The rule of thirds

When composing an image, we are often inclined to place the main subject, be it a peak, a person, or a prayer flag, right in the middle of the frame. While this can work at times, as Steve McCurry’s iconic portraits demonstrate, it often leaves the image feeling dull. A quick and easy remedy for this, which will liven up your images and your composition, is to use the rule of thirds. The technique is simple: divide your image into thirds and place your main subject in the left or right, top or bottom third of the image instead of in the middle. This simple technique, a small change of position, creates energy and movement in the image and a dynamic and captivating composition.

Leapfrog!!

Let’s face it: butt shots just don’t work. Sure, they’re easy to create: you see your friend climbing on top of you, you take out the camera and take a picture. However, what comes out is often devoid of emotion, as the climber’s face, the part that shows his emotion and tells more about the scene, is hidden. So from now on, remember that childhood game of frog jump. As an expedition photographer, whether it’s on top of Everest or Mount Rainier, I’m always playing flips with my subjects. I start the day ahead of them, get into a good position with a dramatic setting to take a picture, set up, shoot when they pass me, pack up, pass them and set up another shot further up the mountain. It’s not easy, but it makes a difference. If they’re tied together, don’t worry: wait until it’s safe (at a break or when someone is safely tied) and take pictures that way. Just avoid the infamous butt shots please!

More is not always better

Our eyes, working in conjunction with our brain, are amazing devices. In the blink of an eye, we can scroll through a scene, select the interesting parts, and zoom in on them in our brains while still seeing the full view. However, with still images, we often need to help our viewer not get distracted and focus on the best part of a scene. And oftentimes, it does nothing for our image other than detract from it… and we’re better off doing more with less. To do this, use a zoom lens to bring an interesting subject more fully into the frame…or use that old tried-and-true tool: your legs. Yes, that’s right, if your lens isn’t getting you close enough to your subject to make the frame visually appealing, zoom in, compose and shoot. It’s all in the perspective!

PANORAMA

Everest’s Northeast Ridge from Camp VI on the North Face. It is an iconic view of an iconic place, but one whose magnitude and imposing nature is impossible to capture on a frame of film (or a sensor). Take multiple frames and stitch them together with panorama software. Take multiple frames of your future panorama, overlapping the edges of each image by at least 25%. Later, you can use one of the many panoramic stitching programs available via a Google search or, if you have Adobe Photoshop, use its built-in Photomerge program to stitch the images together – it works like a charm! Here are a couple of tips to make your panoramas even better:

1. Watch for distortion: Many wide-angle lenses show some distortion at the edges of the frame; this is easily seen when a straight line is placed on the sides of the frame and bent or arched. Make sure the lens you’re using doesn’t have any distortion (it’s not a fisheye for a fixed focal length lens) or is zoomed in enough to remove any distortion on a telephoto lens.

two. use a tripod: Taking a panorama, and stitching it together effectively afterwards, requires precision that’s hard to achieve without a tripod, especially if we’re standing on wobbly rocks and gasping for breath. Therefore, use a tripod (or a hard, immovable surface like a rock) to ensure that the plane of the panorama remains constant from frame to frame.

3. lock your exposure: As you move from shot to shot in your panorama, the lighting in the scene will inevitably change. If you leave your camera in program mode, it will find the best exposure for each frame, sometimes resulting in drastic changes in lighting from the first frame to the last… and making it impossible to stitch them together afterwards. The solution is to first scroll from one side of the panorama to the other, noting the recommended exposures from your camera’s meter. Then find a happy medium between the range of f/stops and apertures. Lock this exposure setting in manual mode and shoot!

Four. Lock your white balance: Like the previous exposure, your white balance will adjust as you move the camera around the shot, sometimes with problematic results. Be sure to lock your white balance to the proper settings: sunlight, cloud, custom, etc.

