Most
of my pictures are done at dawn ; when shreds of night still dawdle
on meadows and when sun noisily tears up the dingy cloak of the sky.
Seasons I prefer are automn and winter. During these times, Nature seems
to rise up from a heavy slumber with labour. Air reinvigorates, silence
is beneficient. These on field sessions are the best therapy i know
for accumulated stress during the week. They are both very relaxing
and extremely energizing.
Photography conditions are really interesting. Dawn light is at the
same time at a very high level of contrast and paradoxically bestows
a very smooth mood. Shadows are very rich in details : dew, haze...and
highlights are often razing and high in colour temperature. They give
raw material to the image. These conditions’s challenge, as often,
is to balance the exposure to restore, in true proportions, the global
ambiance. But, in this precise case, the room for maneuver is quite
narrow.
According to Zone System from Ansel Adams, you have to pose for deep
shadows and highlights will be handled during the development process.
In digital photography, things differs in some ways. This is the Photoshop
mastery which will help in solving this problem, using software’s
powerful Adjustment Layers and selective masks.