Torres del Paine
Torres Del Paine -
A lesson in light and shadows. "The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow." Leonardo Da Vinci
Torres del Paine is a study in light and shadows. Leonardo da Vinci's wrote about "acuity perspective" and used his Sfumato technique in his painting to capture nature. If Leonardo had seen Torres del Paine with its ever-changing light conditions, its angular forms and its "smoky/cloud obscured" views, it could have been the example he had his pupils, study. Seeing this landscape I came to a greater appreciation of preserving the natural form, using this technical applied in my post processing. How to pay attention to highlights, shades, muted colors, a continuation versus a sharp line, darkened facades and a variety of the techniques that the artist with his paint brush and stylus must use can also be applied to the photograph.
Leonardo wanted to accurately reflect what he saw in nature (paraphrased from William Isaacson) A photograph is supposedly pure, capturing what is there, what you see. There were birds and beasts. Mountains and water. Trees, lakes, glaciers, and clouds. All of this makes the experience of Torres Del Paine a soul satisfying visual delight. What I learned to appreciate is the abundance of shades and shadows. The detail in the foreground, diminished in the distance. Torres del Paine, that region at the south end of Patagonia brought forth the play of light and objects, sometimes through the subtle, sometimes by the extreme contrast displayed by the hidden shadows. Your eye drawn to the Andean condor, with it's dark extreme black of its giant wingspan exposing it against the light clouds and snow. Seeing the grey fox blended into the background of grass, its shadow leaving only the darkening of the earth to betray its form.
Even when there were no clouds, even against the extreme whites of the fresh snow frozen to the high peaks, the subtle shadows make the picture what it is. The shadowing of the clouds and mountains, plains and lakes provide form and gives water, movement. The graduation of colors and the subtleness of shadows provide shape. The broad views, sharp in the foreground with dimensioning details in the distance, perspective. Otherwise what we see is flat, and Torres del Paine is anything but flat. Vertical monuments, obelisks that soar ever upwards, project their shadows across the landscape, a sundial to mark the time and lead your eye to back to them.
Shadows not lines. The rainbow, an indirect diffraction of light, has no clear lines between the respective hues. The waterfall, the river, undulates constantly, even though it is bounded by rocks, has no lines, just a change of shadows and colors. It is shadows that we see, variations in the color of the water and the surrounding land. The tree's foliage appears to have many shades of colors, even though they are of one color. As the details submerge into the background, the shadows take over to give the tree perspective. Until finally, in the distance the trees are but an artist's brush stroke across the side of a mountain-scape.
Leonardo is credited with the idea of a smoky image to create a more realistic portrayal. "Sfumato derives from the Italian word for smoke, fumo, and the verb sfumare which means to rub or blend together the edges of colors the way smoke diffuses” Sfumato Acuity perspective by JANIS BELL It was almost as if nature was mimicking this idea. The landscape of Torres del Paine is filled with images where the outlines seemed smudged by clouds and shadows. Leonardo used this "intentional merging of the forms into dark shadows in order to overcome the stiffness and rigidity of drawn contours" Nature has done this in Torres del Paine.
Leonardo also introduced the concept of acuity perspective. In math and in a painting, this can be planned. In a photograph, what appears pleasing to the eye is to find these in the composition. "Like a camera focusing in on details or relaxing to a soft gaze, the acuity of our vision is dependent upon the focusing mechanism of the eye as well as external conditions of illumination, atmosphere, distance, and size." … "He took the bold leap of organizing it into a system of perspective that he called by various names: the perspective of spedizione, of notitia, of cognitione. The first term, spedizione, emphasizes how details and edges seem to disappear from view in remote distances; the second, notitia, emphasizes the viewer's understanding of what is seen and not seen, what we today call "visual perception;" the third, cognitione, emphasizes the understanding of visual sensations by the mind. I have adopted the modern term "acuity" to subsume these disparate names." IBID p 163 Nature has done this in Torres del Paine.
There are lessons by Leonardo to be learned by the photographer against this magnificent back drop of Torres del Paine. There is so much to be seen, but then to capture it and present it so that the viewer can enjoy the visualization can be a challenge. The camera, with its increasing number of pixels along with the digital darkrooms, can present the photographer with a dilemma of trying to sharpen, clarify and texture only to make the finished product an unrealistic stiff painting.
It is the perspective, the scale one wishes to convey. It is the swirling of weather. It is the presentation of the massif of Torres del Paine. A study in light and in shadows. How we bring this out to reflect nature in our photographic art must be done with care. Hopefully I have begun to convey to the viewer the light and shadows of this incredible place.
