are mostly mineral deposits created from larger sections of the glacier upriver. Slowly and surely, the river grinds them down, carrying them bit by bit to the sea. >> Visit surangaw.com

Alessandro Carpentiero Milan, Italy

Blue Mosque, Istanbul The Blue Mosque is certainly one of the most beautiful landmarks in Istanbul. It’s also one of the most crowded. I spent an afternoon there trying to shoot a very long exposure, but the crowds were so overwhelming that not even the Big Stopper could help. I didn’t know what to do, until the weather came to my rescue: a storm was on its way and the rain started to fall. After only a few minutes, everyone had disappeared, and I found myself in front of a scene that I didn’t ever think I’d be able to get. My aim was very clear – I wanted to capture a dramatic sky filled with dark and moving clouds, as opposed to the immensity of the mosque’s architecture. The drops of rain didn’t make my life easy, which is why I didn’t go for too extreme an exposure. Still, the strong wind helped by moving the clouds enough to create this stunning effect. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan – they can go better! >>

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Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Olympus 7-14mm at 9mm, eight seconds at f/7.1, ISO 200, Little Stopper

Burj Khalifa, Dubai

Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Olympus 7-14mm at 7mm, one minute at f/8, ISO 100, Big Stopper

Ever since I first learned about Dubai I knew I had to photograph it. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d had this picture in my mind for a few years, and I still can perfectly remember the excitement I felt while standing on the 42nd-floor terrace, ready to make my dream a reality. My idea was to capture Dubai as the city of the future, portraying the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, standing tall above the city during the blue hour.

I set my tripod as high as it would extend (a clamp would have been a better solution, in retrospect), and set an exposure long enough to capture a full light trail. Fortunately, cars move pretty fast on Sheikh Zayed Road. The strong artificial light made it tricky to get a balanced exposure, so I made sure I captured a few darker exposures for the highlights, too, which I then manually blended in postproduction.

LEExposure 39 Burj Al Arab, Dubai Best hotels have five stars, right? Well, the Burj Al Arab has seven. This is how things work in Dubai – everything is possible. So is it also possible to find a calm, peaceful essence within this futuristic city? This was the question I asked myself when planning this shot. I headed to Jumeirah Beach at 5am, but the sunrise was pretty mediocre. Still, I really wanted this shot, so I just stayed and waited for the morning to come. The first rays of sun started to illuminate the beach, creating

depth and texture on the hotel’s architecture. It was the kind of calm morning where the only movement you get is the gentle motion of the sea. It was the perfect moment. The Little Stopper allowed me to capture the motion of the waves, while the polariser enhanced the reflections and the sea’s colours. >>

Visit alessandrocarpentiero.com

Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Olympus 7-14mm at 14mm, 0.6sec at f/11, ISO 200, Little Stopper, polariser

Mike Sheil Oxford, UK

Shells in fields, the Somme All of these photographs were taken as part of my exhibition project Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace 1418, which documents the battlefields of the First World War as they are today. The whole purpose is to show that time and nature has turned places of death and horror into landscapes of great beauty and tranquility. This picture is taken on the Somme and shows the reality

of what is called the ‘Iron Harvest’. Even after the passing of a century, about 150 tons of unexploded ordnance is uncovered every year by ploughing. I used flash to emphasise the presence of these sinister steel ‘mushrooms’ as they seemingly sprouted from the grass, and the filter was used to darken the sky to create the sombre landscape to act as backdrop the shells.

Kodak DCS Pro 14n with 17-35mm f/2.8 lens at 26mm, 1/125sec at f/19, ISO 160, 0.6 ND soft grad

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Nikon D700 with 17-35mm f/2.8 lens at 25mm, 0.3sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, 0.6 ND soft grad

Brooding soldier, near Ypres Near Ypres in Belgium, this Canadian memorial is known as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Brooding Soldierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and marks the place where poison gas was first used in 1915. It is a very simple and powerful memorial, and I wanted to retain that sense of power by excluding any distracting detail, hence the night-time shot. The area is quite densely populated, and there is a great deal of light pollution at night, so I used the filter to darken the sky and thus accentuate the detail. The filter enabled me to control the light while still retaining sufficient detail to keep the shape of the statue defined within its surroundings. >>

Nikon D700 with 17-35mm f/2.8 lens at 17mm, 0.8sec at f/13, ISO 200, 0.6 ND soft grad

Floods, Yser Valley, Flanders In 1914, the Belgians used an especially high tide to inundate the low-lying Yser valley in Flanders to act as a barrier against the advancing German army. This shot was inspired by the the words of a French soldier who wrote, “Water is everywhere: in the air, on the ground, under the ground. It is the land of dampness, the kingdom of water. The north-west winds... carry heavy clouds… As soon as the rain ceases to fall, thick white mists rise from the ground giving a ghost-like appearance to men and things alike.”

