Mystery of the Unknown
Heights of Abraham
Heights of Abraham
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Jul, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This picture was taken at Heights of Abraham, one of the most popular attractions of Peak District, in the beautiful town of Matlock Bath in DerbyshireTime
This image was made approximately between 3pm and 4pm on a foggy, rainy day. Given the elevation of the place and the weather conditions, the fog was quite thick here and there were just a few tourists. A vast majority of them were taking the underground tours on Masson and Rutland caverns, more from getting shelter from the weather really.Lighting
As you are able to see from this image, there is a blanket of white in the background and this is the fog I was mentioning earlier. There were parts of the scene that was quite sharp in the near distance and then it faded away just as quickly, within a short distance, before being completely enveloped in the fog. The light was, obviously, diffused and I immediately knew that I had to take a quick shot if I were to stand any chance of avoiding condensation forming on the lens.Equipment
This image was taken as part of a family holiday, well before I was seriously hooked on to photography as a hobby. I had no DSLR nor did I own a fancy lens. This was taken with a Point and Shoot Nikon Coolpix L10 - a 5.1 megapixel camera. A quite basic piece of gear designed to capture snapshots and only supports JPEG and automatic modes.Inspiration
The interplay between sharpness and fuzziness was what captivated me in the first place to take notice of this scene. There was this strong shape by way of the cabin and the elegant curves of the path with the rails as boundaries led my eye to the cabin from where I was standing. Furthermore, the path vanished around a bend and intrigued me as to what lies beyond and the fog added to the mystery of the unknown.Editing
I used Adobe Camera Raw (you could open JPEG files in ACR) to do some basic adjustments like exposure correction, added a bit of clarity, lens corrections to take away the effects of distortion and carried out a bit of Noise Reduction. I knew that I was going to convert this to Black and White and hence did not do any White Balance correction. I was also pleasantly surprised that I did not have to straighten the image and I actually nailed it at the time of capture. I then switched to Photoshop CS5 to apply a bit of levels adjustment to bring about contrast on the fence, and then used Nik's Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert to Black and White. Finally I used the Hi-Pass Filter in photoshop just to sharpen a smidge.In my camera bag
At the time of taking this image, I did not have any bag! You may recall this was taken with a Point and Shoot and my jacket has plenty of space to tuck away the camera. A few months after I made this shot, when I got seriously hooked on to photography, partly because of the way this image turned out, I turned to a DSLR camera. I have a Canon 60D with the lens 18-55mm IS kit lens. Besides I have a Tamron 55-200mm telephoto lens and a Canon 100mm Macro lens (non Image Stabilised). I have a Circular Polarising Filter for the Kit lens and the Tamron lens, Cokin P Grad ND Filter Kit and the Full ND Filter kit of 1,2 and 3 stops besides having a 10 stop ND filter. I also have an LCD loupe with 3x magnification to be able to judge the image on the screen and look at the Histogram in bright light, besides having a Remote Shutter Release and a White Balance Card. What is not in the bag is the Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Manfrotto Ball Head. This is a heavy piece of gear and at some point in the near future I might just switch to it's Carbon Fibre cousin.Feedback
Most people run for cover when the weather turns bad but as photographers that is absolutely wrong thing to do. There is more drama and intrigue waiting to happen and one would be better placed to take some amazing pictures when the weather Gods get angry. It would be useful to have a sturdy Tripod handy but only use it when you have pretty much nailed your composition. Once the camera goes on the tripod, you have pretty much reduced your chances, by 80%-90%, to be compositionally creative. When composing the image, try and look for patterns or texture or leading lines to the subject. Make sure the composition is simple and eliminate all distractions that do not add value to the image from the frame. Alter your point of view for a more engaging picture as images taken at eye level always tend to be boring. Use the rule of thirds as a guideline and not as "rule"
