Swiss Summer Alps with E-510: tips and observations

On a whim, my wife and I decided to drive to Switzerland for the long holiday weekend (national day in Belgium to celebrate how about 180 years ago we tossed the Dutch out. If you know a better reason to celebrate, I'd like to hear it). So we threw the tent in the car and set out to a photographer's paradise .. a very tricky paradise.

During this trip I learned a lot so I figured I'd share some of my observations with people here. Feel free to amend or contradict me in replies. I am, if anything, just a newbie.

Of course Switzerland is a great country to test the strengths of the E-system: long hikes with a light system, yeah! Unfortunately, being me I brought all my gear, including the sigma 135-400mm (which I used) and the ZD50+EX25 (which I didn't) and even my flash, monopod and gorillapod. Total weight: over 6 kg. Ah well, I'm young

These observations are probably also valid for any other lush, mountainous, castle-and-lake-studded region. Check your backyard for your own!

1. Exposure

1.1 ISO and shutter speed

Switzerland in summer is bright. Very bright. Here in Belgium I don't often go much lower than ISO 400, but in Switzerland even ISO 100 was too sensitive giving me small apertures and very fast shutter speeds and a rather large error margin (your shutter isn't 100% accurate. An error of 0.0001s is a lot more significant at 1/1000 than at 1/100).

A good ND filter is your friend here, but sadly I didn't have one. Normally I'd use my polariser to compensate, but I noticed a disturbing blue colour cast with it which I hadn't noticed before. It's a pretty new filter so maybe that's why, or it could be the light here is simply different.

1.2 Exposure Bias

I'm lazy so I go for program mode most of the time. Whether you use P, A or S (but not M, obviously) on your E-510, you'll want to underexpose here. Yes, even if you don't much do that normally. Switzerland is a very contrast-rich land and you have snow-tipped mountains competing with blue skies and bright grass. Your E-510 takes one look at that and decides the sky should be as white as the snow.

I've generally used -0.3 and -0.7 eV but have gone down to 1.0 and -1.3 where needed. You risk getting quite dark pictures like this, but the E-510 clips highlights (snow, sky) faster than shadows so this problem is easier to fix later.

This gets worse as it gets duskier:



- - - Picture 1: Exp. Bias: -1.0

1.2 Alternate Metering Options

Tricky lighting is a good place to start thinking out of the box, how about:

• Spot-Highlight metering on the snow and -0.3 eV
• Spot midtone metering on the blue sky/gray rock
• Spot shadow metering on the foreground and +0.3 eV

To use these options, put the center focus point on whatever you want to measure, press and hold the AEL button then put the center point on whatever you want to focus on, half-press the shutter release, compose your image and take the picture. (I never used that AEL button before this trip).

1.3 Know your lens

That bit about -0.3 to -1.3 eV? Yeah, that was for the 14-54mm II. I've found that with my 9-18mm I could get away with 0.0 to -0.3 eV most of the time. I think it may be due to this lens giving slightly less contrast. Keep in mind that a setting that works for one lens may not work for the next one.

1.4 the problem with fill-in flash

The need to underexpose to save your background may well leave your foreground too dark. You may think to solve this by using a fill-in flash, but that won't work because the max flash sync-speed is 1/180 and there's simply too much light for that (especially at negative exposure comp). Take the following image, taken at ISO 100, F/9.0, -0.7 and 1/320. To get down to 1/180 and, say, -1.0 or 1.3 I'd have to use an aperture of around F/20 and we all know four thirds doesn't like that. Instead I opted to have the sky wash out a bit and save the flowers.



--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/

2. Focal Lengths and Composition

2.1 Wide angle landscapes

Switzerland is a very stretched country. It goes up a long way and extends sideways. There's always something more clamouring to be in the frame. A wide angle lens is therefore not really an option. I brought both the 9-18 as the 14-54 and used both for most of my shots.

Landscape shots are best taken from somewhere halfway the mountain, I've found, with neither the bird- or frog-perspective too appealing to me. Luckily if you have a pair of good legs, the alps can be your stepladder. Use them.

Also - and this is important - don't feel forced to always use the widest setting. Yes, there's a lot of landscape but including too much of it and you have no focus and thus lose everything. Try to define edges to your pictures. If, like me, you come back with a disproportionate number of images at 14mm then maybe you should have switched to the 9-18 a bit more often or thought about the picture a bit more.

2.2 Portrait orientation

Switzerland is a very vertical country. Don't be afraid to turn that camera on its side, it's often a better idea than including a lot of emptiness (not that the alps have any empty) just to get that mountain tip in.

2.3 Tele landscapes

Have a tele lens, will travel. I carried the 1.2kg of my sigma 135-400 all the way up the mountain so I was going to use it! A tele lens can also be used for landscape shots and provides a lot of variety over the usual grass-hill-rock-snow-sky shots:



Just make sure to take atmospheric haze into account.

