Hole in the Wall sunset
It tok a bit of planning to get the sun to line up just how I wanted it for this shot... and no small amount of luck with the weather!...
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It tok a bit of planning to get the sun to line up just how I wanted it for this shot... and no small amount of luck with the weather!
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Jun, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I shot this image in Booderee National Park - a stunning location in Jervis Bay, on the South Coast of NSW, Australia. "Hole in the Wall" is a natural feature along the coastline of the bay.Time
This shot was taken at sunset - around 5pm, in February. I’d been wanting to capture this shot for a while - waiting for the right time of year for sunset to line up with the Hole, I thought the clouds would foil me this time... luckily the sun decided to peep through just as it hit the horizon!Lighting
I love shooting directly into the sun at sunrise or sunset - not only do you get that lovely warm colour, but I think a bit of sunflare and sunburst add something special to the image. In order to capture enough light on the foreground, but still have the sun/sky correctly exposed, I shot 3 exposures, to later be blended in Photoshop.Equipment
My go to gear for landscape photography is my Canon 5D MkIII, with the EF 16-35mm 2.8L lens. I love shooting ultra wide!!! Nearly always at 16mm with this lens... And a high quality B+W circular polarising filter was used for this shot too, to enhance saturation and control reflections and sky colour. I setup on a Gitzo GT1542T Traveller carbon fibre tripod, with a Markins Q3 ball head. This tripod is small and light enough to take overseas, I love it!Inspiration
I've spent a bit of time at Booderee, both for work and play., and it is such an amazing place! I'd been to this location before, mainly during the day. After orienting myself, I realised that there was potential a pretty cool opportunity to line the sun up through the Hole, so I did a bit of playing with the Sunseeker app on my iPhone to determine when would be the best time to attempt the shot.Editing
For this type of landscape shot, I usually take 3 bracketed exposures - generally about 2 stops apart. I import these into Lightroom, then open them as layers in Photoshop. I use a few different methods to blend exposures, depending on the composition of the image. For this one, I made selections from the brightest and the darkest images (so, the brighter foreground from the overexposed image, and the darker sky from the underexposed image) and used masks. After tidying up and smoothing the transition between the masked areas, I then take the original, 'correct' exposure and lay it over the top, but reducing the opacity right down. This reduces that over-the-top HDR look, to create a more pleasing a natural balance - much more like what your eye sees. I then take that image back into Lightroom, to finish up the image with general and local adjustments.In my camera bag
It depends on what I'm shooting!!! For landscapes like this, the only extra thing I would carry aside from the 5D MkIII, 16-35mm and Gitzo tripod mentioned above would be my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens... in case I spot some wildlife or sometimes for those longer distance landscapes - often I will take a series of portrait-orientation images at 70mm to stitch into a panorama. For weddings and events, there is a lot more in my bag!!! 5D MkIII, 6D, 16-35mm f/2.8L, 70-200mm f/2.8L, 100mm f/2.8L Macro, Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art, 2 x Canon 600 EX-RT speedlites... the list goes on!Feedback
For landscapes, scouting a location is almost essential! You can get a feel for how the light will work, get some potential angles and locations to setup your tripod in mind, and get a feel for how long it takes to get to the location. For moments like this particular image, the light is only right for mere minutes!!! You want to be fully prepared and setup, not rushing down, looking for a good spot and setting up as the sun is disappearing!!! So apps like Sunseeker and The Photographer's Ephemeris are great for this planning. Also get to know your gear... get out and shoot, shoot, shoot!!! I ams o comfortable with my gear, that any adjustments I need to make are basically on autopilot now - I'm not scratching my head, trying to think which setting to change, or where in the menu system is the exposure bracketing! If your camera has custom menu sections or custom settings on the dial mode, use them! I have one of the custom settings on my 5D MkIII constantly set to my specific landscape setup - so I can literally spin the mode dial, and I am ready to go! Also helpful is using LiveView to compose and shoot with. LiveView allows you to zoom in and manually focus to get the focal point of your image spot on... and when you shoot with LiveView enabled, the mirror is already up, which means when you press the shutter there is less vibration in the camera, for a sharper image.
