Tower Bridge
A long exposure shot of London's iconic Tower Bridge.
A long exposure shot of London's iconic Tower Bridge.
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Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo of London's iconic Tower Bridge was taken from the South Bank of the River Thames near to the London Mayoral Offices.Time
I was actually part of a group long exposure workshop when I took this image. We had started off by the Tate Modern art gallery and gradually stretched out along the south bank of the river. By the time I took this shot it was late afternoon and I was quite alone. Fortunately we regrouped a while later at a London Pub.Lighting
The river and bridge were illuminated by pure natural daylight which by late afternoon was well to the south west. I was using a 16 stop neutral density filter so, with the long exposure, this helped to soften the late afternoon sunshine and smooth out the small amount of high cloud in the sky.Equipment
I made this image with a Fujifilm X-T1 camera body fitted with an XF-10-24mm lens, Formatt-Hitech 16 stop ND filter. The camera was mounted on a tripod and fired using a remote trigger.Inspiration
Being on a long exposure workshop that day, I was purposefully looking for suitable scenes containing flowing water, the river, and good static structures. What better a structure than this famous bridge. Being alone at this time I was also hoping that the image would be different from anything captured by the rest of the workshop group.Editing
Shooting in RAW, I first imported the image into Adobe Lightroom and converted to DNG. This is a standard part of my workflow with all images. I then slightly cropped the image before converting to black and white in Silver Efex Pro 2. I made adjustment to brilliance, contrast and structure and burnt the edges of the image. Saved back into Lightroom I then sharpened slightly. My workflow is normally short and sweet with minimal adjustment made to an image as I try, as far as possible, to get it right in the camera. If I spend more than a couple of minutes editing a photograph it will normally end up in the bin, because it was obviously wrong to start with.In my camera bag
I generally carry two or three lenses, (the focal lengths depend on what I am intending to shoot), spare batteries (you can never carry enough), spare SD cards in a protective case, one or two ND filters depending on the intended shoot, lens cloth, business cards (in case I'm ever asked). If I'm intending using a tripod I will carry a remote trigger too.Feedback
The River Thames, particularly the south bank, provides so many opportunities for photographers. It's a great place for people watching and therefore street photography, but, also with so many historic landmarks you will never want for subjects.It is a busy place of course, particularly in the summer tourist season, so be careful where you set up a tripod and be prepared to spend half your time answering questions. Most of the locals see photographers all the time so tend to ignore you, but, a tripod and fancy camera gear is bound to interest visitors. The street entertainers will expect you to drop a pound or two into the hat before you photograph them! Being the United Kingdom, the weather is variable, so waterproofs are a good idea at just about any time of the year.
