I was called to shoot some golf images for this course in South Florida. When the current owner bought the course it was in a very rundown condition. A photographer friend of mine suggested to the owner that I could create some imagery to promote the course. I arrived at the property in the evening & the next morning I grabbed a golf cart. After a long scouting trip (27 holes) on the golf cart I realized my work was going to be a tough one in making this course look pretty at any angle regardless of the time of year and at any time of day.

Because this golf course was in such miserable condition and because it had so very few "pretty" angles I could shoot, I elected to shoot into the sun with an ultra wide angle lens, making the sky a major element in the image. As you can see, the sky was great but because of shooting into the sun I knew it was going to be a major contrast problem. Photographically speaking it is impossible to shoot into the sun, expose for a very bright sky & still have any details on the ground.

So I shot the model for 5 minutes then asked him to step out of the frame so I could shoot the sky and have:
1 - The image of the sky properly exposed
2 - Have all of the elements line up and
3 - Be shot in about the same direction & "Quality" of light.

Because I was shooting the sky only I aimed up so I could wind up with a much larger finished image giving my client more options how to use the image. If you will look at the sky shot below you will see there is very little "ground" in the shot and what is there is black. The real trick is knowing you can do this, how to shoot it and how to put the images together and still have it look believable.

Both images were shot with a Canon Professional camera in RAW mode & a Canon 14mm lens and then processed in Photoshop CS3.

Because this golf course was in such miserable condition and because it had so very few "pretty" angles I could shoot, I elected to shoot into the sun with an ultra wide angle lens, making the sky a major element in the image. As you can see, the sky was great but because of shooting into the sun I knew it was going to be a major contrast problem. So I shot the model for 5 minutes then asked him to step out of the frame so I could shoot the sky and have: 1 - The image of the sky properly exposed, 2 - Have all of the elements line up and 3 - Be shot in the same "Quality" of light. Because I was shooting the sky only I aimed up so I could wind up with a much larger finished image giving my client more options how to use the image. If you will look at the sky shot above you will see there is very little "ground" in the shot and what is there is black. The real trick is knowing how to put the images together and still have it look believable.

Both images were shot with a Canon Professional camera in RAW mode & a Canon 14mm lens and then processed in Photoshop CS3.