Have camera…will get shot

It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how often people leave their camera behind (and, of course, lose footage) or have it so far out of reach that it’s too difficult (or too dangerous) to get it out when that happens. the perfect moment arises. For example, take May 1, 1999: I walked across the North Face of Everest to where Conrad Anker was standing over the remains of George Mallory. The scene I walked into was perfect: I pulled out my camera, took a few frames, and within seconds Conrad was looking in a different direction and the moment was gone. If my camera hadn’t been close at hand, the moment would have been lost… forever. My solution is to always keep my camera in a fanny pack (I use a MountainSmith Aurora II) facing forward. In that package is my camera, spare lenses, batteries, and cards, plus a couple of activated hand warmers to keep things running smoothly when I want to shoot.

Stop!

As good as modern digital cameras are, they are still lacking in some areas, especially in the realm of outdoor and expedition photography. A common problem occurs when shooting in snowy conditions: many bright targets contrast sharply against deep blue skies and dark rocks. Basically, it fools most sensors and if left to their own devices, cameras will create images with dull reflections; that is, the snow will be white at full volume with little or no detail. The solution is to manually set the exposure compensation to underexpose the image by 1/3 to 2/3 stops (-0.3 to -0.7 on most cameras). Lock this setting on your camera and shoot in any shooting mode and your photos will come out with detail in highlights (snow) while still being good in darker areas.

Stuff it!

Another common problem you face when shooting expeditions is a climber against a snowy background or bright sky. Take a photo without backlight compensation and you’ll most likely end up with a properly exposed background and a dark, underexposed main subject. To fix this, use some fill flash. But, don’t turn on the flash and shoot… Flashes are calibrated to balance a subject with daylight conditions, and doing so will splash too much light on the subject and produce an unnatural look. Go to your flash settings and, as with exposure compensation above, manually stop flash output. I usually keep my flash stopped between -0.7 and -1.0 (2/3 to a full stop) and sometimes go even lower depending on the situation. Play with it and remember that the adagio film is cheap – this truism becomes even truer with digital!

sun star

One of my favorite techniques when shooting expeditions is shooting directly into the sun, but getting the desired results can be frustrating. However, if done correctly, the result is a dramatic image with the sun (or any bright point source of light) turned into a dazzling star. For it to work, you need to be able to set your aperture manually (not possible on many point-and-shoot cameras). Set your aperture to f-16 or higher; Generally speaking, the larger the aperture (the smaller the light input hole), the better for this output. Then, with your camera in manual mode, compose your image and bring the exposure ½ to 1½ stops underexposed by adjusting your shutter speed accordingly. Take a frame and make sure the sun is highlighted the way you want and the rest of your image is properly exposed as well.

Zoom in or back

As I mentioned earlier, perspective is everything. It can turn a drab image into a stellar one… or turn what could be a great shot into another snapshot. So, try a different perspective by using your legs to move around and using different lenses to change your view. Sometimes a shot requires a wide angle of view to show the whole big view, while other shots may need to be very narrow to emphasize details. In my expedition kit, I always look for a balance between versatility and weight; It’s not always an easy balance, but with modern equipment and a few dollars, it’s doable. Being a Nikon shooter, I always go with Nikon lenses. My standard kit includes my Nikon 10.5mm DX Fisheye for wide-angle shots and the 18-200mm DX VR telephoto lens for a wide range of focal lengths. In my backpack is my big weapon: a Nikon 80-400mm VR telephoto lens…heavy, but quite useful. With that 3 lens combination I can go from an ultra wide fisheye perspective to an incredibly close one with the 400mm (which, on a Nikon DSLR sensor is equivalent to 600mm on a 35mm camera, powerful enough to to get up close to the top of Everest in a personal way). from base camp!). Furthermore, we can create unique images simply by moving our cameras and body. Lay flat on the ground and shoot into the sky, or go a little higher and shoot from a bird’s eye view.

try a bit of everything

Although the current equipment is incredible, the best photographs require a combination of equipment and personal vision. Rarely does a simple point-and-shoot image appear on the cover of National Geographic. So try a bit of everything on your next outing or expedition. Have fun, play. Figure out what story you want to tell, and then decide which images will best tell that story. The best opportunity is often the one you decided not to take!