Travel & Humanitarian Photos
Photographers. We love the good light. The golden light. We’ll set our alarm clocks at ridiculously early times in the hope of seeing the first amber rays of the day and we’ll hang around a place long after the sensible people have gone home. We’re like bees. Motordrives buzzing as we sniff out the honey-coloured light.
You’ll have heard about the “golden hour”. The hour around sunrise and again around sunset. Some photographers whisper about this magical time, as if to talk about it out loud will somehow reveal a secret, parallel world which few mortals are ever privileged to visit. Whilst another group of photographers, of which I am one, exclaim loudly “what frickin’ time did you say I have to get up?”. I’m not at my best first thing.
If you ever wanted an argument to counter “Intelligent Design” then surely this is it. If there had been anything intelligent involved, we’d have a golden hour just after Elevenses (and brunch on Sundays) and another shortly after my mid-afternoon siesta. To catch the early-morning light in Kathmandu I have to get up at 5am and it’s all over by 7. Then I have to wait around, photographing wherever I can escape from the harsh, contrasty light, until 6pm when I get another sixty minutes of frenzied activity. Seriously, I’m not a young man, this is getting to be hard work.
So you might imagine that by 7pm, with a very full day behind me, that I’d be eager to get home. Well, yes, actually, I am. Especially when I’m staying somewhere as cosy, comfortable and friendly as the rather splendid Nepal B&B, run by the charming Bob and Sonam. No exaggeration, this is one of the finest places I’ve ever had the pleasure to call home in Nepal – and I’ve stayed in a few. It’s not in Tourist Central, which is good, it is a ten-minute walk from Boudha Stupa, which is excellent. The water’s hot, the electricity stays on when everyone else is in the dark and my bed has a mattress that feels like… well… a mattress. That’s not what I’m used to here. I usually get something that feels like a bag of marbles swimming in jelly. This is no small consideration when you’ve been doing a passable impression of a pack mule all day.
So, if you’re coming to Nepal, book a room at Bob’s. Although if I send a reservation in the future and he says they’re full and it’s because you’re staying there then there’s going to be trouble. You have been warned.
Back to the plot. So at 7pm, I’m pretty much ready for a hot shower and that comfy mattress. But let me tell you that the Golden Hour might have gone but there’s still good light to be found. Especially in Boudha where the local electricity provider’s load shedding policy provides a welcome bonus. Welcome for photographers, anyway. Most of the lights go off and the streets are lit only by the occasional battery-powered, naked bulb or by tables of candles set out for late-night devotees wishing to make an offering and give up a prayer. Actually, somebody much cleverer than me once said that there’s no such thing as bad light and I agree. I agree so much that it may have been me who said it. I forget. I say a lot of good stuff.
Now, before you get all excited and head out after dark with your camera, there are some things you need to consider. Firstly, your camera’s built-in light meter isn’t going to cope well in this kind of low-light situation. It will try to render everything grey and you’ll end up with blown highlights and expectations to match. No amount of clever post-production will fix those burnt-out areas so you have a choice to make, either switch to partial or spot metering and then meter carefully from the area that you want to expose accurately or leave your camera on evaluative or matrix metering but dial-in between 1 and 2 stops under exposure. If that’s all double-dutch to you, don’t panic, just find your camera manual and look up ‘Exposure Compensation’ and you’ll soon be good to go. Failing that, do what many pro’s do but may fail to admit, bracket like crazy. Find the auto-exposure bracket setting on your camera and shoot three frames in quick succession at different exposures. When I know the exposure is going to be tricky and I can’t get my brain in gear (more and more frequently these days) then bracketing is the answer.
The images below were all taken in Boudha, near the stupa or on the way back to my cosy room at the Nepal B&B. None of these files were Photoshopped, they’ve just been processed in Lightroom, had a tweak of the Tone Curve and some white balance adjustment. That’s about it.
This thirty-second exposure doesn’t show the people circumambulating the stupa, only those people sitting or standing relatively still. You might make out vague shadows of some people on the right but because they are moving, the background renders more clearly than they do.
It’s surprising how much light a few candles can throw out. It’s also interesting to see how quickly the light falls off, illuminating people’s faces but nothing beyond.
This little girl wanted to be photographed. I could tell by the way she’d carefully positioned herself in the glowing light from the candles. Having seen the photograph in the LCD screen of my camera; and after I gave him a short, impromptu lighting workshop – for which I am sure he was grateful; her brother was also keen to stand in the spotlight. Sadly, he was a little too short and you can see the result above. I feel bad for him but I couldn’t help smiling when he stood there. I told him I’d come back next year when he’s a bit taller.
Grab a seat on a step, rest your camera on your knee and you can get away with longer exposures if you’re careful. Notice the shop-keeper opposite pointing me out to his customer’s daughter. Even in the shadows, there’s no hiding for pasty-faced English photographers.
A bit of late-night grocery shopping for the monks. We’re kindred spirits. They know the pain of a 5am alarm call too!
Finally, sitting in a doorway, these two friends were deep in conversation. I love the expression on the face of the man on the left. Whatever the story was, it looks like a good ‘un.
