Frosty light
Jan, 2020Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken at Bushy park, one of the gems of LondonTime
I arrived just before sunrise and was greeted to quite a heavy carpet of frost and crystal clear skies. As I walked in the blue light of the morning I could hear the call of one of the large stags, so I headed in that direction. Once I'd narrowed down its location, I found myself surrounded by his harem of females. I sat and waited for the light to develop, which it did into a stunning misty sunrise.Lighting
With shooting straight into the sun, I find it's always easier to use natural diffusers like mist and trees, and luckily this shot was helped with a layer of low hanging mist which just increased the sun's glow. Also, with the heavy frost, it made it easier to expose the sun correctly as the shadows were nicely lightened up with the white frost.Equipment
My Canon 5d mkiii, sigma 150-600,handheldInspiration
As with most of my wildlife and nature photography, I love using the light and often find myself shooting towards the sun as much as I can using backlight. Most of my inspiration comes from my imagination, and it's not very often that it all falls into place, but when it does, it's the results that make it all worthwhile.Editing
Quite minimal processing was used for this image, I brought down the highlights slightly and also just nudged the shadows up a nudge to balance out the exposure of the foreground to the sky. No sharpening or any other adjustment was used apart from a slight increase in blacks just to bring back the shadows of the trees to improve the contrast between the trees and the sky.In my camera bag
Normally my permanent fixture to my 5d MkIII is my sigma 150-600, I use this a huge amount of the time, either for wildlife or even landscapes. I also always carry my 70-200 2.8, just in case I have a close opportunity at in low light or the shorter focal length to get those environmental shots. I always carry a handful of spare batteries and memory cards just in case, along with a few lens cloths.Feedback
My advice to anyone who wants to shoot into the sun is to try and do it when the sun is diffused by either mist/fog/ or dense foliage and when it is low in the sky as it has a lot more atmosphere for the light to travel through therefore giving greater color and more muted light. once you are in the right situation always shoot for the highlights and depending on your camera and your knowledge of it, expose a 1/3 or 2/3 a stop under the point where the highlights start to blow, this will ensure that the lighter areas will be recoverable and also the shadows to not get lost