I wanted a picture that, while suggesting those thick white mists in the French soldier’s quote, would also clearly show the nature of the landscape, so I was after soft tones and no real highlights or shadows. The real problem was getting a morning that combined mist with a bright sun to provide backlight during periods of winter flooding: I think I made three separate trips over two years before I got this shot.

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Nikon D700 with 17-35mm f/2.8 lens at 17mm, 1/125sec at f/9, ISO 200, 0.9 ND soft grad

Sunrise, Amiens The battle at Amiens is generally regarded as a turning point in the conflict in 1918 and I wanted a photograph that would be strong and dramatic. The landscape here is very flat, so I was fortunate to gain access to a memorial tower that gave me the elevated position I needed. I made five pre-dawn visits before I got the right balance of mist, which muted the rays of the rising sun through the use of a soft ND filter. n Visit fieldsofbattle1418.org

Anatomy of a storm image WHETHER THEY TAKE THE FORM OF WAVES CRASHING ON TO A BEACH OR A LIGHTNING STRIKE HITTING THE GROUND, STORMS CAN PROVIDE THE KIND OF DRAMA THAT FEW LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO RESIST. HERE, WE SHOW HOW TO GO ABOUT CAPTURING THEIR DRAMATIC QUALITIES

Tree and lightning, Texas By Sarah Alsayegh Kuwait

“The cloud formations you get in a storm in the US are simply amazing,” says Sarah Alsayegh of her experiences of these extraordinary phenomena. “Although there are sandstorms in Kuwait, where I’m from, they don’t have the same texture as the storm structures you see in the US.” Chasing storms is a far from relaxing affair. It’s easy to cover more than 5,000 miles in the course of just one workshop, and often, as Sarah explains, “You only

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM at 16mm, 1/10sec at f/10, ISO 50, 0.6 ND hard grad

know you’ve crossed state lines because of the change in the speed limits”. As such, all she recalls about this image is that it was shot “somewhere near the TexasOklahoma border.” When it comes to capturing the quality and drama of a storm, it’s very often simply a case of stopping and setting up wherever the clouds start to form. This was the case with the image shown here. “If you have foreground interest – such as a tree or similar subject –

LEExposure 45 then you count yourself lucky,” Sarah explains. “The lone tree in this shot is all we had – so we shot it.” Using a MIOPS trigger that she bought as soon as she touched down in the States, she set up her camera and

waited for the lightning to strike. Much to the surprise of the others on the workshop, she also fitted a 0.6 ND hard grad. “People think it’s strange that I use filters, as they often shoot and run, but without it, the clouds would have lost their drama.”

A 0.6 ND hard grad ensured every bit of detail and texture was retained in the clouds, emphasising the contrast between their grey-blue colour and the green of the foreground.

A MIOPS Smart Trigger, designed for high-speed photography, helped ensure Sarah captured the lightning the moment it hit the ground. The fact that it struck just to the right of the tree was an added bonus.

A distant hailstorm meant that the area just above the horizon was smooth and soft. This allows the tree stand out clearly and gives the image depth.

It would be easy to overlook, but this distant farmhouse on the horizon helps to give a sense of scale, showing off the sheer enormity of the storm clouds.

It can be tricky to ﬁnd a spot that has foreground interest when storm-chasing, so Sarah and her companions made the most of this tree when they spotted it.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Kuwait-based Sarah Alsayegh first fell in love with photography in 2005, shortly after graduating from college. She was instinctively drawn towards landscape photography, but ‘classic’ landscapes are thin on the ground in this Middle Eastern state. Instead, as Sarah puts it, “I had to look for a different kind of beauty in Kuwait.” As a result, she cut her teeth on the futuristic cityscapes of her home city, finding inspiration in the all-too-brief ‘blue hour’ at the end of the day, when daylight and the artificial lights of streets, homes and office buildings balance so beautifully. Some five or six years after she started taking photography seriously, having graduated to her

own camera after ‘borrowing’ her father’s, Kuwait was engulfed by a huge dust storm – a phenomenon known as a ‘haboob’, which can be several kilometres high and can travel up to 60mph. Sarah did her best to photograph it, under very tricky conditions, and it was from this that a passion for shooting storms developed. As a result, in 2016, she travelled to the USA to take part in a stormchasing photography workshop with photographer and filmmaker Mike Olbinski, then followed up with a second in 2017, when she shot the image shown on these pages.

