5th January 2021
Kieran Metcalfe
A Derbyshire based and award winning landscape photographer who gave us some fabulous atmospheric images and a lot of tips!
A lot of the work he showed us had been taken in the UK, a refreshing reminder in times of restricted travel that we have beauty on our doorstep. I am so used to seeing it all, sometimes I forget to really look properly in the way I would if I were in a strange country!
Kieran started off with talking about his kit, reinforcing the notion that a good image is not in the expensive kit you may buy - but in the expensive kit you already have in your eyes. He uses an APSC camera - and this again demystifies the “full frame is all” notion. He also ran through the lenses and filters he uses and again not always the most expensive. So all that was a good start! My take is that you find the kit you feel most comfortable with and which “fits” you.
Unusually Kieran included the whole day - so we got to deal with sunrises to harsh midday light (by looking at reflected light in waterfall canyons) and then moving through the day onto blue hour and Astrolandscape (emphasising Noctilucent clouds). There was a lot of rich information for sunburst fans and a tutorial in bracketed exposures and the use of Lightroom Photo Merge to deal with high contrast scenes. He also gave us a romp through fog and how we can use our winter misty mornings and produced some mystical images to demonstrate.
The main body of his talk was in explaining his photographic journey into light using some excellent before and after photos: his self critique approach I found most helpful. Kieran makes the light "work for him" and positions the light himself using the landscape as his studio. His explanation of using natural sidelight led him into explaining how light is formed accompanied by images which demonstrated the effects of the smoke from Yosemite fires on light and then how this American Wildfire smoke also affected English light. More images showed us the Sahara sand effect on English light.
As with a lot of things the secret of Kieran's fabulous images are in the planning and prep (although undeniably there are also “lucky breaks”) he showed us some images demonstrating what happened when he didn't plan properly. We all know that one.
It was an extremely comprehensive talk covering landscape photography in its many forms.
His sensitivity to the landscape drew our attention to how we as photographers need to be sensitive to not destroying the landscape we treasure - he showed some shocking images of well worn paths created by photographers at iconic viewpoints.
Kieran uses apps like SkyFire and Clear Outside which helps him determine whether there will be high broken cloud for sunsets and to be better able to determine more general weather.
He showed how Captive Wide angle in photoshop can be used to straighten verticles.
(Nb Kieran’s forest images reminded me of some recent work from a Danish Photographer called Mads Peter Iverson’ - check him out! )
Kieran Metcalfe
A Derbyshire based and award winning landscape photographer who gave us some fabulous atmospheric images and a lot of tips!
A lot of the work he showed us had been taken in the UK, a refreshing reminder in times of restricted travel that we have beauty on our doorstep. I am so used to seeing it all, sometimes I forget to really look properly in the way I would if I were in a strange country!
Kieran started off with talking about his kit, reinforcing the notion that a good image is not in the expensive kit you may buy - but in the expensive kit you already have in your eyes. He uses an APSC camera - and this again demystifies the “full frame is all” notion. He also ran through the lenses and filters he uses and again not always the most expensive. So all that was a good start! My take is that you find the kit you feel most comfortable with and which “fits” you.
Unusually Kieran included the whole day - so we got to deal with sunrises to harsh midday light (by looking at reflected light in waterfall canyons) and then moving through the day onto blue hour and Astrolandscape (emphasising Noctilucent clouds). There was a lot of rich information for sunburst fans and a tutorial in bracketed exposures and the use of Lightroom Photo Merge to deal with high contrast scenes. He also gave us a romp through fog and how we can use our winter misty mornings and produced some mystical images to demonstrate.
The main body of his talk was in explaining his photographic journey into light using some excellent before and after photos: his self critique approach I found most helpful. Kieran makes the light "work for him" and positions the light himself using the landscape as his studio. His explanation of using natural sidelight led him into explaining how light is formed accompanied by images which demonstrated the effects of the smoke from Yosemite fires on light and then how this American Wildfire smoke also affected English light. More images showed us the Sahara sand effect on English light.
As with a lot of things the secret of Kieran's fabulous images are in the planning and prep (although undeniably there are also “lucky breaks”) he showed us some images demonstrating what happened when he didn't plan properly. We all know that one.
It was an extremely comprehensive talk covering landscape photography in its many forms.
His sensitivity to the landscape drew our attention to how we as photographers need to be sensitive to not destroying the landscape we treasure - he showed some shocking images of well worn paths created by photographers at iconic viewpoints.
Kieran uses apps like SkyFire and Clear Outside which helps him determine whether there will be high broken cloud for sunsets and to be better able to determine more general weather.
He showed how Captive Wide angle in photoshop can be used to straighten verticles.
(Nb Kieran’s forest images reminded me of some recent work from a Danish Photographer called Mads Peter Iverson’ - check him out! )