|
|
 | | France By Dan Gruskin Photographer Dan Gruskin shows us a small part of his journey through France, and shares some of the photo knowledge which he picked up along the way. Article rating: 8.50 |
Recently I was lucky enough to go on a school trip with my high school. I am a senior and can't wait to be in college, but spending a week in France with my classmates and my camera seemed like an opportunity which I could not pass up. France is an old country. A country full of history and spirit, a country which is impossible to cover in only 6 days. During our trip we spent a couple of days visiting the many sights of Paris. Then we traveled north to the Loire Valley, the Normandy Region and also to Brittany. In each place we visited our wonderful guide Vivi told us a little history about the place then we were sent off to explore and learn on our own (with chaperones closely behind). Here are a couple of photos which made it through my first pass of editing. I hope that you enjoy them.
© Dan Gruskin
Church & Holy
These two images were taken in the famous Notre Dame church. We visited here while on a bus tour of Paris, it was a welcome stop from the recirculated air inside of a bus full of screaming teenagers. This church would provide the most difficult shooting situation of the whole trip. It was dark and shadowy with random bits of sunlight bursting through the magnificent stained glass windows. A sight which was awe inspiring, however, it posed a question. Raise the ISO and end up with slightly grainy images or slow down the shutter speed and risk camera shake?
The lighting inside of churches is always a difficult task. Many times they don't allow flash photography and/or tripods. With the dawn of the digital era however, came an answer to these problems, shooting in the RAW format. The RAW format as opposed to jPeg or any other option does no in camera compressing of images. Thus the camera captures all of the image data and keeps it all stored away enabling (in post processing) to push the image up to 2 stops over or underexposed. In both of these pictures I combined 9 images to get the final result. The 9 images were composed of 3 bracketed exposures done in camera, one exposure 1.5 stops below, one exposure exposed correctly and one exposure 1.5 stops above the correct meter. Once I had these three images I took them into my RAW conversion program (Canon's Digital Photo Professional) and made 3 images of each one each of them exposed a half stop above or below the original image. In photoshop I then combined the 9 photos and simply masked of the bits that were too dark or too light. By shooting in RAW and pushing the boundaries of my cameras abilities I was able to overcome the photographic obstacles and make the most of my short trip away from the delirium of a high school trip.
© Dan Gruskin
Christ
This photo was also taken in Notre Dame. I felt like it really shows off the beauty of the stained glass windows and also the natural lighting in the church. Notre Dame is made up of a mixture of different architectural styles all of which contribute heavily to the dramatic lighting on the inside. In this photo there was a small window in the top right corner of the photo (not seen here) which happened to place the light directly upon this cross. Just light the other two photos Church & Holy I faced the problem of terrible lighting conditions. Unlike the other two photos though I chose to shoot at a 15th of a second hoping that I could handhold the exposure (upon reflection a poor idea). This photo although it may be a little bit blurry really captures the dramatic lighting on the inside of one of the most beautiful churches in france.
© Dan Gruskin
Sitting
France is a beautiful city full of many sights and many historical monuments. One evening during our stay in Paris we were given a tour by boat of Paris. We travelled up and down the Seine River seeing many of the monuments which Paris has to offer. As we were traveling along I of course had my camera out and ready incase there were any candid moments to capture. I took the photo “Sitting” because I loved the composition of it, and also the semi ironic feel of the photo. Paris is known as the city of love, and the Seine River is the most romantic part of Paris. Every night couples gather on the banks of the river to watch the sun set and to whisper sweet nothings into each-others ears. I found it ironic to find a lone man sitting on the banks of this river during sunset. I felt compelled because of this to convey this image in black and white. I used channel mixer adjustment layer to do the black and white conversion for this photo.
© Dan Gruskin
Castle
During our trip we took a couple of day trips to many of the beautiful chateaus of France. During this trip we were visiting the chateau Chenonceau. This particular chateau is known for its maginificant gardens and also the buildings structure. The castle is built over the River Cher and is supported by a multitude of arches. This photo really shows the power of dodging and burning and although I have fully accepted the digital era this is the farthest I would ever realistically push and image in photoshop. Nearly each part of this photo was edited separately and although I am very happy with the final result it is definitely visible that this photo is not the original image.
© Dan Gruskin
^ Back to top
| Comments About This Article |
 | Artistic photos Posted by: Dung Anh Nguyen Apr 18, 2008 @ 3:48 AM EST |
| Post a Comment About This Article |
|
|
|