Visit salsayegh.com

The end of Ophelia, Porthleven, Cornwall By Carla Regler Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 255mm, 1/500sec at f/8, ISO 400, polariser

This image was shot in October 2017, when Storm Brian made its way across parts of the UK. Needless to say, Carla headed out with her camera to capture the essence of the storm. “I’m always like a child in a sweetshop in these sorts of conditions,” she laughs. “It’s difficult to know which way to point your camera,

and you can end up going back and forth without finding what it is you want and settling on it.” In the past, she has almost always ended up shooting towards Porthleven’s famous clock tower, but on this occasion she decided to point her lens in the opposite

LEExposure 47 direction. “The end of the pier worked well for providing interest and structure as the waves rolled in,” she says. It can be easy to get carried away when photographing storms, and assume that the biggest waves will produce the most photogenic results. However, this is rarely the case. “The trouble with big waves is they fill the frame when you’re shooting with a long lens, so you lose any sense of depth because you can’t see what’s going on

behind them,” Carla explains. “You can depict the drama just as well – and often even better – if you have layers of waves throughout the frame.” Shooting handheld, Carla tends to work at shutter speeds of around 1/500sec, with an aperture of f/8 or thereabouts. She then lets the ISO rating fall where it may – but as storms can often be surprisingly bright, the ISO may not be as high as you might first think.

The biggest waves aren’t always the best. Capturing a range of waves from foreground to background helps to give the image a sense of depth and movement.

When conditions during a storm are very bright, there will be haze and spray to contend with. A polarising ﬁlter helps to cut through this and deﬁne the waves more clearly.

Having a solid object within the frame not only contrasts with the movement of the waves, but also gives a sense of scale. The sun was shining brightly from above and to the right. This meant Carla had to expose carefully to ensure she retained detail in the brightest parts of the image.

A chamois cloth is an essential accessory, as it doesn’t cause streaks on the ﬁlter in the way a lens cloth does, and so avoids smears spoiling the image.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER When Carla Regler moved to Cornwall in 2010, it wasn’t to become a photographer – it was to open a restaurant with her partner, Chris. But the daily walks along the cliffs with her dogs, watching the changing light, inspired her to pick up a camera and attempt to capture the conditions. Photography became a release from the hard work in the restaurant, and she went on a number of workshops to learn as quickly as she could. In 2014, south-west England was hit by very severe storms, and Carla’s shot of Porthleven being pounded by the waves went on to win the weather category in the British Life Photography Awards. The ensuing publicity gave her the leg up she needed,

and subsequently she was asked to join Charlie Waite’s photo holiday company, Light and Land, as a tour leader. Since then, not only has she led tours to destinations such as Iceland, Norway and Provence, but she has also opened a gallery in Porthleven, just a couple of doors down from the restaurant. Now a full-time photographer, she divides her time between producing work for the gallery and leading workshops. “I love helping people progress with their photography, because I was in the same position only a few years ago,” she says.

Visit carlaregler.com

Danger Beach, Derrynane By Norman McCloskey

Canon EOS 5DS R with EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM at 16mm, five seconds at f/6.3, ISO 200, 0.6 ND soft grad, 0.9 ProGlass

Norman has been visiting this spot on the Iveragh Peninsula, in Ireland’s County Kerry for more than 20 years, but he has always found it a tricky place to photograph. “It’s a very wide expanse,” he explains, “but this section has some interesting rocks to anchor everything in place. This image was shot in the winter of 2016, when there was a non-stop conveyor belt of storms all winter long. I became quite accustomed to working in those conditions.” On this occasion, though, he ended up waiting until the really dramatic light and in-your-face drama had passed, preferring to capture the slightly quieter face of the storm. “My work has started moving away from impactful colours and saturation to something a bit

darker,” he admits. “Now, I arrive at a location later and I work later, and I’m not afraid of missing, say, the glow of the sun with all its reds and golds.” By working close to the rocks, Norman was able to shelter from the full force of the winds that were coming directly off the Atlantic, so wasn’t in the direct path of the spray. “You can work quite comfortably, but you have to be prepared,” he says. “Winter on the west coast of Ireland is pretty dramatic, but you have to be wary of going out in stormy conditions. Social media has created an appetite for these types of picture, and you do see people taking risks to feed that need. I have 25 years’ experience of working on this coastline and I’m as cautious as you should be.”

