JFJacobsz

20130725-DSC_9587

NIKON D90

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 200 Shutter 1/1600 Focal Length 2500/10

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Apr, 2015

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

A pretty teen girl sits outside in the garden on the lawn on a lovely summer day while holding her black Labrador puppy in her arms and on her lap.

Elephants cross the Chobe river from the mainland in Botswana to Sidudu Island where the can go and graze on some lush green grass. They are being wat

A long distance cyclist lifts his arms in victory as he reaches his final destination by the ocean after a long transcontinental adventure.

A mother, daughter and son are having fun, playing outside in the back garden on a lovely spring day.

A view of a lone standing mountain trough the window of an old abandoned house.

A lapwing chick on an island in Lake Victoria in East Africa, standing by the water's edge on a pebble beach.

A crew member of a dhow is hard at work, pulling on the ropes to raise the sails. The tension is clearly visible in the expression of his face, and hi

Three different types and colours of spaghetti lie spread out, one layer on top of the other, crating three distinctive shapes of different colours.

A little boy stands and looks at the camera while his older brother and sister sits on bench in the garden behind him.

A red breasted swallow, also known as a rufous chested swallow, perched on a metal wire.

Low tide in False Bay near Cape Town reveal the large reef in front of the small town of Strand.

A masai man walks along the beach of Zanzibar island. He seems mindful as he looks towards the horizon where you can see the mainland of Tanzania, whe

A young crew member of a dhow in Zanzibar sits and relaxes for a while as the dhow proceeds under sail to it's destination.

A pelican with an open bill faces the rest of the pelicans, and it seems as if it is giving them a speech which they do not seem to be very interested

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken on the Chobe river, which forms the border between Northern Botswana and the Namibia Panhandle. We were on a twelve day family safari through Botswana, because I have visited the Chobe river many times before, as photographic tour guide, I had a very good idea of what to expect.

Time

We were very fortunate that day to find the elephant on Sidudu island, still grazing, that late in the afternoon, with the sun already setting. Usually they return to the mainland late afternoon, but well before sunset. Sidudu Island is a flat island covered in lush grass, situated inside the Chobe river. It is believed that the elephants prefer not to stay overnight because, in the past, they were hunted from the Namibia side. The area bordering the river on the Namibia side is not under conservation, where the Botswana border with the Chobe river is part of the Chobe National Park. They say elephants have long memories.

Lighting

With silhouette photographs your camera light meter already starts faulting in your advantage. A reflective light meter takes a reading on light being reflected from the scene towards the lens. The assumption that it makes, is that, should you take all the light and colour in the scene, throw it in a liquidiser/blender, and mix it up very well - just like a smoothie, you will end up with grey. With a silhouette photo that is not the case - that smoothie actually turns out much lighter than grey, because of all the light, from the sunset sky, entering your lens. Your light meter argues "Wow, this grey scene is very bright today, I shall increase the shutter speed (Aperture Priority) to get proper exposure!" In effect the image ends up well under exposed, which helps bring out the red orange colour in the sky, and leaves the silhouette completely dark with no detail - only a shape. Great for the photographer! It still helps to close down on your exposure with one or two more stops, depending on the lens, and other variables.

Equipment

I took this photo on a Nikon D90. The lens was set on 260 mm, the aperture was on f5.6 and my shutter speed at 1/1600. I had the ISO on 200.

Inspiration

As I mentioned before, I have been on the river cruise many times before, and I knew what to expect. Because we were there as a small private group this time, we paid the extra cost for a small aluminium motor boat, instead of taking the larger, less expensive, river rafts. I knew from experience that the rafts are too high of the water, and generally with wildlife photography, a high view, unless you are talking about aeroplane high, is not a good point from which to shoot, as you always get clutter behind your subject. Being in the small boat, I already knew that I would get better photos than before due to my lower vantage point. I still did not expect to see an elephant on the Island that late in the day. That was very fortunate.

Editing

Very little post processing was necessary as you do not worry about the dark areas becoming too dark. You can simply concentrate on the background colours.

In my camera bag

I am a lazy photographer. I trie to travel as light as possible. I have a medium size camera bag that fits around my waste with a single strap that crosses over on to the opposite solder. Everything I take must fit in there. I carry one camera body, two zooms, (wide and long) and a macro lens (I would ad a super wide lens to that, should I be able to afford it one day). With this I will also fit in a flash on one side pocket, and a remote flash trigger on the other side pocket. Except for that bag, I always carry a tripod with me, and when I am smart enough, I actually use it.

Feedback

To capture successful silhouettes, the most important thing to understand is not exposure, but composition. As I explained, the exposure almost takes care of it self when you are set on Aperture priority, if you purposefully under expose another stop or two you will be fine. The most common mistake people make when new at photographing silhouettes, is with the composition. A silhouette image must consist of an easily recognisable shape which brakes the horizon: So first - easily recognisable shape: There are two important things to keep in mind: A) The centre of interest still remains that black blob in the screen - not the beautiful sunset and colours in the sky. The sunset becomes the secondary centre of interest (especially if you can still see the sun in the image) A photo of only the sun, no black blob in front, can still be nice, but not dynamic enough, and generally a bit boring. So it is important to first find the black blob. Because there will be no detail in the black blob (you can not see eyes, face, colour of clothes, textures, or anything that helps a viewer recognise what they are looking at), the shape of the blob must be a simple, and easily recognisable shape, such as a coconut tree, a human with arms in the air, an air balloon, or evenâ€¦... an elephant might also work. B) This is very important - The black blob must brake the horizon! If the black blob does not brake the horizon, then it simply fades away in to the big black square below the stunning sunset. Please, may I emphasise this point; All of that black blob, that is important, must break the horizon; - Suppose I photographed this elephant with only half the body breaking the horizon, even if it was only the legs and the belly that did not break the horizon, it would not have worked. The best vantage point will always be a low one, shooting upwards. The rest of the horizon must also appear clean. If there are too many other shapes and lines breaking the horizon, then your composition will become weak. You might be a little confused right now, as, somewhere in the back of your mind, you remember some stunning sunset - silhouette kind of photo where, you are almost certain, the photographer was shooting downwards, from a relatively high vantage point. You are quite right, but that only works when the subject (the black blob) is surrounded by a highly reflective background; One example I can think of right now, is a person walking on a beach at low tide, where most of the sand is still covered in a thin layer of water. That water on the background will reflect the sunlight enough to make the silhouette stand out in the foreground. I hope this helped, and I hope somebody will check my terrible writing skills before it is posted. Thanks for the opportunity.

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JFJacobsz

JFJacobsz

20130725-DSC_9587

Behind The Lens

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