Chelsea Houseboats
Oct, 2013Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on the Embankment in London, UK. I absolutely love the bridges that frame Battersea Park, and the Albert Bridge pictured here is a brilliant sight at night. As soon as I moved to the area I spent a lot of time out at night capturing the impressively lit bridge.Time
This shot was taken at about 7pm in winter if I remember correctly, therefore everything being very dark. This is a nice indication that the winter can actually be a very good time to be a photographer, as it allows you to work at more socially acceptable times (rather than 5 in the morning or 10 at night in the summer).Lighting
The lighting here was a bit difficult. The brightness of the lighting on the bridge was very prone to overexposing and burning out. This also caused an issue with the lens, as I had an inverse-image of the bridge 'floating in the sky' in the form of a green ghost-image. I was able to control some of this effect using graduated filters.Equipment
I used my lovely (now gone) Nikon D300s on a Gitzo 6Xcarbon tripod. I also used graduated filters (ND) in order to get the flare of the bridge under control. I know that this is technically is not strictly necessary for HDR, but it gave me the option of fine-tuning my exposures to make most of the limited sensitivity of the D300s. I used a 35mm DX lens, and corrected for some of the distortion afterwards.Inspiration
I was initially simply trying to capture the architectural beauty of this bridge. The lighting at nightfall is wonderful and accentuates the impressive outline even more. Having started on the other side of the bridge, and having found the traffic to be an issue, I moved my position to this side (north side) of the Thames. The houseboats and moorings I saw whilst crossing the river were just too good an opportunity for an interesting foreground to be missed!Editing
Normally, I like to keep my pictures close to the 'real look' and natural. In this case, due to the difficult lighting situation, and inspired by other pictures I had seen recently, I used HDR. Using Photoshop 5, I merged the 5 separate pictures that I took at different exposures. Given that this was a bit of overkill for the situation, it created an effect that I can only describe as 'oil-painting-like'. I had never seen that effect appear before, but immediately liked it and enhanced it more in PS 5 using the clarity and contrast functions. I had to correct for a lot of greenish-ghosting in the sky from the bridge flare.In my camera bag
My kit-bag is normally a chiropractors nightmare... I have more than once thrown my back out whilst hefting it around, so you might want to choose not to copy me! I normally carry my D800 with grip, a backup body (either a D3200 or a Fuji XE-1 with 35mm 1.4). That also includes at least 3 extra batteries for each. In terms of lenses, a fast 50mm, a 20mm, and a 35mm. I tend to use prime lenses as it really makes me think about the composition and what the focal length does to the perspective. Since starting to use a proper tripod (Gitzo 6Xcarbon) I tend to carry that with me more often than the lighter and flimsy one I had before. No need to carry a flimsy and wobbly tripod - just leave it at home.Feedback
It is really worth exploring photo locations on multiple occasions, as you will understand more about the specific lighting. Also, had I not crossed the bridge to explore other angles and options, this picture would not exist. Many people think that only Central London or the Chelsea shopping stretches are interesting and worth exploring for photo opportunities - but to me the bridges around Battersea will always be magical.