So, the ‘Magic Hour’, ‘Golden Hour’, call it what you will, it’s certainly the best time to be armed with your camera but don’t go home and put your feet up when it gets dark. Firstly, because there’s still lots to photograph if you try hard and secondly, because the thought of you with your feet up will make me jealous.
Beautiful work Gavin. You’re doing well in Nepal?
jack
Thanks for the photos! I love street light shots too – if you can call them that – especially at night markets, or ones that are packing up!
A technical question: how do you usually go about metering for scenes above? When I was still using good negatives, I usually leave it at Matrix/Evaluative, and tell my developing shop how I want night shots scanned, then further edit exposure etc in Lightroom.
Do you do something like using spot for the face (-1?), or just let the Evaluative meter do its work? I find myself having to resort to Manual and checking the LCD a lot.
Gavin, these are wonderful! This is what I missed…I wanted to but Bob gently reminded me about being back in the B&B before dusk is over.
Wonderfully atmospheric….5Dmk2 eh?
Gavin, great set of images- just shows what a bit of imagination and proficient technique can do to portray a well known scene in a different way (it looks like the 85 1.2 lens works really well in low light).
BTW if any of the readers are in a low light situation like this and have an STE2 (the Canon flash trigger) put it on the hotshoe and use it to act as a focusing aid. The device uses an IR beam that works really well.
DT
Some really nice pics there, Gavin. Ooh, get you, with your f/1.2 lens!
Nicely written, amusing post too. And you even taught me a new word: circumambulating. Not sure if I’ll use it before I forget it though.
Does this mean that we can sleep in and start shooting at dusk? I didn’t think so. Love the girl with the candles as well as the ghost of a bicycle. Anyhow, I may have my feet up, but I’m definitely the jealous one at the moment. Nepal trumps relaxed feet.
Jack, no complaints! Irene, Bob’s right, whilst it feels very safe around here to me, you never know and I’d hate to think of you walking around here in the dark. Nice that he was looking after your safety. Come back another time with a friend – what about that young Kaylea? I bet she’d like Nepal. Dave T, thanks – and I have that remote trigger but didn’t know it could be used like that. You learn something every day! Masher, I challenge you to use “circumambulating” at work before the week is out. Jeffrey, Nepal probably does trump relaxed feet, you’re right.
Gavin, As always stunning images. Well done brother.
Great post as usual
Awesome images Gavin. I am heading out for 5 days shoot tomorrow and after reading your post, will definitely do some night low-light shooting instead of massage and warm bed. Nice usage of the 85 1.2 makes me want to trade in my 85 1.8, but the new baby need lots of milk. Waiting for more beautiful images of Nepal. Thanks
A question to Dave T. if you don’t mind. I have the STE2 too and wondering how you use it to assist with the low-light AF? Do you just put it on the hotshoe and turn it on and do normal shooting and the infrared will kick-in and help with the AF? Thanks for any explanations.
Great tutorial, wonderful pics – thanks Gavin!
Great images as always Gavin, some stunners that really capture the atmosphere and mood of night and late evening. When you see shots like that, it’s a wonder to me why I so rarely take the camera out at night. Having said that, as a landscaper it’s almost obligatory for me to be up at daft o’clock in the morning but I still fit into that “what frickin’ time did you say I have to get up?!” category. The worst and best thing I find is when you do what I did last week, check the weather reports, set your alarm for 2 am, drive 200 miles, wait for the sun to rise, only to find the skies are grey as a party political broadcast and there’s a deluge just waiting for you to stick your head out of the car. I came back with one good shot of a kind I hadn’t set out for and it made the whole disappointment thing evaporate into the clouds above.
Absolutely beautiful shots. Completely different side of life than one usually sees.
they are such a wonderful photos GAVIN!!!!!
They are really beautiful shots! I love them all & particularly the one of the two friends in a doorway. Wish I could do that! The image making that is, although being in that doorway with a friend seems pretty damned good too!
Wow….you made me feel visiting this place asap
Gavin – glad I could offer some advice.
A reply too for Peter Pham – yes, just pop it in your hotshoe and turn it on. According to the STE2 manual, under low contrast conditions, the built in AF assist beam will be emitted automatically to make it easier to autofocus. It’s compatible with the AF points of almost all EOS cameras, and works with 28 mm and longer lenses.
Like most things it’s worth experimenting with wider enses too – you never know.
[...] loudly “what frickin’ time did you say I have to get up?”. I’m not at my best first thing. Gavin Gough Share and [...]
Nice pictures Gavin, but well written too. I smiled the whole way through reading it. Are you next on the peach pit book express?
Gavin, I’m a first-time reader but I have to compliment you on what a wonderful blog this is! And it goes without saying that your photography is insanely good. I’ve been to Nepal many times and i have the great fortune of having been invited by the ‘king’ of Mustang to come visit there soon. What a wonderful country. We run two orphanages there. Hope I bump into you there someday. Blessings, Glen
[...] some photographic butt. (Kind of a weird metaphor, don’t you think?) Anyway, see his post HERE for some wonderful images and an interesting read on low light [...]