Bluesman1986

Blyth Pier

Sunrise on Blyth Pier, I used a 50mm Focal length to compress the perspective, I wanted the lifeboy as part of my composition....
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Sunrise on Blyth Pier, I used a 50mm Focal length to compress the perspective, I wanted the lifeboy as part of my composition.
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NIKON D800

settings

Aperture f/16.0 ISO 50 Shutter 2/1

upload_date

Dec, 2014

Views

176

Likes

+26

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken on Blyth beach in Northumberland, based on the north east coast its always a great place to capture sunrise.

Time

The image was taken at 9: 30AM, This was back in the winter months so walk along the beach was cold, The tide was moving out and the colours of the dawn sky were beginning to change. I made it along to the pier in time for the sun peeking over the horizon.

Lighting

The sun was blocked by the clouds which projected a large colour cast across the sky, We had several days of firey skies and i wanted to find a leading composition to compliment the placement of the sun. The challenge was stopping the sky down enough to balance the foreground.

Equipment

Camera: Nikon D800 Lens: Tamron 24 - 70 F/2.8 (Taken at F/16) Tripod: Manfrotto 190XPROB with 804RC2 head Filters: Lee 0.9 and 0.6 Soft ND Grads. Settings: Aparture F/16 (for a large depth of Field) Focal Length: 42mm ISO: 50 Shutter Speed: 2 seconds

Inspiration

I was looking for something with dominating lines, lines that would lead me to the sun, To emphasize this i used a slightly lower POV. I walked down the pier until i spotted the lifeboy and though this would make an interesting addition to the theme.

Editing

Even with the Lee filters stacked on the front of my camera i still had problems getting the foreground how i like it, I start all of my processing off by setting the lens correct in Adobe Lightroom 5, This takes away the dark corners (Vignetting) and changes the amount of clipping (if any) in the frame. After correcting the lens distortion i set my white balance, to do this i used the white balance selection picker and select a neutral grey point somewhere in the scene, i then made minor adjustments to my liking warming up or cooling down the colour temperature. Moving down the sliders in LR5 i drag the highlight slider all the way to the left to preserve details in the sky, this also darkens the sky allowing colours in the sky to stand out a little more. I then moved onto the shadow slider and dragged this to the right just enough to perk up the foreground. The next sliders in LR5 are Whites and blacks, With these i held down the Alt Key (Windows) and left click on the pointer, This turns image black or white depending on which slider you are adjusting at the time and allows you to move these to the point of clipping, The way i do it is to take slider to the point of clipping and then pull back a little to preserve image detail. With no Clarity, Vibrance, saturation or contrast adjustments made in LR, i take the image from LR into Photoshop, If you have them both installed you can use Cntrl + E (Windows) to take the tiff file with LR adjustments into Photoshop ready for further processing. Photoshop is where i have all of my plugins and I use these plugins as a personal preference everything I have done in this image can be done using either Lightroom or Photoshop without the use of them both. I start in PS with some noise reduction to reduce any grain in the image caused by longer shutter speeds. To do this i created a duplicate layer and rename it Noise reduction and then use a plugin called Topaz Denoise, This can however be achieved in earlier stages using the Luminance slider in LR5. Once a basic pre-set has been applied in Denoise (Raw Moderate) i created a duplicate layer to remove any sensor spots or unwanted artefacts in the image. Moving on i created another duplicate layer and rename this clarity (The following steps can be achieved using the Vibrance, Saturation and Clarity Sliders in LR) i prefer to use some plugins in PS for personal preference and custom pre-sets made over time. With the clarity layer active i used a plugin called Topaz Clarity, with the sunset pre-set selected (Boosts mid tone contrast and enhances the colours in the image) I saved this to the current layer and made a minor adjustment with the opacity slider, I always find these pre-sets to be a little strong so using the layer opacity slider I bring the layer opacity down to 75%. Creating another layer it was time to sharpen the image using the unsharp mask filter, with a radius of 3 and sharpening of 100 selected in this instance. Finally I finished the image off with a little dodging and burning, I created a new layer and filled this with 50% grey before changing the layers blend mode to overlay, using the dodge tool on highlights at 3% and the burn tool on shadows at 3% i selectively added contrast, Also using the opacity slider to make this contrast change more subtle. I then flatten the image and save the image which is exported back into LR with saved changes before exporting my file of the finished image.

In my camera bag

Well with having a full frame camera i am one of the few that think's anything below 20mm is too wide. I carry my Tamron 24 - 70 F/2.8 for landscapes, Lee Filters, A mix of soft and hard grads and a coral filter, A Lee Big Stopper (10 stop Filter), 2 wired remotes, A lens cloth, A lens rocket, a spare memory card and battery and a microfiber to clean the filters.

Feedback

General tips You can achieve this sort of image handheld however i would always recommend using a tripod for Landscape Photography to reduce any camera shake providing you with optimal results. If your camera has the function to lock up the mirror during the length of the exposure this also aids to reduce camera shake, Turn off any vibration reduction on the lens or any other image stabilizer whilst on a tripod, With this technology the motor moves inside the lens to counteract body movements thus giving you a sharper images when you are handheld (subject to shutter speed), when locked off on a tripod this will cause the lens to move if your image stabilization is active. Use the cameraâ€™s built in self-timer or a remote release if you have one to prevent touching the camera as the shutter opens, this will prevent jogging the camera hindering the quality of the image. For this image For this image I chose to use a low vantage point to emphasize the strong lines on the pier, it was important for me to be down low not only for this but for the wind, moving my tripod legs out wider helped me ground the camera better and protect it from the coastal wind. Find something interesting to add to the theme of the image, in this case I used the lifeboy which doesnâ€™t appear too dominating in the frame. Find lines to guide the viewer to your subject in this case the sleepers take the eye down the never ending pier and around the railings to the sun. Use slightly slower shutter speeds to blur the surface of the water and the tips of the clouds with a static pier this gives the image a better sense of atmosphere. Most importantly enjoy it.

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Bluesman1986

Bluesman1986

Blyth Pier

Sunrise on Blyth Pier, I used a 50mm Focal length to compress the perspective, I wanted the lifeboy as part of my composition.... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Bluesman1986

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Sunrise on Blyth Pier, I used a 50mm Focal length to compress the perspective, I wanted the lifeboy as part of my composition....
Read more

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Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.