SorenMoorePhotography

Derwent Water Mono

I was shooting a commissioned shot at another location at Derwent Water in the Lake District. I had finished the image I was creating and was walking back to my...
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I was shooting a commissioned shot at another location at Derwent Water in the Lake District. I had finished the image I was creating and was walking back to my car feeling pleased with my results. I passed this boat jetty when I saw an image that I had not anticipated creating. So I put my camera bag down and set up my tripod and camera. Attaching ND filters and calculating my exposure I finally created this image you see now. Notice the bird on the third post on the right, my initial thought was to clone this out but then I thought to myself, "Why? It was in the shot when I captured it, so it deserves to remain."
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Canon EOS 7D

settings

Aperture f/11.0 ISO 100 Shutter 80/1 Focal Length 10/1

upload_date

Jun, 2015

Views

220

Likes

+30

Awards

Action Award

Zenith Award

Staff Winter Selection 2015

Top Choice

+15

Outstanding Creativity

+10

Absolute Masterpiece

+10

Superb Composition

Peer Award

Superior Skill

Top Ranks

Top 20 rank

Top 30 rank

Top 30 rank week 1

Top 30 rank

Top 30 rank week 1

Top 30 rank

Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 1

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken at Derwent Water in the English Lake District. It contains the greatest concentration of fresh water lakes in England but there is more to it than just the lakes. There are the high Fells (mountains) which feed many of the lakes. It has a staggering, rugged beauty and can be enjoyed by anyone from casual walker to rock climber. It offers some of the greatest landscape opportunities in the UK.

Time

I think it was early afternoon, which isn't often the best time to be taking landscape images but elements all came together at this particular moment and the image worked.

Lighting

To be honest the lighting wasn't brilliant at all as it was early afternoon but what I did notice was the reflection of the fells in the water, despite the fact that the water was not entirely still. That and the fact that the sky was also reflected as well I realised I could do something with this. There was a breeze blowing across the surface so I had to do something to overcome that. I decided that because the light was a bit flat to mount a circular ND1000 filter. I knew this would give me a long exposure that would allow the basic elements of the shot to come into their own. I have learnt not to be put off just because of poor light, look for other elements to replace the absence of great light. I have a family, so I can't just get up early and stop out late so I have to compensate by taking images at family friendly times when other photographers would not get their cameras out.

Equipment

This was shot on a Canon 7D with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, tripod, Neutral Density ND1000 filter and timer release to ensure there was no camera shake.

Inspiration

Ironically this shot came from been at this location for an entirely different shot. I had received a commission from someone who wanted an image of a different part of the lake. I had travelled there early in the morning (a rarity!) because I knew the sun would be in the right place and had spent a lot of time at the other location waiting for the right light before I had my shot. This image offered itself as I was walking the 50 minutes back to my car. I saw the jetty and was immediately attracted by the boards and the posts. I liked the simple elements to the image, my problem was the light wasn't the best and that is when I realised by taking a long exposure of the scene I could transform the poor lighting and turn it into something else.

Editing

Yes, my predominant editing software is Lightroom. I knew when I was taking this image that it would end up as a monochrome because of the poor light. There was not enough drama and impact in the lighting for it to work in colour. I converted it to black and white and then adjusted the highlights and shadows and the black and white points to get some drama into the image. I then spent a little bit of time burning in the wooden boards of the jetty. I painted a mask in with the adjustment brush of the jetty only and boosted the clarity and sharpened it a bit. The rest of the image remained untouched to preserve the soft effect in the sky of the clouds whizzing by and the nice smooth effect of the lake to preserve the reflection. Finally I imported the image into OnOne to create the border. You may notice on the fourth post along on the right there is a white bird. I could have cloned it out but decided I liked it as it brought something extra to the composition so left it in.

In my camera bag

Recently I have replaced my canon 7D for the 7D mkII. A great camera with exceptional focussing. I carry 3 lenses; a Sigma 17-70 which is my work horse, my Sigma 10-20 which is my landscape lens and a Canon 70-200 for isolating parts of the landscape, wildlife or photographing people. As well as the circular ND filter, which wasn't very expensive but does give great results, I have a circular polarising filter. I also have a very basic Lee filter kit with two adapters for the Sigma lenses and two filters a 6ND and a 6 graduated filter. I would love to expand on this but need to save! I have a Canon remote switch to use with my Manfrotto tripod and recently I bought myself a Canon 430EX speedlite.

Feedback

A good bit of advice for those who are not familiar with using ND filters is an exposure calculator. I just had a pdf document saved on my phone but there are plenty of apps out there that will do the same thing. If you take an exposure reading without the filter you can refer to the calculator and it will give you the new exposure that you need when adding your ND filter. it saves a lot of guess work. One other helpful tip is when using any filter compose and focus your image first. When you have done that then lock off your focus or switch to manual and then add your filter. You will never manage to compose or focus with a ND1000 filter on your lens!

See more amazing photos, follow SorenMoorePhotography

SorenMoorePhotography

SorenMoorePhotography

Derwent Water Mono

I was shooting a commissioned shot at another location at Derwent Water in the Lake District. I had finished the image I was creating and was walking back to my... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow SorenMoorePhotography

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I was shooting a commissioned shot at another location at Derwent Water in the Lake District. I had finished the image I was creating and was walking back to my...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.