CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

We stopped at a small hill top town in Tuscany near where we were staying called  Colle di Val d'Elsa and spent a couple of hours exploring the medieval streets. Colle di Val d'Elsa is a town and commune in Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Siena.  It has a population of around 20,000. Its name means "Hill of Elsa Valley", where "Elsa" is the name of the river which crosses it. Today, Colle di Val d'Elsa is internationally renowned for the production of crystal glassware and art (15% of world production), largely produced in the industrial lower town. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON OUR ...

In the Digital SLR Photography CC Facebook group I belong to we have started to run weekend challenges with the owner of the image that receives the most 'likes' choosing the subject of the next challenge.  This weekend's challenge is 'silhouettes' and this is one of my favourite photographic genres.  It is also dead easy to learn. Sail boat sunset - off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa - Nikon D90 + Sigma 50-500 f4/f6.3 The subject has to be strong and it also has to be backlit (ie the light source is behind the subject).  This usually means sunlight but you can use off camera flash, a street light or other bright source of illumination. My silhouettes are usually landscapes but I have used the technique to shoot wildlife as well.  The technique is very simple.   Find a suitable subject with a strong light source behind. Set your camera on aperture priority or manual exposure at around f8 or f11 and take a meter reading off a brig...