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The breaking light over the horizon is a small but signiﬁcant detail, which tells the story of an approaching rainstorm.

A 0.9 ND ProGlass ﬁlter slowed down the exposure slightly, giving just long enough to blur the waves a little, and capture some movement in the foreground grasses.

The stormy skies were the focal point, but the light was changing from second to second. A 0.6 ND soft grad retains their foreboding blue tone and keeps control of the exposure.

The headlands on either side of the composition stop the eye from wandering out of the frame and keep everything central – which is a characteristic of Norman’s photography.

Norman had been struggling with his composition, and it only fell into place once he included these sidelit grasses in the frame. They soften the foreground and provide a pleasing juxtaposition to the hard rocks.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Norman McCloskey started photographing the stunning landscape of south-west Ireland some 25 years ago, but it hasn’t always been his home. After studying photography in Dublin, and working as an assistant to various commercial photographers, he then joined a sports photography agency, intending to stay for six months. He ended up running the picture desk and commercial arm of the business for 18 years. However, after a few years, he informed his boss he was going to start working from home – and ‘home’ would be 250 miles away in County Kerry. “I worked from home for 12 years,” Norman explains. “It meant I had a well-paid job but huge freedom in terms of time to take pictures out in the landscape.

I could get up early when I wanted to, do my own photography, then come back and work.” Once he was confident he had a strong, cohesive set of work, he took the step of opening a photography gallery in his hometown of Kenmare, and also published his first book, Parklight. “I’m now living the dream,” he says, “making my living from producing and selling my own work. I can go away for three days and spend all that time making pictures. I can then put a print on a wall a few days later – and it sells. It all begins to make sense.” Visit normanmccloskey.com

The knowledge THERE ARE NUMEROUS WAYS IN WHICH USING FILTERS CAN ENHANCE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY. HERE, FIVE PROFESSIONALS REVEAL THEIR SECRETS TO PHOTOGRAPHIC SUCCESS

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Canon EOS 5D Mark II with EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 33mm, 1/6sec at f/13, ISO 200

Misting filters In certain conditions, no matter what you do, lenses and filters always manage to steam up at the worst possible times, usually when the light is at its best. On misty mornings, when you are right in the thick of the conditions, I find the resin grads in particular will mist up in use, even when they have been out for a while to acclimatise to the changes in temperature and humidity. Often, the lens behind can be fine, with no condensation on it at all, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just the grads that are misting up. Wiping the filter just seems to make more of a mess, and you then have to spend five minutes trying to clear the smears from the filter. I find the best thing to do is simply take the filter out of the holder and place it in the soft Lee Filters wallets, leave it for around 30 seconds and it usually clears up so you can continue shooting straight away. You may have to keeping doing this, but you can usually get plenty of shots before it needs doing again. >> Chris Herring Visit theuklandscape.com

Movement and moments Photography allows us to visualise something that is otherwise impossible: the effect of visually slowing time and encapsulating it in a still image. The imagery created by intentional camera movement (ICM) offers an alluring distraction from more conventional workflows. Visual emphasis of a spiritual connection between the photographer and their subject, rather than a strictly literal photorealistic capture, can intensify the emotional engagement of the person viewing the final print. Using the Big Stopper in the middle of the day unlocks the

creative door to impressionism. Blocking 99.9% of the light entering our lens on a sunny day creates the perfect exposure requirements to capture the essence of life itself; because life isn’t about ‘freeze-frames’, it’s about ‘moments’. Pete Bridgwood Visit petebridgwood.com

Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS lens at 140mm, 1/5sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, Big Stopper

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Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm lens at 29mm, 203 seconds at f/16, ISO 50, Big Stopper, 0.9 ND hard grad (used as ND filter), 0.6 ND hard grad

When is a grad not a grad? Thanks to their size and the small area of the graduation, hard or very hard neutral-density graduated filters have a large area of solid tint and, at a pinch, can be used to double up as an ND filter. On this occasion, I was shooting a long exposure on a fairly bright day and the Big Stopper wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t providing quite enough filtration to give me the slow shutter speed needed to smooth out the water. I decided to add a 0.9 ND ProGlass filter, but managed to drop and lose it

among the rocks below. To get the shot, I used a 0.9 ND hard grad in its place, pulling it all the way down until the coated area of the filter covered the lens. Of course, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better to have both in case you need to use them together, but sometimes needs must. >> Justin Minns Visit justinminns.co.uk

