The camera's eye
The disparity in "Dynamic Range" of a camera, versus the capability of the human eye poses a fascinating challenge in photography. The human eye has little difficulty in "lighting" the Louvre in the photograph below, at the same time as integrating the brightness of the clouds behind. The camera, on the other hand, struggles to give full luminosity to the one, without neglecting the other. Either the darker portion will be well exposed, while the lighter is made to glare, or the brighter portion will be seen correctly, while the dark will be in deep shadow.
Louvre CumulusCopyrighted Digital Photograph
This forced me into the following aesthetic and technical choices at the moment of image capture and, later, in the digital darkroom.
La Ville Lumiere
"La Ville Lumiere" has many lighting moods, which depend on any combination of: the time of day; the seasonal angle and direction of the sun; the particular architectural surfaces on which the light is reflecting; cloud cover; the level of atmospheric pollution; the incidence of artificial light and - no doubt - many others of which I am unaware. On this occasion the sun was low and heading for sunset, such that the sky was still fully lit, while the buildings were already in shadow.
Cumulus and The Spirit
I responded emotionally to the sight of this cumulus cloud powering up behind the dignity of the Louvre and the Pont Royal. I find clouds enormously inspiring: for their innate beauty; for the fascinating dynamic of their movement and constant shape-changing and, always, for the power holding a mind-bending volume of water hanging in the sky, so "light and fluffy". There is half a gram of water per cubic meter in a cloud, which, when multiplied by their kilometers-wide and high volume, equates to a weight of water in one such cloud as this, of around half a million kilos. This evokes the wonder and majesty of nature in my heart and a deep desire to capture it to share with you.
Aesthetic Response.
I can spend long minutes staring at the edge of a cloud, following closely the morphing of the wisps at the margin and marveling at the boiling movement of its interior, as the weather engine powers it up for a shower, heavy rain or even a storm. This particular "Instant Decisif" seemed to enhance the gradation from the near rain colors at the foot, through the delicate greys of the centre, up to the sunlit heights, perfectly feeding my particular attraction to this wonder of nature.
The satisfying composition offered by the Louvre and the Pont Royal were therefore, accessory to the impact of the sky. They were, however, a key component of the overall beauty of the scene. I found the composition created by the long diagonal of the Louvre and the perpendicular frontage of the bridge inherently satisfying and I also had an instinctive sense that the structures offered scale which enhanced the power emanating from the cloud.
Technical choices at the moment of capture
Needing to express my aesthetic and spiritual responses triggered by the scene and knowing the limitations of dynamic range, I accepted that the architectural elements would have to be initially sacrificed in order to capture the detail of the cloud. Here are the immediate technical choices that I made:
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 60mm prime f2,8
Focus Mode: AF-C
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/600s
Auto Focus -Area Mode: Single
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Compensation : -1.3EV
Metering: Spot
ISO Sensitivity: 400
Mounted on a Monopod
The reasons were as follows:
Firstly, the scene depended on fast changing light and movement of the subject clouds, so settings had to be decided in a few seconds. Since my camera has one of the highest dynamic range capabilities in the 35mm digital market, I was confident that later work in the darkroom would offer some follow-up solutions to any over-hasty settings choices.
Next, I considered the physical distance of the scene, from the buildings a few hundred yard away out to the sky many kilometers away, so a reasonably small aperture of f8 seemed a fair compromise for depth of focus, given the acuity of my 60mm prime lens.
Since my priority subject was a cloud, although I needed to take account of its movement by using a speed of 1/600, I could use its brightness at the same time to get away with a somewhat low ISO of 400, providing higher quality final image. To be precise, the speed decision was made by the camera, as a function of ISO and aperture, but the available light kept it fast, even as I adjusted down "exposure value".
My normal metering mode for the average situation is "Matrix", which gives a generally satisfying solution calculated by the camera's computer. This would have resulted in an averaged level of brightness, which would have whited out the cloud, so I changed to "Spot" metering. In addition, having consulted the histogram from a test shot, I dialed down the Exposure Value by -1.3 to optimize the subtleties of the cloud.
The camera was mounted on a Monopod, a helpful compromise when a tripod is not available and very necessary for avoiding the impact of camera shake when using an instrument with a 36.3 megapixel digital "negative".
Finally, developing the image on the computer in the digital darkroom, I resorted to the use of shadow enhancement, in order to boost the over-dark mass of the buildings resulting from the settings compromises which I had chosen.
The result is what you see. I hope you like it.
Copyright Paul Grayson 2014
