How to capture "that light", making a photo look like a painting

[Paul Jenkin]

Photography = "writing with light". The light is EVERYTHING. hoot early after sun up and just before sunset. Light coming at you from olique angles will enhance the effect but you may need a hood to avoid flare. Great shots to be had midday as well but first and last light are best, IMO.

 

[Speedfreak]

The guy on Flickr used a Leica S2.

And the other one uses a V LUX 1. Now what?

 

[daveleo]

I think there are 2 parts of this question that are getting blurred together.

There is the issue of the ambient light that dominates some of the scenic pictures and then there is the question of the painterly effects.

IMO there is a great image-to-image variation in these effects in the Flikr photostream. And I am pretty confident these painterly effects are done in postprocessing (I'll reference Peter's remarks above). This is aside from the ambient light issue.

 

[River Dog]

Low angled light on a Winter's late afternoon, exposed for the mid-tones (digital), using exp. compensation to keep a little detail in the shadows. Shot in RAW to be able to recover more sky in post. Well, that is what I did for my 'chiaroscuro della Caravaggio' study. It was just the way I saw it on the day.

 

[raid]

I love that bird pic, Raid, but it doesn't demonstrate the lighting conditions the OP has in mind. The examples shown by the OP were taken with the subject directly lit by the sun unobscurred by clouds and very low on the horizon. (just before sunset and just after sunrise) Passing through more hazy atmosphere at that angle, sunlight is warmer in colour temperature and a bit softer.
To get that effect, you just need to be there during those conditions and notice the skim lighting.

Hi Frank,
I was not after demonstrating the lighting conditions the OP has in mind.
I was just illustrating how patience for the right light can result in an image that a photographer is after.

Point is taken.

This image was taken after sunrise. Maybe it fits better here.

 

[FrankS]

Yes, thanks Raid!

 

[Sparrow]

I think there are 2 parts of this question that are getting blurred together.

There is the issue of the ambient light that dominates some of the scenic pictures and then there is the question of the painterly effects.

IMO there is a great image-to-image variation in these effects in the Flikr photostream. And I am pretty confident these painterly effects are done in postprocessing (I'll reference Peter's remarks above). This is aside from the ambient light issue.

... apart from Levels the shots I posted were straight scans of the 135 negatives, the first example the OP posted clearly has been shopped, evidenced by the yellow bleed around the sailing ship in the first example ... bit sloppy imo

 

[semordnilap]

Raid, the photograph is the egret is beautiful!!!

 

[raid]

Raid, the photograph is the egret is beautiful!!!

Thank you 🙂
The image looks much better and with more details when viewed as a slide on a light table.

 

[Aristophanes]

Golden Hour shooting + side lighting.

 

[Richard G]

Yep, you just need to catch the light at the right time ...

What a wonderful shot.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Hmm...



Lumix GF1 + Lumix G 14-42



Canon 20D + 17-40L f/4 (+ levels/curves tweaking, dodging on the rail)



Canon 5D + Tamron 28-75 f/2.8



Canon 5D + Tamron 28-75 f/2.8



Canon 5D + Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 (+ saturation/curves tweaking)



Canon 50D + 17-40L f/4 (+ graduated filter and slight dodging on the trunk, and not where you'd first think)



Leica M8 + 50mm f/2 Summicron "tabbed"



Leica M8 + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux "pre-asph" E46



Leica M8 + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux "pre-asph" E46 (+ saturation tweaking)



Exposure first, post-processing (sometimes lots of highlight and/or shadow salvaging) later. The law of SISO.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

And then there's this. I'm only including this due to two things: 1) I've been told this looks "like a painting" --made me understand some things about Renaissance Dutch painters' styles (this was taken in Belgium, if you're wondering); 2) that the light and right exposure can save you a lot of post-processing pain. The colors and exposure are pretty much close to how I remember them.



Canon 50D + 17-40L f/4

 

[Sparrow]

What a wonderful shot.

... Thank you sir

 

[shadowfox]

Nah, y'all are wrong.
It's all about the frame!

😀 😀

*Sorry for the repeat post. I was just having fun with my wife's 5D.

 

[daveleo]

Nah, y'all are wrong.
It's all about the frame!

. . . . . .

You must add your signature to that ! (Lower right, I think.)

 

[hteasley]

As a purely mechanical exercise, this is about warm and cool in the environment: warm raking yellow light and blue skies or shadows. It's magic hour, before sunset. I look for shots facing away from the light, or shoot normal to the light, to catch the cool side of the sky, and surfaces catching the light, without getting much of the blown-out warm sky around the sun.

I have a couple of shots that leap to mind that work well for me, in this way:

The first one is facing into the light, but catches a lot of cool shadows to compensate.

 

[Steve M.]

Chiaroscuro is a $100 word for high contrast. It normally is used to refer to working from very dark values to very light ones in a painting, print or drawing.

The light in the first links to the 2 photos you have in your post is fantastic. It's obviously not post, and you can't get it there. It can be edited of course. I don't have the patience for this type of photography (which is why my large format experiment went nowhere), but when you see fine shots like these two, it reminds me of what you can miss.

 

[stratcat]

User 'Lano' who posts in the '120 RF Folders' sub-forum does that kind of shot very well too...

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1852916&postcount=554

 

[daveleo]

A note from Tom Brichta

A note from Tom Brichta

this is part of an e-mail I received from Tom Brichta, just now . . . .


. . . . if you would like to pass this on to the group, it is mostly about the light. Photography is about recording light. Knowing where and when to use it helps a lot.

I try to shoot in the golden time. I like to look for low warm light.

The dolphins were shot in the Galapagos Islands, just before sunset, and just after a rainstorm. Same with the wave, that was taken in Carmel Ca., again at sunset, and after a storm. I like to tell people shoot at the edges of light. That's when you get the best light. I do some post processing, but I try to keep it to a minimum. In fact, I toned down the saturation on the schooner in the dolphin picture. We had beautiful light that night, and a sun ray made a direct hit on it, and the finish on the mast just popped!

I also use graduated neutral density filters for a lot of my photos. And, I'll use the graduated neutral density filter in lightroom if needed.

Just remember "Chase the Light"

Take care,

Tom Brichta



Footnote: I do not know Tom, except that I looked at a slew of images on his Flickr stream and commented on them here.