Canon EOS 5DS with EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS UMS at 83mm, 1/20sec at f/11, ISO 400, Landscape Polariser

Use a polariser in woodland When it comes to using a polarising filter, most photographers immediately think of sunny days and enriching the colour of blue skies to contrast with clouds. Not so many of us think of fitting a polarising filter when we’re shooting in woodland, but it is an excellent way of boosting the colour of foliage. By reducing surface glare, a polariser takes the sheen off leaves, thus restoring their natural saturation. It doesn’t need to be sunny – this works just as well

on dull days. Simply rotate the filter until you see the effect that you want. If you use LEE’s Landscape Polariser, this also has a slight warming effect, which gives real punch to autumn colours. Mark Bauer Visit markbauerphotography.com

LEExposure 55 Tone down the highlights Small gaps in the cloud at either end of the day can be wonderful for giving us a splash of warm light and colour; however, they can also be problematic with the potential for blown highlights or simply by being too distracting when included in the frame. Although there is a degree of subjectivity here, this is even more the case when doing longer exposures. Here, I found that an exposure of six seconds, courtesy of the Little Stopper, gave me a pleasing balance of blur and texture within the sea, while maintaining the shape of the clouds. A longer exposure would have rendered the clouds streaky, really emphasising those smaller,

Sony A7Rii with Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 at f/16, six seconds at f/16, ISO 100, 0.6 ND medium grad, Little Stopper

bright patches of sky and would have detracted from the emphasis I wanted to place on the pine trees. I also found that the medium grad allowed me to hold back those brighter areas of sky without overly darkening the island and pine trees. I did, however, lighten the upper area of sky in Lightroom. n Lizzie Shepherd

Visit lizzieshepherd.com

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 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER COLIN PRIOR TO TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE BEEN UP TO. TO SEE MORE IMAGES FROM YOUR VIEW, AND TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN PICTURE, VISIT LEEFILTERS.COM

Winter sunrise, Lake Superior by Nicholas Parker Visit traunfoto.com

Colin Prior “This haunting image looks to have come straight from one of the fantasy landscapes in The Chronicles of Narnia. We have two colour opposites at work here – blue and yellow – which have fused harmoniously, creating a feeling of peace and tranquillity. The warm backlighting picks up the icicles below the island beautifully, helping to create the ephemeral

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens, 109 seconds at f/18, ISO 100, Big Stopper

quality of the image. Had I been there, I wouldn’t have changed much. Perhaps I might have shot a little tighter to give more emphasis to the backlit icicles, and I’d probably have let the sun drop below the island (which I’m sure you’ve done). I feel there’s competition between the hotspots and, as we know from experience, in photography, less is more. A lovely image.”

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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

Oahu, Hawaii by Robert Warren Visit @rewphoto on Instagram

Colin Prior â&#x20AC;&#x153;The strength of this image is in its simplicity and the fact that it juxtaposes the two colour opposites: magenta and green. Personally, I would have considered cropping this to 3:4, as I find the 2:3 format on the upright orientation too long and thin. While the colours are very appealing, we need to be judicial in the amount

of saturation applied, either globally or in specific channels, to ensure that the scene we are experiencing remains believable to the viewer. The use of the Big Stopper has helped create a dynamic between the glass-like nature of the sea and the motion blur in the clouds, which are complementary.â&#x20AC;? >>

Rainy morning at Hintersee, Bavaria by Dirk Wiemer Visit dirkwiemer.de

Colin Prior “This is a strong composition, with the mountain peaks framed by the two rocky islands in the lake. It’s a lovely airy and high-key picture with a feeling of a pristine environment. There are one or two things I might have done differently here. I feel the saturation in the yellow/green channels has been increased beyond a point at which it looks (to

Nikon D810 with Nikkor 14-24/2.8 at 16mm, 62 seconds at f/11, ISO 64, 0.9 ND soft grad

me) natural, and I would also have used the radial filter in Lightroom over the cloud on the mountain and in its reflection in the lake, by removing some of the highlight values. This would have helped the viewer to navigate the image in the way intended and would help dissuade our eyes from moving instinctively to the centre of the image, where the brightest portion of the image lies. Notwithstanding this, it’s still a great image.”

