If you get up early enough, you can capture the morning fog. The photographic composition respects the rule of thirds, especially regarding the lone tree, my main subject. I included the picnic table to signify the presence of human activity in the vicinity. This often adds interest to a scene.
Above, I’ve captured flowers by limiting the aperture of the Canon EF 85mm f/1,2 L II USM lens. The flowerbed is on the Grey Terrace in the Parc des Champs-de-Bataille. The emphasis is on the middle row, leaving the others out of focus to create a different effect.
There’s no shortage of space in Quebec when it comes to picking berries. Although it doesn’t appear so in the picture, the Vire-Crêpes business had many customers on its grounds that day. But the estate covers such a large area that it offers people a fairly private zone.
This last photo shows a blueberry plant from Saint-Nicolas, south of Quebec City. The fruits require more time to reach full maturity, but the different colours visible at this stage of growth makes for a more interesting shot.
The Old Quebec in winter is always exciting to photograph. The continually changing weather presents new opportunities that must be seized. Moreover, for the same weather system, each hour that passes also offers a different luminosity. The photographer is spoilt for choice.
For the picture above, taken with a Canon 5DSr, I positioned myself in a place that is normally off-limits during winter. That’s why you can only see my footprints in the snow. But hey! The risk was minimal and the angle of view perfect to capture the Château Frontenac.
The street lamp emits a light that needs to be corrected in the camera. Instead of “AWB”, select “tungsten”. This adjustment allows you to reflect exactly what you see, rather than ending up with tones that are too contrasty. HDR photography allows for some correction of large contrasts in brightness.
The lights on the roof of the Chateau Frontenac illuminate the snow falling around the building. This snow makes for interesting sky tones, even though the blue hour has long since passed.
In terms of the photographic composition, the low wall and fence serve as the entry point into the photo. The lamp post is located at a point respecting the rule of thirds. The building on the right blocks the view and invites the eye to continue its exploration to the left of the photo, which leads the viewer to the Chateau Frontenac.
The photo below, taken a few minutes later, uses the stairs as an entry point into the photo to quickly lead the eye to the Château Frontenac. In this case, a vertical format lends itself better to the scene.
The snow on the railings and steps adds an alternating black and white effect. Otherwise, everything would be quite dark and we would lose a little interest. A nearby street lamp provides enough ambient light to illuminate the scene; however, I was careful not to include the light source directly in the photo, as it distracts the viewer from the main subject.
In winter as well as in summer, I use a tripod to reduce camera shake and improve resolution in low light conditions.
The fontaine de Tournyand the parliament building in Quebec City are often photographed separately. This can give very good results. However, the visual impact can be increased by combining the two architectural styles in close proximity in the same photo.
By paying attention to the photographic composition, I sought a balance while creating a tension between the two works. In the scene above, the fountain and the Parliament building appear to be of similar height. The vertical axis of the center of the Parliament tower is about the same distance from the right side of the photo as the vertical axis of the fountain is from the left side. This is close to the rule of thirds, but not dogmatically so. Both works are deliberately framed tightly.
Other elements contribute to the interest of the scene. First of all, each architectural work has a specific color that is well marked and luckily the colors are almost complementary. Still on the subject of color, I chose to take the photo during the “blue hour”, that time of day just before dark when a very soft light illuminates the landscape for a few more minutes.
Finally, the water jets and the people in the background add a little dynamism to an essentially static subject.
This photo was taken at the end of a beautiful day in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. The sun is almost on the horizon and is hitting the sides of the trees directly, further enhancing the autumn colors.
By this time, people are home having dinner and there are hardly any vehicles on the road. Rather than photographing an empty road, which certainly would have been a logical choice, I waited for a vehicle to show up and advance into the foreground of the photo. We are in the countryside and, luckily for me, the old Ford pick-up fitted perfectly in the landscape.
In terms of the photographic composition, the ideal position to capture the scene seemed to be near the curve, so as to use the white line of the road as a guideline leading to the subject of interest. The 16×9 format also allowed for a photo large enough to include the set of transmission line poles on the left, which itself was certainly as old as the pick-up. The latter was positioned according to the rule of thirds , without any compromises being necessary.