Read MoreA lesson in light and shadows. "The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow." Leonardo Da Vinci
Torres del Paine is a study in light and shadows. Leonardo da Vinci's wrote about "acuity perspective" and used his Sfumato technique in his painting to capture nature. If Leonardo had seen Torres del Paine with its ever-changing light conditions, its angular forms and its "smoky/cloud obscured" views, it could have been the example he had his pupils, study. Seeing this landscape I came to a greater appreciation of preserving the natural form, using this technical applied in my post processing. How to pay attention to highlights, shades, muted colors, a continuation versus a sharp line, darkened facades and a variety of the techniques that the artist with his paint brush and stylus must use can also be applied to the photograph.
Leonardo wanted to accurately reflect what he saw in nature (paraphrased from William Isaacson) A photograph is supposedly pure, capturing what is there, what you see. There were birds and beasts. Mountains and water. Trees, lakes, glaciers, and clouds. All of this makes the experience of Torres Del Paine a soul satisfying visual delight. What I learned to appreciate is the abundance of shades and shadows. The detail in the foreground, diminished in the distance. Torres del Paine, that region at the south end of Patagonia brought forth the play of light and objects, sometimes through the subtle, sometimes by the extreme contrast displayed by the hidden shadows. Your eye drawn to the Andean condor, with it's dark extreme black of its giant wingspan exposing it against the light clouds and snow. Seeing the grey fox blended into the background of grass, its shadow leaving only the darkening of the earth to betray its form.
Even when there were no clouds, even against the extreme whites of the fresh snow frozen to the high peaks, the subtle shadows make the picture what it is. The shadowing of the clouds and mountains, plains and lakes provide form and gives water, movement. The graduation of colors and the subtleness of shadows provide shape. The broad views, sharp in the foreground with dimensioning details in the distance, perspective. Otherwise what we see is flat, and Torres del Paine is anything but flat. Vertical monuments, obelisks that soar ever upwards, project their shadows across the landscape, a sundial to mark the time and lead your eye to back to them.
Shadows not lines. The rainbow, an indirect diffraction of light, has no clear lines between the respective hues. The waterfall, the river, undulates constantly, even though it is bounded by rocks, has no lines, just a change of shadows and colors. It is shadows that we see, variations in the color of the water and the surrounding land. The tree's foliage appears to have many shades of colors, even though they are of one color. As the details submerge into the background, the shadows take over to give the tree perspective. Until finally, in the distance the trees are but an artist's brush stroke across the side of a mountain-scape.
Leonardo is credited with the idea of a smoky image to create a more realistic portrayal. "Sfumato derives from the Italian word for smoke, fumo, and the verb sfumare which means to rub or blend together the edges of colors the way smoke diffuses” Sfumato Acuity perspective by JANIS BELL It was almost as if nature was mimicking this idea. The landscape of Torres del Paine is filled with images where the outlines seemed smudged by clouds and shadows. Leonardo used this "intentional merging of the forms into dark shadows in order to overcome the stiffness and rigidity of drawn contours" Nature has done this in Torres del Paine.
Leonardo also introduced the concept of acuity perspective. In math and in a painting, this can be planned. In a photograph, what appears pleasing to the eye is to find these in the composition. "Like a camera focusing in on details or relaxing to a soft gaze, the acuity of our vision is dependent upon the focusing mechanism of the eye as well as external conditions of illumination, atmosphere, distance, and size." … "He took the bold leap of organizing it into a system of perspective that he called by various names: the perspective of spedizione, of notitia, of cognitione. The first term, spedizione, emphasizes how details and edges seem to disappear from view in remote distances; the second, notitia, emphasizes the viewer's understanding of what is seen and not seen, what we today call "visual perception;" the third, cognitione, emphasizes the understanding of visual sensations by the mind. I have adopted the modern term "acuity" to subsume these disparate names." IBID p 163 Nature has done this in Torres del Paine.
There are lessons by Leonardo to be learned by the photographer against this magnificent back drop of Torres del Paine. There is so much to be seen, but then to capture it and present it so that the viewer can enjoy the visualization can be a challenge. The camera, with its increasing number of pixels along with the digital darkrooms, can present the photographer with a dilemma of trying to sharpen, clarify and texture only to make the finished product an unrealistic stiff painting.
It is the perspective, the scale one wishes to convey. It is the swirling of weather. It is the presentation of the massif of Torres del Paine. A study in light and in shadows. How we bring this out to reflect nature in our photographic art must be done with care. Hopefully I have begun to convey to the viewer the light and shadows of this incredible place.