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Nikon D800 with 14mm lens, 1.6 seconds at f/8, ISO 1600, Big Stopper

Zumaia by Leo Santana Visit leohsantana.com

Colin Prior “Despite the Big Stopper being used in this image, it has created a feeling of movement rather than tranquillity. When I look at this image, I experience a feeling of perpetual motion. We are drawn into the composition by the two parallel water flows, which exist in one plane, and are juxtaposed with the sea meeting

this convergence on another. Above, in the sky, and in yet another plane, the moving clouds also contribute to this sense of movement, which I don’t think would have been quite so pronounced had the filter not been used. The low camera angle helps to create a powerful dynamic. All good.” >>

LEExposure 61 Seven seconds away by Mauro Tronto Visit maurotronto.com

Colin Prior â&#x20AC;&#x153;Strong compositional lines here hold the eye firmly in the turbulent amphitheatre, and the photographer has been careful to lead the eye through the image from the bottom right-hand corner of the frame. The Big Stopper has forced the long shutter speed, turning the running water into a solid, amorphous mass, while in the sky, the opposite effect has been achieved with motion blur streaking the heavens. Also, the cool pre-dawn colour temperature enhances the feeling of the freezing conditions and plays to the overall mood of the image. Not much here that I would have done differently.â&#x20AC;? n

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM II, three minutes at f/16, ISO 50, Big Stopper

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM at 67mm, 10 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 0.9 ND medium grad

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As seen on screen HIS CHANNEL HAS MORE THAN 180,000 SUBSCRIBERS, HIS MOST POPULAR VIDEO HAS BEEN VIEWED 483,000 TIMES (AND COUNTING), AND HE NOW GETS RECOGNISED WHEN HE’S OUT FOR A PINT WITH HIS DAD. WE FIND OUT HOW TOM HEATON IS RIDING THE WAVE OF THE YOUTUBE REVOLUTION

LEE Filters

When did you first realise you wanted to make a career out of photography?

Tom Heaton

Making landscape photography my career was never a conscious decision. It was very gradual and happened simply by grasping opportunities when they came my way. It wasn’t until April 2017 that I was confident enough to go into it full-time, but about six months prior to that I started to realise that it might be possible. I also had a photography studio as a business venture and it was reasonably successful. But although I enjoyed it, I wasn’t passionate about the type of work I was doing, so landscape photography was always going to win as soon as it became steady enough. The truth is, it is still rather inconsistent as a career, but it doesn’t matter so much when you love what you do.

What landscapes in particular inspire you?

This varies from month to month. As I write this, we are in peak autumn, so it is all about the intimate woodland

Hrauneyjafoss, Iceland “It was important to me that I retained the vibrant blues in the water while capturing the glow of the early-morning sunrise, so I used a polariser to remove glare from the surface of the water and a 0.9 ND medium grad to hold back the sky”

scenes. Nothing inspires me more at the moment than seeing the vast array of autumn colours on show. Every leaf becomes a piece of art, every corner of woodland becomes a vibrant colourful collage of reds, yellows and oranges. I love it. It’s very important to revisit the same places in different conditions. It helps us understand the importance of light and seasons. There are few things in photography that will satisfy you more than seeing something new in a familiar location. Returning again and again means you will get to know an area intimately and this can give you a great advantage. Revisiting a location can be just as exciting as going somewhere for the first time.

What made you upload your first video to YouTube?

My first video was made after I found myself watching countless mountain bike videos. It suddenly occurred to me that there might be a wealth of photography videos, too. There were a few, but a lot of them seemed to be adverts in disguise. Because I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to make my own. It was just for fun, and I had no real idea if anybody would actually >>

Bláhnjúkur, Iceland “This is a panoramic of approximately nine images. It is so important to ensure you have a level tripod when shooting a panoramic, so this is where most of my time was spent. The scene was beautifully balanced, so there was no need for any filters”

watch it. I think it got about 500 views in the first week, which was amazing at the time. More people watched this video than had ever looked at my entire portfolio on Flickr. I soon realised that people enjoyed the story of how an image came to be. From there, I simply continued to document my excursions, and more and more people began to watch. Things have changed a lot in the few years since that first video. I am able to travel more, see more and do more. I get recognised on a regular basis, which is

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Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 91mm, 0.4sec at f/11, ISO 100

always amusing, especially when I’m having a beer with my dad and somebody comes over. I have a lot more photography-related opportunities now, such as being able to meet and work with some amazing peers, and shoot some of the best locations on the planet. What has changed the most for me is having the ability to share my work. Before YouTube, I would be frustrated when I captured a beautiful image and it wasn’t seen by anybody. I think this is one of the hardest things about photography in this day and age, but I am fortunate enough to have an audience with whom I can share

my work. I also like to do my bit and share the work of others – for example, at the end of my videos I always recommend another video for people to watch.