The posts on the left allowed a better framing of the subject. In the distance, the sun shines on the road and we assume there is a field on the left that lets the sun’s rays pass through.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DS R full frame camera.
The main subject, in the picture above, can either be the Canada Goose or the bright psychedelic pattern of colours surrounding the bird.
Moments before three geese swam near Victoria’s Fishermen’s Wharf, in British Columbia, the multicolored houses built along the piers were perfectly reflected in the water.
As the geese swam through the reflections, waves and patterns of multiple colours were suddenly created. I chose to take a picture of the last Canada Goose as she benefitted the most from the interesting shapes and colours in the water.
The very bright colours were due to the paint chosen for the houses as well as the direct sunrays striking the houses since the sun that was approching the horizon. The goose is positioned according to the rule of thirds, but this is never mandatory. The small waves in the lower left quadrant gradually lead the eye to the main subject.
I return in the past with this photo of the Governement of QuebecChallenger 600 C-GQBQ. It is seen here after the take-off from the Quebec Jean-Lesage international airport. The picture was taken during fall 2012 with a Canon 5D MKII full frame camera, from the stairway surrounding the Quebec control tower.
With regards to photographic composition, the rule of thirds can be detected in the two wooden zones in the background, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the photo. The aircraft’s position in the frame happens to also meet the same rule of thirds.
I used the spectacular colors of fall to add some interest to the scene.
This digitally modified photo shows a part of Place d’Youville, in Old Quebec.
I wanted to capture the church in the background, which seemed to be squeezed between two bigger buildings. It became the principal subject of the photo and it was positioned according to the rule of thirds. This rule is far from mandatory in photography but it often provides interesting results.
I liked the repetitive effect of the windows on each side of the picture and the fact that there were diagonal lines that lead the eye to the church. The vegetation in the foreground added a nice touch to the scenery. There was only one thing missing: a human presence.
With a little patience, three girls stopped on the sidewalk and started to talk, exactly where I wanted them to be. The wet sidewalk on which they stood helped to reflect the ambiant light and also lead the eye to the church, the principal subject in the photo.
I rarely digitally transform a photo in such a drastic way. The reason was simple: normally, when the ambiant light is not favorable, you can sometimes use the black and white setting. However, the light on that day did not offer the required contrasts to get sufficiently interesting results.
I did not want to leave Place d’Youville without having captured the energy I felt there. I opted for a radical option after having cropped the image in order to keep only the essential features.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSRfull frame camera.
For other photos on the province of Quebec and also Quebec City, click on the following links from my blog:
In July 2017, the four masted Chilean sailboatEsmeralda arrived in Quebec City for the Tall Ships Regatta 2017. The arrival was quite spectacular, as the whole crew sang together for several minutes for the people standing along the pier.
In order to avoid any distraction, the full frame picture has been taken in the portrait mode and the cropping was tight enough to bring forward the crew members standing up high away on the masts.
The picture below offers another point of view of the sailboat masts but this time the importance is given to the colored chairs directly installed in water, allowing the tourists to cool down during a particularly hot summer day. The wide angle lens used for the shot was a Canon 14mm f/2.8L. Two diagonal lines created by the pool in the foreground progressively meet with each other in the distance, in front of the sailboat.
When the Tall Ships Regatta 2017 ended, several small boats approached the Esmeralda and other sailboats to slowly travel with them from Quebec City until they cleared île d’Orléans. In the picture below, you can see the cruise shipMaasdam, which has been repositioned to a new pier in the Port of Quebec in order to accomodate the sailboats.
In the picture below, the sailboat Esmeralda his heading towards the north of île d’Orléans as the final parade is completed. On the left, you can see the Château Frontenac and, directly behind, the Hotel Le Concorde Québec, with in its upper ring a revolving restaurant offering a superb view of Quebec City. The hand held photo was taken from île d’Orléans with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USMtelephoto lens. This lens is equipped with an integrated stabilizer.
