DIVIN AC

The pencil shading exercise explored on this page is called 'graduated tone'. It is a drawing technique which can be used to create a strong sense of space and form. It is a very useful skill to develop for both pencil and color pencil drawings. Use a darker grade (B or 2B) of pencil for your shading. Lighter grades (H, 2H etc.) will not give enough depth to your darkest tones.Just start by shading the area you wish to be dark and slowly build up the tone. As you work towards the light, gradually ease the pressure on your pencil until you can no longer see the mark it makes.You then patiently repeat this process several times, building up a depth to the shading, adjusting any irregular areas and trying to keep the tonal changes as smooth as possible until you achieve the variation and intensity of tone that you desire.

Whenever you take a photograph in or around nature, it’s useful to expose on any part of the scene that is green, then underexpose it by two thirds. For example, for the photograph below, the exposure was taken from the green leaves to the left of the flowers. I then underexposed the shot by 2/3 , refocused on the flower and took the shot. As the camera was set on manual, the shutter speed (exposure) stayed as it was when exposed on the green leaves. Usually when you refocus on the subject you want to take a photo of, the camera will tell you the exposure is wrong. Ignore this and take the shot anyway. In most cases, it will result in a nicely exposed, detailed photograph.

Our first photoshoot took place in an open road with a greenish background . We used the big window as a backlight to create a dreamy mood. For front lighting we used a strobe. Then for the finishing touch we overexposed the scene.