The Old Neptune
Apr, 2012Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This Photo is of the Old Neptune Pub, which is located on the beach at Whitstable, Kent, UK.Time
This was taken at Sunset during the summer so around 9pm from memory, I'd been shooting all day in South Kent and drove back to Whitstable in North Kent to catch the sunset. It turned out the sunset was pretty poor but the sky lit up after the sun dipped below the horizon.Lighting
The lighting was a mixture of natural light (fading fast) and tungsten lights from the pub, there were also street lights behind me. Due to the big difference in EV levels I shot this as brackets at +/- 1EV intervals totalling 7 shots, with a view to processing as HDR to capture the tonal range.Equipment
Equipment was fairly basic, Olympus E500 body with Zuiko digital 14-35mm lens, mounted on a 20 year old Velbon Video tripod with a 3 way head, heavy tripod but great for minimising movement.Inspiration
I've wanted to take a photo of this pub for a while but wanted the lighting to be right. On the night I took this it all came together; the colour in the sky, the cold light on the white boards of the pub against the warm lights from inside the pub and the external lights and to top it all the crescent moon in the perfect position.Editing
As mentioned above this was an HDR composed of 7 shots. I personally like my HDR shots to be fairly natural, a reflection of the scene I see in front of me. As such I try to keep the HDR techniques to a minimum, using basic tone mapping rather than going for the more overblown effects. The lighting in this photo is as close as possible to the lighting on the night I took it.In my camera bag
I normally carry the Olympus E500, a couple of lenses, 14-45mm and 70-250mm, a few filters mainly circular polariser and a ND, lens cloths, plastic bags (in case of rain) and the Velbon Tripod. Sometimes a few rolls of duct tape and egg mayo sandwiches. And a small torch.Feedback
Shooting at night poses it's own problems so plan in advance if possible. If the location is local check it out at different times of day / night and different times of year. Don't just take the first shot and forget it, keep returning until you are happy. Check weather conditions in advance so you are not caught out by cloud. If you want to capture a sunrise / sunset / moon don't leave it to chance, there are many smartphone apps available that eliminate the guesswork; I use Sun Surveyor by Adam Ratana, it allows you to check sun rise and set, moon rise and set, trajectories and moon phases for any date and also has a handy map overlay which allows you to work out exactly where the sun sets in relation to the surrounding topography. Finally, and most importantly, get to know your kit inside out. What are the limitations of the camera and lenses, what settings give the best results in different conditions. If your camera has a noise reduction setting use it to avoid hot pixels generating noise in darker areas. Use mirror lock up if your camera has it and a sturdy tripod. Also learn to use the camera controls in the dark in case the torch batteries fail. Take more shots than you think you need and bracket as much as possible, don't rely on the rear screen it's not always realistic, learn what the histograms mean in relation to the captured image and use them as a guide. Finally, if you are not happy with the end result, analyse the image to work out what went wrong and reshoot.