2.4 Wide-angle castles

Switzerland has a lot of castles and very nice houses all over the place. Now, this is a problem. These tall buildings are standing in front or on top of taller mountains. So you crank out your ultra-wide and crane backwards and .. all the buildings are crooked! Add to that the fact that not all of those buildings are straight to begin with and you get a bit of a headache:



(Yeah I didn't take this one straight, I tilted the camera to get at least one line straight).
My suggestion: either try to compensate for it by:

• trying to find a higher position (not often possible but holding your camera high above your head is a start)
• Shooting wider than you should and including a lot of foreground to crop away later (usually you need your widest just to get the building in, though)
• cheating a bit like I did above
• Correct in post

Or you can go wild with it and see where that gets you.

2.5 Macros and Close-ups

It's not all wide landscapes and big buildings. The alps in summer also have a wealth of wild flowers and butterflies. Bring a macro lens or a lens with good close-up capability (like the 14-54) and find some colours you didn't even know existed:



2.6 Horizons: none

Switzerland doesn't have a horizon. Keep this in mind. In the mountains it is very difficult to align your shot, as I've found to my detriment (and that of my shots). Sometimes you can be off by a lot, especially at the wide angles you'll probably be using (see above) where a vertical line is only vertical in the center of frame unless you're holding it level.

Many of my pictures were saved by using a cheap bubble level that fits onto the flash hot shoe. You can get them off ebay for something like 5 euros and they are worth it, even though they make composition difficult (since you have to look away from the viewfinder to see the bubble). E-30 users, I envy you.

2.7 Panoramas

Get a panorama stitcher. Just sayin'. I know I will, since I took a bunch of quick panoramas.

Quickest way to get lightning decent for a panorama: chose one part of your scene, set exposure as for a normal picture. Press AEL button and start taking pictures and don't release that AEL button until you're done. I did some very quick panoramas using that and continuous-fire mode. Still have to stitch them.

Don't forget that even for panoramas you can still put your camera in the portrait orientation and don't feel forced to use your widest focal length just to get a lot in each shot. You'll just mess up your perspective.

--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/

3 Colour and Other things

3.1 Colour: natural

Switzerland is a very colourful country. You may think this would be a reason to set the colour gradation to "Vivid" but don't be fooled! I would in fact suggest using Natural (but not muted) colours and setting saturation to -1. This just to avoid getting colours that are too bright and clipping saturation.

You see, just like luminosity (highlights/shadows) clipping, saturation can be clipped too in which case you lose the distinction between bright colours. This will give your images a similar "washed out" look as the luminosity variant but with the distinction that instead of white you get blue, green or red. Now the primary colours in Swiss in summer are green (grass, trees), blue (sky, lakes) and turquoise/cyan (lakes again). These are all primary colours that are easily clipped.
What you get is something like this:



See that solid blue sky? Does that look real to you?

Remember: you can always up the saturation later (don't overdo it the other direction either though: if you shoot with too little saturation you'll lose things quickly as well).

All this is especially true in the evenings. Swiss is a land of pastel dusk. Don't lose that to oversaturation!



3.2 Sunsets

Sunsets in the mountains are quite different from those near the sea and there's even a big difference between the edge of the mountains and the middle because this changes when the light gets blocked.
In general this means two things:

1) When the sun sets in the mountains, the sun is still higher in the sky and thus moving through less atmosphere than is usual at this latitude. This means that mountain sunsets will be less brightly colourful and tend towards oranges and purples rather than reds.

During the day you may have noticed mountains farther away getting gradually bluer. This is due to atmospheric haze and scattering. During the day this is a bit annoying, but at sunset time this becomes a source of beauty: the foreground mountains will now also start turning blue while the background ones turn to purple.

Now it is important to note that the SCENE: Sunsets mode was NOT made for this kind of sunsets. It will turn things way too red.

Compare:



Program Mode, user settings, Natural Coolour mode



SCENE: Sunset mode of the same scene

3.3 Swans

Swans are the bane of photographers. They're even whiter than snow and they will only hold that majestic pose long enough for you to aim at them but not long enough to press the shutter release. You are warned.



3.4 More pictures
More pictures of my trip can be found here:
http://www.wizardtrails.com/index.php?p=album-009

3.5 Thanks

Thank you for reading this far. I hope it was either entertaining or educational. I am just an amateur newbie hobbyist but I figure that even my rambling words can be helpful to some.

If my pictures/descriptions convince you to visit Switzerland please respect the landscape for photographers to come and do not leave any litter behind. If you happen to go by Wengenalp cog train station, I lost my monopod head there. Take good care of it if you find it and enjoy
--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/

I very much enjoyed reading this as well as looking at the pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your enjoyable and well illustrated report. However, you forgot to emphasize that all this applies only when the weather is as glorious as in your pictures. Believe me, in rain, fog and snowstorms this country is much worse than Belgium with or without the Dutch. ;-)

Cheers!
--
Hans H. Siegrist
http://www.pbase.com/hhsiegrist

Thanks, considering the difficulties, you brought back some good shots

Vjim

--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html

For taking the time post your pictures and your experiences, this is a great post and I'm bookmarking it.
--
Raj Sarma
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rssarma
--
Follow me on Twitter: rssarma

Olympus enthusiasts from NYC Metro, join UKPSG:
http://snipurl.com/crc3n

Oh I'm sure it is. Mind you, we get plenty of rain here as well, though no snow.

