Simple cloth technique
Some scenes require only a very basic, unambitious technique. A basic magic cloth technique would involve simply covering the sky after a short period and working the rest of the exposure over the landscape up to the horizon line. To read about the basics of the magic cloth technique – see here. Equipment: Standard DSLr – might be possible on bridge camera – see ‘lens’ below. Lens with a large element 77mm is nice, 55mm is limited. Dark filter (ND) if you want to try this during daylight hours. Sturdy tripod – important for long exposures. Black cloth...
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20 second Reverse cloth technique
The reverse cloth technique is useful if the middle part of a scene is notably brighter than the top part of the scene. This technique is to compensate for the graduated sky issue which can be an issue with images where the sky is exposed in a very short period (less than a second). Because of the short exposure time, the mechanical effect of the cloth movement can be seen where the top of the frame is darker than the rest of the sky. This can be desirable, but if you want to overcome the issue, then it is useful to practice the Reverse Cloth technique. The technique requires a bit of extra...
Read MoreVideo tutorial: Scottish waterfall shot
in Magic Cloth Technique | 3 commentsThis tutorial is a demonstration of the Magic Cloth Technique to add drama to a dull sky. In this landscape photograph, the sky has been drastically underexposed, while the foreground and water have been well exposed. The above image was 15 seconds at f/11, the exposure was 2 stops over exposure. I sometimes shoot this as a test shot to see which areas require the most cloth. This result told me that the whole image would need some cloth. The above image was exactly the same settings, but with the magic cloth over the sky area for most of the exposure. I covered the sky in a fraction...
Read MoreMagic Cloth Technique – the basics
Posted by Tony on Apr 3, 2012 in Magic Cloth Technique | 0 comments
The Magic Cloth Technique is a simple way to control the exposure on different parts of your scene. Typically the sky is brighter than the land. Our cameras will find a balanced exposure, but generally this is too bright for the sky or too dark for the land. During the Magic Cloth Technique, the photographer will compensate by +2 stops. If you take a shot with +2 compensation, you will see that the sky is completely blown but some parts of the landscape are very well exposed. The trick of the Magic Cloth Technique is to use a cloth to cover the blown out areas and thus give them less...
Read MoreMagic Cloth Group – on Flickr
The Magic Cloth group was created by ultimagaina You might find this tutorial about the basics useful. It features a range of photographers who have used the Magic Cloth technique. All of the results are interesting and they really show the scope of this technique. If you have some picture which were taken using the Magic Cloth Technique, let me know with a link to the image on Flickr. Join me on a Photo Tour of Iceland Winter Landscape Workshops in...
Read MoreVideo tutorial – post-processing a magic cloth image
This tutorial video takes you though the post-processing of a Magic cloth image from Lightroom 3 to Photoshop CS3 Video Text: Kirkjufellsfoss, Snæfellsness, Iceland Step one: choose presets to match the lens… Canon 24mm f/1.4 mark II Step Two: Use white balance eye dropper to select a neutral colour – grey is best, but white will also work with a bit of tweaking Next step: even out the exposure; darken the highlights, brighten the shadows… a little Next step: Adjust the tone curve, basically boosting the highlights with strong contrast and using the histogram Looking at...
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