Posted by Philip Schwarz on February 15, 2007 at 10:37 AM
I’ve put a few photos from my recent trip to Apostle Island Ice Caves out on my website. I’ve tried to include sample photos showing the range of photo opportunities available in this small area.
As someone new to photography I found it to be a rather challenging photo location. There is bright sunlight, snow, ice, low light levels in the caves, high contrast when shooting into and out of the caves and hot spots in many of the photos. In addition, it was 10 degrees on the first day and -15 on the second day. This would make a great location for a photo class.
I would appreciate any tips on how to shoot in such a location including articles or books on the subject. Photo 16 illustrates the problem as it has a hot spot which I couldn’t deal with.
Posted by Barb Hansen on February 15, 2007 at 12:52 PM
Hello again Philip. I looked at the images you posted and it looks like you did a lot better than I did. I see you shot at ISO 400 where I shot everything @ISO 100 and used a Circular Polarizer and ND filter to control the contrast. My plan didn't work as well as I hoped. I don't know if this will help you , but some things I'm going to try next time are: 1. Go earlier in the day probably morning. 2. try different ISO's from the same position 3. multiple exposures one for the shadows in the cave and one for the brighter areas and hopefully combine them later in PS. . I think it would be nice to have a partly cloudy day too, you might be able to use the clouds to difuse the light. I might also try some fill flash bounced off the the rock. Anyway I'm looking forward to see if someone else has a better idea. Thanks again for posting the ice conditions in the first place.....and it was nice to meet you.
Posted by Philip Schwarz on February 15, 2007 at 1:12 PM
Barb
Thanks for the ideas. I was originally shooting at 200 but switched to 400 because after about 20 min of shooting my tripod broke so I thought shooting at 400 would help with the hand held shots. My original intention was to try shooting multiple shots and trying combining those in PS but the loss of the tripod made that impossible. I’m on the search for a new tripod and head this week. Hope to get back up there in the next couple of weeks.
Broken tripod? That's no fun. Barb's suggestions would are essentially along the lines of what I would think as well. You have some beautiful shots here Philip. I especially love the close-ups!
Posted by Lars Jensen on February 23, 2007 at 1:56 PM
Great shots, thanks for sharing. I have been curious about this area in the winter but it's a long drive from lower Michigan. I usually visit Pictured Rocks which has the same sort of things and it tends to be overcast which helps out with the photo taking.
Discussion
4 replieshttp://philipschwarz.zenfolio.com/p954439438/
As someone new to photography I found it to be a rather challenging photo location. There is bright sunlight, snow, ice, low light levels in the caves, high contrast when shooting into and out of the caves and hot spots in many of the photos. In addition, it was 10 degrees on the first day and -15 on the second day. This would make a great location for a photo class.
I would appreciate any tips on how to shoot in such a location including articles or books on the subject. Photo 16 illustrates the problem as it has a hot spot which I couldn’t deal with.
Thanks for looking.
Philip Schwarz
E2311 530th Ave
Menomonie, WI 54751
e-mail: schwarzp@uwstout.edu
web: http://www.photo.net/photos/philipschwarz
web: http://philipschwarz.zenfolio.com/
Thanks for the ideas. I was originally shooting at 200 but switched to 400 because after about 20 min of shooting my tripod broke so I thought shooting at 400 would help with the hand held shots. My original intention was to try shooting multiple shots and trying combining those in PS but the loss of the tripod made that impossible. I’m on the search for a new tripod and head this week. Hope to get back up there in the next couple of weeks.
Phil