Stepping stones
Dec, 2013Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
It's a funny old thing, how many times do you take photos that are local to you, I know I don't as much as I should. Well this is my home Box Hill in surrey which is between Leatherhead and Dorking, and is part of the National Trust and a green belt area, and these are the famous stepping stones.Time
Well while I was at work this image kept haunting me time and time again, but the time of day had to be right and so did the light, trying to concentrate on my job was somewhat of a challenge, images flashing in my mind. 5pm arrived and off I went to the river, this is the river mole, and the first day was dull and the lighting was not right, so just a look and some ideas, for a return trip was on the cards, 5pm day two, and the lighting was great.Lighting
The lighting was bright but not too bright, that was a good start, the reason being as this was autumn the leaves on the trees had much of there Autumn colours, so as the sun was not to high, that flat harsh lighting had gone and created a great atmosphere of calm and colour, also one of the best days for leaves and even flowers is overcast, just a little tip thrown in for good measure.Equipment
Ok the tools used for this image where as follows, 1 Olympus e620 2 Tripod 3 cable release 4 12-50mm lens set at 14mm 10nd filter I like to keep everything as simple as possible.Inspiration
I had seen many photos of the Stepping stone before so this was a start, and then decided to challenge myself and also see if I could improve on other photos that had been taken at the same place, so the game was afoot. The other was the challenge using long exposure, something that at the time was very new to me, a test to my own abilities, and also very exciting new chapter in the world of photography.Editing
On arriving home and checking the image some work was needed to be the life back and show exactly what I saw and felt at the time of pressing the magic shutter button, and we love that.In my camera bag
Ok on to equipment two olympus omd e5m bodys, graduated filters, cable release, flash, 45mm prime lens 1.8 12-.50mm lens 70-300mm zoom lens, also a 9-14mm lens super wide always spare batteries, spare sd cards, lens cloth is a must, and most of the a tripod large or a travel tripod lighter and smaller. If your wondering about the prime lens, this has a fixed focal length, but with a wide aperture of 1.8 means its fast, great for blurring out the background and making your subjects stand out, also very good in low light, and testing your composition.Feedback
If you want to capture an image like the stepping stones here are a few tips, think about the place and watch the light. A tripod is a must, and a cable release would be a great help, important points, 1 mount camera on tripod and level 2 switch off image stabilization, as your camera with not be moving you will not need this switched on. 3 Ok now you have the basic setup ready, 4 switch your lens to manual focus and focus on the subject around f11 is a good start if you want the focus from the foreground to the background sharp, this is also what we call the sweet part of a lens. 5 Cable release connected, now that your lens is focused you now need a graduated filter i use what is known as a big stopper dont worry all this means is a 10nd filter which allows you to keep the shutter open for a length of time without over exposing. Nd filters come in many different stops such as 4nd 6nd and so on, the 10nd is so dark you can't see anything don't worry to much about that, but this is why it is very important to focus first before attaching the filter, now very your shutter timeing this is something you need to play around with, but with the shot you see of the Stepping Stones 50 seconds was used. 6 Just keep looking at your image after each shot until you can see what you have taken, and start working from there, oh and one more tip, the first day i took the shot it looked ok, but something was lacking, the second day i added a leaf on the stone, this balanced the shot, but most important added foreground interest, so think about the shot and have fun.
