No matter what sort of photography you practice, one of the fundamental aspects of good photography is to go beyond a simple record of a subject and capture the mood or 'atmosphere' of the moment. There are a variety of ways of doing this but, whilst it sounds obvious, the most important aspect of atmosphere creation is knowing what atmosphere or mood you want to depict.
Only the photographer can do this, since he or she was actually there at the time of the shoot and would have experienced a certain sense of the location and, consequently, a clear idea of exactly what mood should be communicated to the viewer.
The atmosphere, or mood, of an image could be anything from 'bright and sunny' and ''uplifting' to 'dark and forbidding', 'brooding' or even 'disturbing'. It is the tonality of the image that is often the most obvious mood-setter, low key images with predominantly dark tones are interpreted at 'brooding' or 'threatening' whilst images with lighter tones can be seen as 'cheerful' and 'uplifting'.
Colour plays a big part in the creation of atmosphere too. Strong, dark colours can add to a sense of intensity whilst muted, subtle colours lend a degree of lightness to an image creating a fresh, even ethereal mood. Sometimes the colour is the single most essential element of the scene, in the case of a Barrier Reef image 'bright' and 'blue' would characterise the mood of the reef at its best.
Conversely, eliminating the colour entirely can actually add an extra dimension to an image. Black and White images are often seen as 'classical' and are quite useful for images that need a sense of history, solidity, texture etc. Colour can be distracting and using B+W allows the photographer to concentrate attention on forms and textures in addition to the overall atmosphere.
The other main aspect of creating a mood is what you shoot as opposed to how you shoot it. Particularly in landscape photography there will be certain elements that are essential to creating a mood and by including these elements, the atmosphere of a scene can be clearly communicated.
When choosing to shoot a scene it is important to have a good clear idea of what mood you are intending to communicate and then use this to influence your composition. Include as many elements as possible that add to the mood and eliminate those which detract from it.
In a shot of some ancient rainforest like Lamington National Park it might be good to make a point of including some massive Antarctic Beech tree trunks covered in moss, as well as choosing a misty day to shoot the image. The texture of the bark, the green moss and leaves, together with the mist, work to create a dark, mysterious and, above all, an ancient feel to the image.
Let's look at how I created an atmosphere of 'ancient culture' and 'nature's power' in a recent image that I shot on a recent trip to Cambodia – one of the famed temples near Angkor Wat, the ruined temple of Ta Prohm.
Of all the local monuments and temples, and there are a lot, Ta Prohm is one of the most interesting as it has barely been restored from its state of entanglement with the encroaching rainforest.
Before shooting it is important to take a good look at the location and decide just what characteristics are fundamental to the mood of the place – if there are two or three main features than you should be looking for a shot that includes all of them. I identified 4 main features of this location:
1. The fact that there are huge fig tree roots clutching at the crumbling stone is a clear indication of the age of the place and so to create an atmosphere of antiquity and history it was important to use this aspect of the temple to its maximum potential.
2. The temple is semi-ruined so I need to include some jumbled stones.
3. The temple is surrounded by forest so there needs to be at least some trees in the frame.
4. There are vast numbers of exquisite carvings all over the stonework, so including these is a must.
Since one of the moods I wanted to portray was 'history', I pre-visualised the end result as being best in B+W and I chose a panoramic format to include as much as possible whilst eliminating too much bright sky and a distracting foreground.
Since I was shooting entirely on a Canon 5D I used the 24mmTS lens to make two exposures, one with the lens shifted to the left and one with it shifted to the right. The two images are very easy to join together later using Photoshop's Photomerge feature. This gave me a 2:1 proportion which is a format I particularly like.
I also wanted detail everywhere so chose to shoot the scene in overcast conditions to minimise the contrast. It is easy to add contrast to a flat image later but almost impossible to remove it from a harsh one.
Here are the images shot in RAW format using F11 and about 1/30th sec on a tripod:
As you can see they are not remarkable as they are, with very little in the way of mood and the limited colours are quite drab. This is certainly not how I experienced the scene. To me there was a fantastic sense of antiquity and discovery; around every corner was a new scene and there was a palpable sense of the jungle inexorably reclaiming its lost territory.
The first job was to join the images together. This is very simple – just open both images into Photoshop at the same time (using identical RAW settings), choose File / Automate / Photomerge and let the computer do it's stuff. If the files are shot on a tripod using a shift lens they will join together perfectly using the defaults. If the shots are taking by rotating the camera then more sophisticated stitching methods will be needed and there have been articles about this in previous issues of Better Photography.
Joined together the image looks better but still no 'mood'.
You can use many methods to convert a colour image to B+W, there are at least 4 different good ways to do this. In this case I chose to use Image / Adjust / Channel Mixer but you could have converted to Lab and copied out the L Channel to give an equally good result.
The image immediately starts to work better now it's in B+W. However, it still needs some punch – the scene was more dramatic and some contrast enhancement will make the shot look more 'textured' in keeping with the subject matter.
In this case I duplicated the layer, changed the blend mode to Multiply at 100% and then flattened it. I then run a curve over the whole image to lift the mid-tones back to where they were. The nett result of this is more contrast, deeper shadows but a similar overall brightness.
Finish off with a little burning around the edges and it's done. The image is now slightly harsh, well textured with a slightly brooding air. The 4 important elements of the location are present and I find that this image encapsulates the personal experience I had whilst exploring the ruins.
The camera can only record the image – the photographer must create a finished image which communicates clearly the sense of place - or atmosphere.
