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St. John's Magic

Taken on the first day of my first trip to Newfoundland after a tough hike up Signal Hill for me as I am not at all used to the hilly terrain....
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Taken on the first day of my first trip to Newfoundland after a tough hike up Signal Hill for me as I am not at all used to the hilly terrain.
Read less

X-T10

Aperture 11/1 ISO 200 Shutter 26/10 Focal Length 1000/100

upload_date

Aug, 2016

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken on a recent trip to St. John's, Newfoundland. It was the first day there after landing and I decided to hike up Signal Hill to try to get a sunset shot over the city. I found a nice spot near the Queen's Battery Barracks to set up and compose my shot.

Time

This show was really at a couple times of day as it's a composite. Most of the image is from a shot taken just after the sun had dipped below the horizon. The second part was taken a little while later during blue hour after the lights in the city had come on as I wanted to blend those lights into the first shot. I was set up not moving my camera just waiting for things to happen for about 2 hours from about 7:30pm to 9:30pm on August 3rd, 2016.

Lighting

I really wanted a nice colourful sky for the shot and with the clouds I saw before I headed out, I knew there was a good chance for some great colours right after the sunset. Waiting until after the sun had set was the key to getting the colours I was hoping for which many people neglect thinking it's all about the sunset, but often the sky is even more amazing about 5 minutes after the sun goes down. The other note about lighting is that all the lights of the city comes from a second shot taken later near the end of blue hour after the lights had come on.

Equipment

This shot was taken with a Fujifilm X-T10, Fujinon 10-24mm F4 lens set to F11, and on a MeFoto Globetrotter tripod.

Inspiration

I really wanted to get a shot in St. John's that shows the beauty of the landscape of the city. I also really wanted to try a new technique where I blend the lights of a city during blue hour with the beautiful sky and light that you get around sunset.

Editing

Often my post processing will start in Adobe Lightroom where I just tweak a few basic settings and then export to Adobe Photoshop. In Photoshop I will clone out anything like sensor dust or anything else that shouldn't be there, then I will often use the Color Efex Pro from the Nik Collection to make some more tweaks before adding a high pass filter for sharpening. In a composite like this I also use masks in Photoshop to add elements from multiple shots to make one image.

In my camera bag

Typically in my bag you will find my camera which is currently a Fujifilm X-T10 that I am borrowing and will soon be replaced by an X-T2. For lenses you will find a Fujinon 10-24mm F4 and a Fujinon 35mm F2. On the side of my bag you'll find a Mefoto Globetrotter tripod. The little things you'll find are a water bottle, 10 stop and 6 stop ND filters, a shutter remote, lens paper, rocket blower, lens cleaning cloths, and SD cards.

Feedback

The most important thing is to be patient. You'll want to find your spot and be set up at least an hour before the sun sets and then you'll be staying in the one spot for a few hours just waiting for things to happen. No matter what happens you have to just be patient and not move your camera if you want to do a composite like this one. Often things won't happen the way you want and you'll maybe get a boring sky so then you'll just have to keep trying and go out time and time again doing the same thing until you get what you want. I got lucky with this shot and it only took one attempt but often you have to try multiple times. One of the best chances to get an interesting sunset is right after it rains and it becomes partly cloudy.

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St. John's Magic

Taken on the first day of my first trip to Newfoundland after a tough hike up Signal Hill for me as I am not at all used to the hilly terrain.... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow justinfox

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Taken on the first day of my first trip to Newfoundland after a tough hike up Signal Hill for me as I am not at all used to the hilly terrain....
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.