After another day in front of the computer, I went for a walk in the park. My intention for this visit was to continue using the mirror-less camera to shoot both a RAW and low-quality JPG and see how this method works in relation to this project.
The afternoon was a bit sunny, but by the time I got to the park at approximately 3.30pm the light had ‘died’. The sunset was at 4pm that day, but I was hoping to catch some golden rays. Despite that lack of light, I thought I would still try to take some shots to see what the results would be. I also wanted to explore with focusing on one tree and take different shots from different angles and distances. For the following shots were taken using the 35mm at ISO64.
Tree One
The first hawthorn I photographed was the one I’ve nicknamed The Grim Reaper.
These are the low-quality Black & White conversions created by the camera.
I also took at smartphone shot from a particular angle then combined it with the following images. The ‘abstract’ one has been made from the fourth shot above.
Tree Two
I then walked towards the hawthorn that’s at the end of the row before the gap between the two plantations of the Woodland Gardens. This was taken at F1.8.
The sun was going down towards the left of this tree. What I could do for a more effective shot was to try the speedlight flash a bit earlier in the day to test how this would work.
I then edited this image by bringing up the exposure.
There were two aspects I liked. Firstly the sky showing through the gap. Secondly, the contrast between the in-focus branches and trunk in contrast to the blurred background. This really does make the tree ‘pop’ from the background.
Tree Three
I then walked had a wander through the Waterhouse Plantation then came out at the other end. This brought me to another part of the park I hadn’t explored as yet. At this time the sunlight was lower in the sky and there was a golden glow.
I came across this particular hawthorn. When I looked closer, I realised the trunk was split into multiple trunks.
When I arrived home I made my own Black & White conversion to compare with the one created by the camera.
In addition to these Black & White images, this is a low-res JPG saved directly from the original RAW file without additional editing.
Jennie Meadows MA Photography 