Swing
Chanctonbury Hill, West Sussex. 25-01-15
Chanctonbury Hill, West Sussex. 25-01-15
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Feb, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken when walking up Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs in East Sussex UK, on the way to Chanctonbury Ring hill fort. There are some interesting wind blown old Beech trees along the way as well as good views over Sussex from the top.Time
It was round 2pm although due to the cloud cover it had little significance to this image.Lighting
Natural light on a rather dull overcast day, diffuse and neutral with soft undefined shadows. The dull sky made it easier to capture some detail in the dark areas without burning out the cloud completely or conversely producing very dark silhouettes.Equipment
Nikon D40 with a DX 18-55 lens.Inspiration
It was a spontaneous moment, my girlfriend started playing on the rope swing and I set about taking pictures of the shapes she made as she moved in front of the tree tops above. Being further down the slope from her I realised by getting myself low to the ground I could frame her, the tree the rope was tied to and the horizon.Editing
I shot this in RAW and then converted it to monochrome. Some adjustment to highlight and shadow were done as well as pushing the contrast and clarity. A bit of balancing was done by dodging back shadows on the figure and some areas of the tress and burning in of the distant trees. Finally I added a little vignetting and some sharpening in selected areas.In my camera bag
Currently just my rather tatty old Nikon D40 with the two kit lenses it came with (DX 18-55 and DX 55-200) and a Nikon SB-400 flash. I mostly use the 18-55mm lens as it tends to suit the subjects I choose and the fact that I prefer to shoot hand held. The SB-400 Flash is compact, simple, refreshes quickly and has a good throw so it suits my needs very well for hand held shooting - either to fill shadows in daylight or bounce indoors.Feedback
With moving subjects like this where the background is also important to the image try to bare both in mind. In this case I found the background composition I wanted and then kept shooting as the subject swung in and out of the frame. If the sky hadn't been so cloudy then a little fill flash might have been useful.
