Hi everybody welcome to another episode
of Exploring Photography right here on
AdoramaTV. I'm Mark Wallace here in Cape
Town, South Africa and behind me here is
Table Mountain. It’s one of the most iconic
landmarks in all of Africa and today I'm
going to shoot a photo of this landmark.
The problem is we have this slight
drizzle, we have clouds are moving in and
out we have all kinds of weather issues
and so I'm not sure exactly what's going
to work out with this photo and so what
I'm going to do is, I'm going to shoot for
coverage and that means I'm going to
shoot several different ways to make
sure that I get something that I can use
and so the first thing I do is I'm going to
shoot a panorama. Now down below me this
is called the bowl of Cape Town it's the
actual city. Now over here you can see
the sea, the problem with this is this
scene behind me it's about two stops
brighter than the actual Table Mountain
back here and so I'm not sure if a
panorama is actually going to work, but
we're going to try it. The other thing I
can do, see these clouds coming onto
table mountain here, I can shoot with a
long lens to maybe get something that's
very specific to that and that'll be
really cool, or I can also shoot down
into the city itself. We've got these
rooftops, all kinds of things here. So
there are three different ways that we
can shoot this and one of them has to
work out so join me as I try to create
some photos of this iconic shot of Table
Mountain. Well the good news is here in
Cape Town if you don't like the weather
you wait 10 minutes, that’s what Elsa told
me and so we did wait 10 minutes and now
we have bright sunlight which is good
for us and so we haven't even exposure
from the mountain out to the coast,
that's awesome. So the way that I'm
shooting this, I have my camera set to ISO
200, f/8, I'm focused manual focus at
hyperfocal. If you don't know hyperfocal
is then click, we have a link up here so
you can see that episode that explains
what hyperfocal focusing is. Then I'm
shooting at about 500, looks like a
1000th of a second, which is really
nice.
That means I don't need a tripod I can
shoot this at a 1000th of a second
hand held no problem.
So the strategy here is instead of
shooting a bunch of photos horizontally,
I'm going to move my camera vertically
and that means I have these smaller,
taller slices that I can put together
for a much higher resolution image then
if I shot maybe two or three
horizontal images. That also gives me a
lot better leeway if I get things wrong
with my camera angle and so once I
stitch everything together I can crop
out the bad parts.
Alright so, we have the camera set to
manual mode, 1000th of a second,
manual focus, hyperfocal. The other thing
I need to do is when I'm taking these
vertical shots for this panorama to work
is I need to make sure once i have one shot,
I overlap the second shot considerably,
and overlap the next shot, overlap the
next shot, because if we don't overlap
enough then photoshop is going to have a
hard time figuring out which image goes
where.
So overlap more, than less. Sll right now
we have all that done I'm going to shoot
this and then we'll throw it together in
Photoshop and make sure it works out
just fine.
So here we go, I'm going to first, by the
way make sure that they know exactly
where to put the camera and then start
shooting.
Click, click.
Now I switch to a normal 21mm
wide angle lens and I'm going to try to
shoot this mountain. Now here's the key
with the wide angle lens you need
foreground interest. You need something
to pull you into the frame. So I could
shoot just like this standing up and
take a picture of, here's Table Mountain.
That, that's not so good because there's
nothing to lead our eye into the photo, so
what I should do is sort of crouched
down here like this.
Now we have all these little flowers
here and that is my foreground interest
and that is going to make this a much
more pleasing photo. So let's take a look
at the first photo with me standing up,
compared to the second photo with that
foreground interest that leads us into
the frame. So when you're shooting a big
panorama like this make sure with the
wide angle lens that you find something
that will lead your eye into the frame.
Well my third option for shooting this
scene is a long lens this is a 135mm lens. So we've
done our wide angle, we've done our
panorama. So what I'm doing now is I'm
looking for little scenes down in the
city and up on the mountain there to
isolate the subjects. So I'm not trying to
tell the entire story,
I'm just trying to tell a very specific
part of that story. Maybe clouds on the
top of the mountain, rooftops, the flowers
etc. So I'm just going to look around here
and see what is interesting to me in my
eye and I'm going to start taking
pictures. I'm shooting again at f/8,
aperture priority mode
and ISO 200. Let me shoot around and see
what kind of stories I can find with my long lens.
Well there we have three different
approaches to shooting Table Mountain.
The panorama, the wide-angle lens, the
long lens. Now I have to say that this
location here on Table Mountain, I
didn't just find it. I found it through a
friend of mine her name is Elsa Hoffmann.
Elsa come on over. Elsa is the owner of
phototourscapetown.com and she
actually took me all around Cape Town
and showed me different things that we
could shoot. We shot penguins, we shot the
bay, we shot the harbour, all kinds of
different things and one of the things
if you’re a traveling photographer that
you might want to consider is to find a
local that will show you around a city
so you know exactly what to shoot and
where and save yourself time. If you only
have maybe an afternoon to get something.
So Elsa, thank you so much.
She also let me shoot in her studio so,
controlling the shadows on the white
background and at her house and so when
we did the fake golden hour video, that
was all at her place. So thank you so
much. So make sure you check that out,
phototourscapetown.com and make
sure you check out the Adorama Learning
Center so you can learn all about
hyperfocal focusing and all of the
different things about making a panorama
etc and also subscribe to AdoramaTV it's
free. Have you done it?
Yes, she's done it so make sure you do it
too. Thanks again and I'll see you again
next time.