It would nonetheless have been quite difficult to succeed with such an important cropping without the performance of the 50.6 megapixel full frame sensor used in the Canon 5DSR. Considering the great distance over water that is present between the camera and the sailboat, it is possible that you notice a mirage effect, even with the small picture presented here.
I thought the crew would use all of the sailboat’s sails once passed île d’Orléans, but it was not the case. The picture below was taken from the top of a wooden tower installed at the north east extremity of île d’Orléans, while the Esmeralda is still navigating using its engine.
Even without the sails, the photographic composition benefited from a yellow field, a merchant ship and a lively horizon line showing the Appalachian mountains. No tripods were used for the shot as the wooden tower was constantly moving. The telephoto lens used was a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM and a slight cropping was necessary.
An approximative rule of thirds is behind the composition of the photo : you can imagine three fictive horizontal lines dividing the frame. The sailboat also finds itself on one of the rule of thirds vertical line on the right.
For other pictures of ships on my website, click on the following link : Ship photography.
The picture above, that shows the activities of the White Birch Paper company in Quebec City, was taken on June 2017 from a moving car on a highway heading to Quebec City’s east side.
The shot was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera at 19:33 when the light was quite weak. There was also a bit of mist and an overcast sky at the time of the picture.
In order to compensate for the lack of adequate light, and also for the fact that the camera was moving, it was necessary to use a lens requiring very little light. That prevented from setting too high of an ISO (only 2500). The shutter speed was set to 1/1250 sec. The perfect lens for this picture was the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM.
Some cropping had to be done to recenter the main subject according to the rule-of-thirds.
Finally, an image editing software helped increase the cloud and smoke effects around the two chimneys.
The photography book « Full Frame », by David Noton, was written in 2010 but the content is still totally pertinent today. It’s possibly the best photography book I’ve ever read. The images are fantastic and the text is loaded with practical and accessible information.
The author is known as one of the best landscape photographer in the world. Every page of his book is divided in three sections: before, during, after. This means that you read about everything that the author had to deal with as he travelled around the world with his wife to capture landscapes: the preparation, technique, priorities, obstacles, successes, etc.
All along the book, I had the feeling that a friend was writing me since the text is written with a light and humoristic approach in mind, and certainly without pretend. Here are some of his remarks and advices:
“Luck is where preparation and opportunity combine.” (p.38) This certainly applies to everything we do in life.
“Stick with the full frame quality and crop as when required, keeping all the [sensor’s megapixels] information in reserve”.
“Sometimes a new lens or format will serve as a catalyst for a whole new way of looking. It’s all part of the evolutionary process.” (p.64)
Sharpen all digital images. Pictures are made of square pixels and need microadjustments.
To choose among your interesting similar photos which one is the best, start with a very good one and compare it with each other photo, one at a time, throwing away the ones that are inferior. You will save a lot of time.
A bit of blinking in the highlights is not terrible since RAW files can easily be adjusted. Don’t forget that the camera’s monitor shows an histogram adjusted for JPEG files.
Use a grad filter to control the contrasts only, not to add mood or create an artificial contrast.
There is no need to always show the tops of mountains.
“The best pictures are the simplest. Composition is the art of knowing what to leave out.” (p.71)
“Be flexible and strive to extract the most from seemingly adverse conditions.” (p.77)
“For wide angle views on the world, a full-frame sensor is imperative.” (p.93)
“Scout the location, analyse the options in different lighting situations, previsualize the image, plan the shoot then keep returning until it’s nailed.” (p.113)
“Location finding is everything; the photography is the easy bit.” (p.125)
“Don’t be afraid of “blinkies” in the brightest part of the sky where the sun shines through […]. We don’t expect to see detail there.” (p.138)
“Using movement is an essential technique in a photographer’s repertoire.” (p.143)
“The classic, golden rule of thirds is a good starting point, but it’s only a guideline to ignore at will.” (p.149)
“A camera’s sensor is not a linear device so the right half of the histogram contains far more information than the left. Those apparently overexposed images, when processed with the brightness brought back to the desired density, will have richer tones and less noise than a frame exposed to the left.” (p.153)
“We photographers can only continue to improve if we keep pushing ourselves.” (p.187)