mardi 16 novembre 2004

Window Gazing... 1 On the Sunny Side of The Street Sitting indoors looking outdoors can be a huge waste of time... but not if you pick up your camera now and again (like every day!) to see how the light, weather, seasons, traffic, neighbours - and even your neighbour's windows - change throughout the year. My "outdoors-from-within" images were taken through one west-facing high-up window because it happened to be on the busy side of the house with potential for road traffic, a variety of buildings, roofs and chimneys on the other side of the street and people below... the other side of my house was a very quiet garden overlooking a river. Since I took these photos this particular southern English town has changed considerably... but it still has good memories for me. And anyway, all the houses where I've lived have very different views as well as very different emotions and, afterwards, very different memories... I guess that's one of the reasons I move every few years or so! Weather changes are important factors with such "limited view" photography. A mantle of snow or film of water left after a rain shower alters colours and tonal relationships... making the same view look quite different from one hour, day or month to the next. With a fixed shooting position there is no real way of changing the viewing spot... although you can change the point of view by changing camera lenses. A wide-angle takes in much more of a scene than a standard lens... and a telephoto lens can be used to pick out small details not properly or closely observed by the naked eye. So it's a good tip to change lenses often to see what you can frame, isolate and expose through them. Use a wide-angle to telephoto zoom and you will have enough versatility to help you most times... just make sure you use the lens at its in-between settings as well and not only at the two extremes which many photographers tend to do. Interesting pictures can even be obtained by simply watching how the clouds vary throughout the day. And as the sun sweeps around its path the colour temperature of light will change from warm at dawn to a more normal blue hue around midday through to a warmer range again at dusk... which the eye doesn't see so readily although colour film does. After the sun has set, the camera can still be used although you will need your tripod for the long exposures. Enhanced colour effects can also be created using filters... polarisers strengthen colours and eliminate reflections from shiny surfaces when rotated to certain angles. This filter is also effective for reducing or eliminating the problem of reflections of objects within the room on the window pane. Alternatively, keep the room dark so the light level outside is much greater than that inside. And the use of a pale orange filter with colour film is not so odd... it will certainly enhance any sunset effect! The whole window can be included in the picture by using a wide-angle lens to give a frame within a frame with the scene beyond used as a background. Moving closer to the window glass leads to many picture changes. Clear glass has a slightly distorting effect, more pronounced with striations in old glass.- Condensation on the inside or raindrops on the outside of window panes can produce interesting distortions if used creatively. Differential focusing at wide lens apertures will reveal many differences when the water drops on the glass are out of focus... or you can make the background sharp leaving the out-of-focus droplets to produce star-like or lens aperture-diaphragm shaped effects onto the film. All this can be done without going outdoors to look for a subject. You can shoot pictures in all weathers and stay warm and dry... being behind a window is the only place you can shoot landscapes or townscapes from the comfort of your own home! 9:18:04 PM    comment []