When did you make the choice to go full-time with the YouTube videos and landscape photography?

I am a calculated risk-taker. When I quit my job in 2010, I saved a bit of money and altered my lifestyle to >>

66 Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 184mm, 0.8sec at f/11, ISO 100, polariser

Autumn reflections “There’s more to landscapes than just the grand vistas. I found this image by simply observing the surface of the water in an old quarry. The contrast between the orange leaves and black slate caught my attention. To increase the contrast, I used my polariser to reduce glare from the sky above, which resulted in an image with deeper blacks and more vibrant oranges”

the bare minimum. My outgoings were down to £500 per month, so I knew I would have the best chance of success. It was the same with landscape photography. I calculated what I would need to earn per month in order for it to be viable and waited until my passive income was near that mark consistently. Anything extra would be a bonus and reinvested into my photography.

It was still a risk to jump ship. The best things in life are always risky, but always come with the greatest reward.

How much of your time now is spent ‘feeding’ the YouTube channel, and how much time is spent actually taking photographs?

LEExposure 67 TH

What I do is a full-time job. There’s no 9-to-5 – it’s 24-hour. Luckily, I love what I do, so I rarely differentiate between working and having fun. For example, I love editing my videos, so this doesn’t feel like work.

It never stops, however. If I neglect emails for three days, I will have 200 or more to reply to. I have all but given up trying to respond to every social-media message or comment. I run workshops, I do seminars and public speaking, I sell calendars and prints and I am a one-

man band, so it can be quite full-on. I would say I spend about seven per cent of my time taking photos. People assume I am out every day – if only. Making videos has forced me to slow down and be more selective about what I shoot, just like film forces you to do. This is why my digital and film shooting styles are similar. I need to know an image is going to work, because with each image comes at least 30 minutes’ worth of filming: b-roll [supplementary footage], drone footage and a piece to camera explaining why I am >>

Mountain light “This image is a great example of patience and perseverance. This scene was completely shrouded in fog when I woke before sunrise. I decided to venture out regardless and was rewarded with five minutes of beautiful light as the fog lifted. Soon after, it returned and the scene was gone”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM at 38mm, 1/8sec at f/11, ISO 100, polariser

Háifoss, Iceland

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM at 24mm, 0.6sec at f/10, ISO 100

“This was captured in some very adverse weather conditions, and the scene is so big it required a 24mm panoramic. This was challenging as I had to fight ferocious wind speeds and spray from the waterfall. It was a case of get the image and get out”

>> taking the image. If I go to all this trouble and the photograph is terrible, it’s a complete waste of time, so when I shoot, I make sure to look and really think before taking out my camera. Everything takes longer, but with experience I have now become quite efficient. The trick is to have very little disused footage. The main improvements to my videos over the years have not necessarily been kit related, although the drone helps a little – it’s about knowing what to film in order to tell the story and make the viewer feel as if they are there with you. In terms of video length, between nine and 11 minutes seems to be the magic number. People don’t tend to like shorter videos, as they can’t fully get into it and sometimes, if the videos are too long, people don’t

feel they have the time. However, if the content is good enough, most people will stick with a longer video.

Is it difficult to strike a balance between shooting what you like and what you know your audience will like – or are they both the same thing?

This is an important question; I only ever shoot for me. I will never shoot what I think is on trend. This is a downward spiral that leads to bad places. If I were to shoot what I thought would do well, I would then be ‘working’ and it would all become a job. The joy would be sapped out of me and it would become very contrived. I am very selfish and, in the nicest possible way, couldn’t care less what other people want to >> see. I shoot what

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Star of the show

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 94mm, 1/50sec at f/11, ISO 100

â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is an image of a fleeting moment in time. The window of opportunity was no more that five minutes as the sunlight swept over the scene, melting the frost on contact. If I had shot this image any earlier, the tree would not have the beautiful side light on it; any later and the frost would have melted and the background would be shrouded in harsh sunlightâ&#x20AC;?

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM at 16mm, four seconds at f/9, ISO 100, 0.9 ND hard grad, polariser

Dunstanburgh Castle “This image required the use of a technique called focus stacking. This involves taking the same image three times, with each exposure focused at a different point in the image. I used a polariser to remove the glare from the wet surface”

Why have you managed to capture the audience, where others have perhaps failed?

