Everything Ends
Long exposure of a broken down pier in Melaka, Malaysia
Sep, 2016Views
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Contest Finalist in Black And White Long Exposures Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken at a abandoned broken down pier in Melaka, Malaysia. This pier used to be a major fishermen hub back in the 1970's and 80's.Time
I have visited this place a few times at different times of the day before I actually took this image. The image itself was taken in a very hot and sunny late afternoon. I had to wait the tide to be high to get that silky image of water that I visualised.Lighting
I wanted to have a very contrasty image to tell a story . Back of my mind, the pier should be well exposed but with dark shadows in hidden corners to add that bit of drama I wanted. So I had a small room of having the sun not so high up the sky and balance the influence of the tide to basically flood the base of the pier.Equipment
This image was taken with my Nikkor 16-35 F4 lens on a Nikon D810 body . To create that illusion of fog , I used Lee Big stopper .All this mounted steady on my Manfrotto MH054M0-Q5 Magnesium Ball Head and the Manfrotto MT190CXPRO4 Carbon Fiber TripodInspiration
I wanted to tell a story of decay, that nothing is permanent. Regardless how strong or grandeuir someone or something is today, his,hers or its time too will come to end. This ininveitable in the circle of life. So, we should remind ourselves we can loose everything we own or love in a blink of an eye. I personally wanted to remind myself to be always humble and stay grounded.Editing
I used 3 images for the final product. I didn't combine in a single HDR but used selective masking in Photoshop. As always, started with Lightroom for the basics such as exposures , contrast , whites, blacks, highlights and shadows on all 3 images but at a different adjustments. I knew I would use the over exposed image for the highlights and dodge areas while the under exposed for the shadows and blacks. The mid exposures was exclusively for the pier itself.I used the HSL slider to convert the image to black and white. Then I exported it to Photoshop for image blending and sharpening. I did tweak some of the layers further to just get the feel right, especially the contrast. Finally, added the Gausian blur to give a sense "calm" to the image. Then, back to Lightroom, adding some selective clarity, vignette and its done!!In my camera bag
Im currently into 2 systems, Nikon and Fuji. For the Nikon, its the D810 with the Nikkor 16-35 F4 mounted 90% of the time. I also have the Nikkor 80-200 F2.8 for my telephoto shots. This is my go equipments for my landscape work. The Fuji system that I use is the Fuji XT2 with Fujinon 16-55 F2.8 lens. I use this unit mostly for images with strong human interest such as street photography. Besides this, the cleaning equipment, shutter releases, batteries and cards, lots of them.Feedback
The key is visualisation. Ask yourself, what do you want the image to "say"? Then, find the correct time and a very strong focal subject, better if the subject have some sort of drama on it, like rust and decay. Try use lighting or absence of it to lead the eye of the viewer.