Mind you, we chose Switzerland as the destination for this little soirée because it was the nearest place where the weather forecast was sunny for the weekend

(and even then it rained Sunday morning, grumble )
--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/

The 510 can snap great images but requires careful exposure. I mostly use M myself and also do a fair bit of chimping and shutter speed adjustment. I rarely simply trust the camera to "get it right".

--
Regards
J



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason_hindle

Gear in profile

Many thanks for an interesting item.

Regards. Barr1e

--

Thanks,

Nice to read about Olympus Digital Photography instead of marketing, fanboy and fangirl dribble, etc.

You raise the forum bar, friend!

HJ

Humboldt Jim said:

Thanks,

Nice to read about Olympus Digital Photography instead of marketing, fanboy and fangirl dribble, etc.

You raise the forum bar, friend!

HJ
--

Click to expand...

I also enjoy posts and threads in which some technical aspects of cameras or lenses are illustrated with good photography.

--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html

Thank you having taken the time to organize and illustrate your information and experience. It is helpful to know - the scenery is beautiful, no doubt.

What I like most about your remarks are that they are intended to get a photo as "right" as possible before it is captured and rely less on post-processing.

To the OP - respect!!!

Great pics - great tips! Makes me wanna pick up my E-510 and go outisde!!

Erwin K

Humboldt Jim said:

You raise the forum bar, friend!

Click to expand...

Exactly !

Thanks - it was a very entertaining and well-illustrated read, well-done!

Nice to know that occasionally some visitors from the north actually stop and enjoy Switzerland instead of driving right through, clogging up roads and polluting the air in the process (sorry, but the 20km traffic line in front of the Gotthard tunnel and then some more at the border crossing in Ticino last week-end had me shaking my head as usual - and few of those cars and trailers were Swiss).

Cheers
Christa
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ch_cnb/

Very interesting thoughts, especially the comments on exposure. And your picture, though slightly dark (the 1st one) show you managed this difficult lighting very well. I like the picture and obviously the DR of your camera is not bad at all !

Following the advice of another poster (unfortunately can't find his post), now I use Live View to have an accurate preview of the effect of various exposure settings, but sometimes I just can't get the right exposure whatever I try : in those cases, a burst of 5 shots with exposure bracketing and HDR processing are the best solution I have found.

--
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood ?

cnb said:

Thanks - it was a very entertaining and well-illustrated read, well-done!

Nice to know that occasionally some visitors from the north actually stop and enjoy Switzerland instead of driving right through, clogging up roads and polluting the air in the process (sorry, but the 20km traffic line in front of the Gotthard tunnel and then some more at the border crossing in Ticino last week-end had me shaking my head as usual - and few of those cars and trailers were Swiss).

Click to expand...

It's true.
Too many people just cross Switzerland.
I am guilty too.
At least on our way to Italy, we usually stop for the night at Lugano.

And if we have to cross the Gothard and the border, we try to make good timing, in order to avoid the traffic jams.

Besides, whenever possible, I enjoy to take the pass instead of the tunnel. Great views up there and my family does not like the idea of being trapped for (how long is it?) 17 km in a narrow pipeline ? We much prefer taking the exit towards the pass and take the longer winding route.

We have even experienced that taking the pass is actually faster, in all the cases where you can already see the traffic stalling towards the tunnel, at the moment where you pass the exit towards the pass. This is of course only in summer.

In a few days I will be driving to Piemonte but not through Switzerland, instead taking the road from Provence.

--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html

cnb said:

(sorry, but the 20km traffic line in front of the Gotthard tunnel and then some more at the border crossing in Ticino last week-end had me shaking my head as usual - and few of those cars and trailers were Swiss).

Click to expand...

Hah. I saw that tarffic jam. It confused me. A bit after basel there were signs saying there was a 150 minute queue in direction Gotthard. Now we were travelling to Spiez near Interlaken but since we don't know the geography and had trouble reading the signs (I'm no good at german) we thought we'd be in that queue, so we tried diverting through Lucerne instead of Bern. Our gps didn't like that and got all confused (and so did we because the detour looked to also have the 150min queue).

So we ended up driving around aimlessly and randomly for a bit and then suddenly, out of nowhere we saw this:



I love a country that can spring surprises on you like that. Ever after we've not worried about getting lost - it was worth it

Oh and for the polution: we did use trains and feet to minimize our carbon output and our car is pretty good in that respect as well.

--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/