My audience is worldwide, with the two largest percentages being the US and the UK. I think I jumped on the YouTube train at the right time, just as it was seeing huge spikes in growth. When I started, there was very little competition. I was featured in a few big online blogs and forums, which certainly helped with growth, but I believe it is down to searching and word of mouth. YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google, so keywords play an important role.

makes me happy. A single leaf on a tree will always win over an over-edited, over-saturated epic mountain scene in the wilds of Patagonia. Don’t get me wrong, I love shooting in the mountains, but I never worry about my images grabbing enough attention.

If I knew this, I would be a millionaire, but the truth is, I am just myself. I can’t stand false positivity and over-polished videos. I simply take the viewer with me. If I’m cold and miserable, trust me, my audience will know, and if I am happy and excited they will also know. I think it’s about being honest and real. People are more intuitive than you might think and can see through videos if they are feigned.

Why do you think some videos get a higher number of views than others?

I can’t put my finger on this. It actually seems that most people like videos of drama and/or misery. Of course, I don’t seek that sort of thing out, but should anything happen that is dramatic or depressing, people will

LEExposure 71 watch. The next best thing is to actually help people. Videos offering sound advice and tips tend to do very well, especially when delivered in a way that is more than just a basic tutorial.

Do you ever look at your competition on YouTube to learn from them?

I wouldn’t say learn, but I am certainly influenced. I try not to watch too much of the really successful channels through fear of being influenced too much and essentially copying their style. It’s important that I don’t drift too far from my own format.

What are your feelings about sponsorship and branding in terms of editorial independence?

I receive a lot of offers from brands. Some are better than others. I tend not to make branded content unless it is an excellent product that I believe in and use myself, and it must pay really well. This is because my audience does not take kindly to being advertised to. As I said earlier, I was disappointed to see that some photography videos were actually adverts in disguise. It’s important that I don’t go down this road. Any branded content I do has strict terms. I must have 100% creative control over what I shoot and what >>

Great Gable, Cumbria “This abstract photograph was inspired by the constant ebb and flow of the clouds as they shrouded Great Gable. I wanted to capture the mountain as she revealed herself for just a few seconds. A four-stop ND filter slowed down my shutter speed enough to capture the motion in the clouds”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 200mm, 3.2 seconds at f/9, ISO 200, 1.2ND IRND ProGlass

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM at 65mm, 212 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, 3.0ND IRND ProGlass

Cambois Beach, Northumberland â&#x20AC;&#x153;The sky on this morning was particularly beautiful. I am used to packing up immediately after sunrise, but on this occasion the soft colours of dawn and sunrise seemed to stick around. I opted for a simple composition using a longer focal length. I wanted the foreground to be as soft as the sky, so used a 10-stop IRND ProGlass filter to slow things down considerablyâ&#x20AC;?

LEExposure 73 I say, and I am always open and honest from the start about my video containing paid content.

Are you still able to take pictures just for fun?

I do take photographs only for myself, but it’s quite rare – mainly because I actually love making the videos. I am always sad when I shoot an amazing image and I’m not able to share my experience with viewers. That being said, it is nice to wander for hours without the added weight of all my video-recording kit.

When did you start running workshops?

Workshops are a recent venture, but when making the decision to run them, it had to be something that I personally would want to do. So they are quite adventurous: trekking through the Swiss Alps, camping in the Icelandic Highlands… Those are the only two trips I have done so far, but both were quite full-on.

You also sell prints and calendars – is it important to produce something ‘physical’, as well as the videos?

For the viewer to have something tangible in their hands is very important – the calendars especially, as this is a body of my work that can be recognised from my videos. It’s also a great way for people to support my channel, which means I am able to create more content without the need for branded content, which people really don’t like.

You’re still young and already you’ve achieved a great deal. Where do you hope to go from here?

I have no idea where everything might go from here. If I have a plan at all, it’s that I will simply continue to do what I do and take every opportunity that comes my way. I certainly don’t have much of a business strategy. The only strategy I have is to have fun and make sure I am happy in what I am doing. n

Visit thomasheaton.co.uk or search for Thomas Heaton on YouTube

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 XPOSURE EARLY IN 2018 Editor: Ailsa McWhinnie LEE Filters: Graham Merritt and Peter Sturt To contact Xposure, email feedback@leefilters.com, putting Xposure in the subject line