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I wanted to get in the frame the spirit of hanging out with your friends, when you all feel young and decided to take the world with your bare hands...
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I wanted to get in the frame the spirit of hanging out with your friends, when you all feel young and decided to take the world with your bare hands
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Aug, 2016Views
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Discover more photos See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
It was in a tunnel near McWay Falls (Big Sur, CA), It's a pretty touristic place on a side of the Pacific Coast Highway (also known as Highway 1 in California)Time
It was past noon on Sunday. My main objective was to shot the fall (a very nice one, flowing right into the ocean), but there was a lot of fog, and it was almost impossible to even see it, so had to change subjects.Lighting
I definitely wanted the contrast of the light inside and outside the tunnel, so putting the sun in front of me and waiting for people going in that direction was very important to achieve the effect I wanted.Equipment
I used a Nikon D7200 with the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, no other equipment involvedInspiration
After I realized there was no way I was getting a nice picture of my intended subject (the falls), I looked around for other subjects so I wouldn't loose the trip. As mother nature was not helping, I tried to take some pictures of the people in the place (just past noon, there was plenty of them there) and saw some funny groups stopping there as part of a road trip, then I decided I wanted a shot to show that experience of going around with friends, and the tunnel was a good match for the lighting and the theme.Editing
In the original shot, there where two other people right outside the tunnel they where partially blown out, and I wanted a small group of 3-4 people in the image, so I increased the highlights until they (and anything visible outside the tunnel) where completely invisible. Also, decreased the shadows and black levels in the area where the persons are, to make them turn into siluetes. At that point the picture was almost completely B&W, except for the tunnel texture, so decided to make it all B&W.In my camera bag
I usually carry my D7200, a 35mm f/1.8, the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 used in this photo, a 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 and an ultra-wide 11-16mm f/2.8... when I know I'm gonna be out until sunset or taking landscapes, I also take a small Sirui traveling tripod and a variable ND filterFeedback
put yourself against the sun (or any strong light source) and inside a dark place (it can be a tunnel, a building or anything that creates high contrast between the darkness inside and the strong light outside). Expose for the inside. This can be done automatically by your camera if a big part of your frame is inside (like in my picture, where over 80% of the frame is inside the tunnel) or by using positive exposure compensation. Just make sure to get the detail in the walls and that the outside is completely white. If there is a part of your frame where you want little or no detail (like the people's siluete in this photo) selectively lower the shadows and black levels in post processing.
