Blue Sky

Winter brings amazing sunsets. Clear skies also bring cold days, like the -10 C below outside as I write this :-)

This is an other shot from the rampant of Akershus Fortress in Oslo.

The composition rule called "Rule of thirds" is about drawing two vertical lines and two horisontal lines across the image, making 9 equal rectangles. According to this rule you would typically have the dark foreground here covering 1/3 of the height of the image. The people would be placed in the left intersection, and the tree in the right intersection.

In some images this rule is broken on purpose, and show only a small foreground like the black area in the image above. If there is enough detail in the sky it makes up for the "mistake".

Here of course you could argue that along with the dark area of the sky it actually covers a third of the height anyway. :-)

View from the Rampant

The Akershus Fortress is right next to the town hall. The rampant is a good spot for a picnic or just an evening view of the harbour. These images were taken yesterday. It was a cold clear day with a hint of frost.

Akershus fortress - the rampant

I selected a"Sunny" white balance to get the crisp clear blue. Also remember to set the focus point on the silhouettes and underexpose by 1-2 stops, to ensure that you get sharp silhouettes and avoid a burnt-out sky.

For the second-to-last shot I have converted to b/wh and then tinted the image.

The last one is only converted to s/wh. Simon was my model here and since the picture is taken from a lower level I asked him to come a bit closer so that I actually could see his legs.