Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

Now that I had finally grasped the concept of underexposure readings from the light source, I was ready to make adjustments to accommodate for the bad readings. This was taken at a small pond, which I noticed on my way home from shooting at the farm. Initially I shot from the gravel road, which passed by the property. The property owner stopped to inquire as to what I was doing and invited me onto the property for a better shot. They were more than glad to sign a release, which made the photos my property entirely to do with whatever I wished. It is essential to know that you must acquire a release from the property owners or from each person in your photos. I heard several years ago that most large cities are requiring a city release of photos taken of the cities no matter where the photos were shot from. Back to the photo, which was shot at f32 on auto. I took several other photos over and underexposed. This one was the winner since I was going for a medium silhouette effect. A level of haze changed the color of the sun at midpoint, which demonstrates the effect of haze.

Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

I returned to the same pond for another attempt on a stormy day and a new Coker T1 graduated tobacco filter in hand. This was also shot at f32 on auto but the filter added to the bad light source reading resulting in a shot about 2 stops darker than I wanted. I trusted the setting from the previous day and later compensated when I used the filter. The sun was out briefly before this photo was taken but it was simply too high in the horizon causing it to be too bright. Brightness causes bright flare spots in the picture. Sometimes flares are useful but more often than not, they are simply bad photos. The sun disappeared for the rest of the sunset and my day was done. Quite often though the sun will appear from storm clouds for a fantastic red sky. That is if it is not raining between you and the sun. Stormy days are gambles but the payoff is magnificent.

Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

I saw this old house one day and decided that it would make a nice sunset picture. I shot 2 rolls of film on 4 different days searching for the photo that I had envisioned. I never did get it but I did get close. I really never had a stormy type of day to get the color in the sky that would really set it off. This is the graduated T2 filter exposed 2 or 3 stops more than the recommended f-stop setting. This is probably an f8 at 1 second. You can easily see the graduation in the color, which makes it very difficult to line the graduation up properly in the subject. Sometimes it is simply unwise to use a graduated filter. In general, graduated filters cannot stand alone as the only color effect in a shot. Nature has to help a little.

Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

This is also the T2 graduated filter with a twist. This is shot at f32, which makes the iris in the camera very small and therefore concentrated to a small area on the filter. I moved the filter down until the color I wanted appeared in the viewfinder. This is probably set on auto making the foreground very dark (underexposed).

Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

Again, cruising the back roads will expose you to photos you would otherwise overlook. Sometimes you can't find a good shot unless it's served up on a silver platter. I threw in the graduated T2 filter and lined the graduation up in the dark part of the photo. I didn't have time to play with the settings so I shot this series on auto. Auto in the sun is a guaranteed silhouette shot. This is an important lesson if you're shooting a subject in the shade with a sunlit background. Setting the exposure 1 or 2 stops higher will alleviate the problem.

Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

I surmised that a steel pole in the sunset would look as good as a wooden pole. The trick was to find a steel pole on a hill. This is again f32 lined up with the darkest area on the graduated T2 filter.

Copyright Wade Enloe 1999

This is the same shot with a blue filter. This changed the darker areas of the blue sky to a deeper blue. The dominant reds remained in the red spectrum until it met with the overpowering blue.

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