simonowens

Frozen Lochan

NIKON D600

settings

Aperture f/3.8 ISO 2000 Shutter 30/1 Focal Length 230/10

upload_date

Aug, 2015

Views

1319

Likes

+315

Awards

Featured

Contest Finalist in Nature By Night Photo Contest

Peer Award

+94

Superb Composition

+40

Absolute Masterpiece

+25

Top Choice

+20

Outstanding Creativity

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Superior Skill

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken in the highlands of Scotland, at a little Lochan near Glencoe, its a lot smaller and less well known loch that is situated off the beaten track but easily accessible.

Time

The day had been a bit strange, having a heavy fall of snow in the morning followed by a bright day I had almost given up and gone for a pint in the Clachaig Inn, with its array of whiskies and beers it was an easy option. After few beers and whiskies I headed back to the hostel and noticed that the night was bright and clear, I had visited the loch before and knew it well so I went back out with my gear, a little tipsy to say the least, in the hope of grabbing a decent shot. The shot was taken at 10:00pm on the 27th December 2014.

Lighting

The mountain was lit by the moonlight providing the basis of a good reflection on the frozen water, with clear skies the stars were shining bright with very little light pollution in the area.

Equipment

For this shot I used a Nikon D600 camera with an 18-35 mm lens, mounted on my manfrotto tripod. The equipment is typical of most enthusiast photographers and proves that its not always the biggest and best camera that does the job, I have chosen a full frame camera over crop sensor for the factor of wide angle lenses, for my type of photography getting maximum range from the lens means I can get in closer for dynamic shots.

Inspiration

My inspiration for this photo comes from good ground work and knowing my locations well, I had quite a difficult day due to the adverse weather meaning I had little to show for the trip so far. When the weather changed at night, with a bright moon just rising and visible stars I knew the nearest location that would enable me to get a good shot. Having been here on several occasions I knew what to expect, the inspiration for the trip was to catch the snow and ice and I just knew that I would be able to bag a keeper on this loch, and I wasn't wrong.

Editing

To create this image I had to take several exposures, one for the sky, one for the mountain and one for the foreground and ice on the water. It was difficult to capture the detail that you see in the image with one shot, so a series of shots were manually blended in photoshop for front to back detail. The sky exposure was taken at a higher ISO with a shutter speed of 20 seconds, while I used lower ISO and longer exposures for the mountain to reduce the noise. Various methods have been used in post processing with the use of layer masks, my creative workflow varies from image to image and I allow the scene to speak to me rather than dictate a single process, often resulting in a different style across my work. I think this eclectic style gives me a creative freedom rather than having a particular style, my main subjects are always the bigger landscape vistas, but when it comes to processing I can often find myself thinking on the hop and researching different methods. Photoshop definitely gives me more flexibility than other software packages out there, by developing actions and panels as I go I have ended up with a huge library of different workflows.

In my camera bag

For my style of photography the bag is just as important as the gear inside it, as I am normally in the mountains or walking for much of my photos I need a reliable and comfortable pack that allows me to take additional kit, and be flexible. I use the F-stop Loka back pack for this, it give me the security to carry my camera equipment and the flexibility to switch it use to use for adventure photography such as skiing of downhill biking. My kit consists of a Nikon D610 camera, recently upgrading from the D600, a Nikon 18-35 mm lens, the Nikon 24-70 mm and ikon 70- 300 mm all of which cover the whole focal range I need, which lens I pack depends on the final image I am after. But more often than not I use the 18-35mm as my workhorse. It is light, sharp as a tack and wide for big landscapes. I always carry plenty spare batteries, as well as my Hitech 100 filters. I have been experimenting with digital blending lately but I still find I prefer to use filters for getting the image as close to what I want in camera before post processing, I mainly use three filters for my landscape work, a 0.6 & 0.9 hard grad and a 0.9 soft grad. Occcasionally I use a 0.9 reverse grad as well as a ten stop filter. Additional kit can vary, depending on the shoot, I use a lot of technical lightweight mountain equipment for staying out longer such as a hooped Bivi, sleeping systems and warm kit, but I can easily be on a bike, skis or a rope too so it really depends on the trip. My fail safes are gloves, torches, multi tool, cleaning cloths, rain covers and dry bags especially to protect my kit.

Feedback

Scotland is an amazing place in winter, the landscape can change dramatically from hour to hour on some days. But for night shots in particular I would recommend having the right winter gear as it can be very cold if you are standing around for hours at a time, being cold and unhappy will sap your creative mind in no time at all. I have seen me wearing three layers of clothes on some nights so that I can stay out and shoot comfortably. Night photography is really simple once you get the hang of it, experiment with different exposure times and ISO settings, remembering that some cameras will produce high levels of noise the higher up you go. I normally try to shoot less that 2000 ISO where I can and often take shots of the land at lower ISO ranges with longer exposure times to get maximum detail and blend images later in post process. If you have noise in the sky it less important, and you can always use software such as Topaz Denoise to reduce this later.

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Frozen Lochan

Behind The Lens

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