2016-08-06-elgin-fountain-church-highstreet
Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken on the high street in Elgin, Moray, Scotland on the 6th of August this year. The street was quite quiet as it was fairly early in the morning. This was my second week back using the camera seriously.Time
This was around 09:30 in the morning. It was a very warm start to the day; my plan was originally to get a shot of the fountain with the church immediately behind. After a few test shots it was clear that an angled composition would work better and show more of the street so I moved position to what you see here. I was using a tripod and cable release to keep vibration to a minimum, even though I had a fast shutter speed.Lighting
This shot is a combination of three exposures to cover the tonal range. For a test shot at normal exposure the dark side of the fountain was completely lost, as were some of the details in surrounding buildings. Three exposures and HDR allowed the shadow details to be brought out, enhancing the image. I kept the sun in the top right corner hoping for some nice lens flare; I was incredibly pleased with the combined result - the flare was not enhanced/changed in any way - natural flare in the lens. A lens hood was not used.Equipment
Canon EOS 500D, Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens @ 10mm, 1/125 sec at f22, ISO 100. Manfrotto MK190XPRO3 tripod + X-Pro 3-way head. Canon cable release. Post processing done in Lightroom.Inspiration
I've walked the high street for a few years so had the layout in my mind already. When taking up photography again a shot of the street was one of the first inspirations I had. I chose early morning to have as few people in the shot as possible; I wanted it to be about the structures of the street. The addition of a road cone to the top of the fountain by an unknown person added to the humour of the shot; a detail likely not seen immediately.Editing
Only post processing was to combine the three exposures in Lightroom to produce the final image and bring out some of the shadow detail.In my camera bag
Everything, or as much as I can :) Canon EOS 500D Canon 10-08mm STM lens Canon 18-55mm STM lens Canon 85mm prime lens Yongnuo YN568EX II flash with 2x YN622C wireless triggers Canon cable release AA batteries (lots of them!) LEE Filters holder, Little Stopper and circular landscape polariserFeedback
It took some experimentation to find the best composition for this shot. It was a case of everything coming together in the right way at the right time and I was in the right place. My main technique here was previsualising the street and possible shooting locations before I arrived; familiarity with a location will certainly help in terms of shot planning which means you can get straight to shooting rather than spending location time scouting.
