MarcNewton

Sunset through tree, New Forest, England

Sunset through tree, New Forest, England

Sunset in The New Forest, England

Sunset in The New Forest, England
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

settings

Aperture 11/1 ISO 100 Shutter 1/160 Focal Length 16/1

upload_date

May, 2016

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+10

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo in the New Forest in England on a hot summers day.

Time

It was taken around 8pm when the sun is just becoming it’s warmest in colour. I was walking around the New Forest with my camera and tripod, as I often do, and I found this dead tree surrounded by this bright purple heather. During the summer the heather in the New Forest is at its best, and brightest. I experimented with a few different compositions then decided on this one and waited for the sun to appear perfect in the curve of the branch.

Lighting

When shooting directly into the sun you always run the risk of either good looking or bad looking lens flare. I think I just about got away with it here but I do wish there wasn’t flare in the bottom middle of the frame as I would have liked the tree to be clearer in the foreground. That said, it was a price worth paying and this is what you have to weigh up when shooting into the sun.

Equipment

This was shot on my canon 5d mkII with a 16-35mm lens set at 16mm. I also used a tripod and remote trigger to get it as steady as possible.

Inspiration

My inspiration for this is the New Forest itself, it’s a beautiful part of England. I walk around parts of it totally alone with my camera. In places you can look around for miles and not see nothing but the landscape. I just want to show the maximum of this beauty, it’s more of a feeling of being there than a reflection of what’s there. This is what I aim for.

Editing

This is a HDR image. There are 3 exposures, one under exposed, one over and one the correct exposure. Then I merged these together in Lightroom to give me a high dynamic range of colours and tones. This is how I got the colours to look that saturated. It’s is a great technique if you want push the reality of what was actually there. As I said before, I wanted to produce the maximum beauty from the landscape in this shot. That’s why I used a HDR technique.

In my camera bag

For landscapes I carry my 5dmkII, a canon 16-35mm lens, a 50mm prime lens a remote trigger and a biggish tripod. It might be a bit of a pain carrying around a bigger tripod but it really helps when doing landscape shots. Don’t take a lightweight one, it will just blow over in the wind!

Feedback

Give yourself plenty of time. Take a walk and experiment with compositions first. Find a spot you like and wait for the light to be right then grab the shot. I see lots of photographers just continually walking around snapping away. You don’t need to do this, sometimes a bit of planning goes a long way. Get there early, scout around and wait for the light. Remember, photography is, in it’s essence, capturing light beams. If there is good light, you’ll normally get a good shot.

See more amazing photos, follow MarcNewton

MarcNewton

MarcNewton

Sunset through tree, New Forest, England

Sunset in The New Forest, England

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow MarcNewton

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