Bridge over Ladybower, UK
Taken at Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District, UK
Taken at Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District, UK
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Oct, 2016Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Black And White Long Exposures Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Black And White Architecture Photo Contest
Featured
Member Selection Award
Contest Finalist in Structures in Black and White Photo Contest
People's Choice in Man Made Arches Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Man Made Arches Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
All Star
Outstanding Creativity
Genius
Emotions
Impressed
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Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 2Top 20 rank week 1
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken on the shore of Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District in the UK.Time
Taken early morning around 7.30 am. I was hoping for some sunrise shots but the clouds weren't playing ball.Lighting
The sun kept trying to break through the clouds but was struggling. Every so often it would partially succeed and at that point the shutter was released. On this shot we were lucky to get two light rays landing on the water which i think improves the look of the image.Equipment
I use a Nikon D800E and this shot was taken with a Nikon 16-35mm lens. A NISI 3 stop filter and polariser was also used.Tripod is a Gitzo mountaineer . A cheap wired cable release was the last item used on the shot to minimise camera shake.Inspiration
I know the area well as i grew up nearby l and the scenery is stunning. The bridge has a lot of history, as below it, submerged under the water is the old village of Ashopton. If you google it you can see old photographs of the bridge being built over the village before it was flooded in the 1940s . There are not many pictures of the bridge online as from an architectural point of view it is nothing special, so i purposefully went out to get this shot as i thought it would be interesting. In most of my images i like the contrast between soft and harsh and the bridge provided the harshness in the shot.Editing
Post processing was kept to an absolute minimum , as with all my shots. I emphasised the bridge by increasing the exposure very slightly and used a grad filter to add punch to the sky. All tweaks were done in Lghtroom ccIn my camera bag
Nikon D800E camera, NISI filters 100mm filter set (10 stop and 3 stop) and polariser (10 stop and 3 stop) tripod, 16-35mm Nikon , 20-70mm Nikon , 70-200 Nikon . Samyang 21mm . Samyang 14mm, lens cloths, cable release, B+W circular polariser and 10 stop. Everything fits in my Lowe Pro rucksack and my Gitzo tripod sits on top.Feedback
First of all many thanks to all who voted for the image, i was humbled at attaining the Peoples choice award. This shot is not that hard to get and doesn't need expensive equipment. The key to the image was composition. I think with any shot composition is the paramount. Try to get down low (the tripod was set to the lowest point) and if you can, always shoot in manual mode and manually focus. This shot was taken at f14 and 18mm which is a good sweet spot for this lens. I often shot at f20 though and am not too concerned about the dreaded diffraction. To get everything sharp front to back, i focused on the nearest object in the shot and noted the position in the distance scale window. I then focused on the distant objects and noted that position, It is always usually at or around infinity. I then focus at the distance in the middle of the two. This method works well for me and works 99.9% of the time. If your camera has a mirror up setting i'd advise using it, if not, don't worry just set the self timer as exact timing in a shot like this is not critical. I used a 3 stop ND filter and checked the histogram which looked good at a shutter speed of 6.0 seconds. I love long exposures and at 6.0 seconds the clouds which were moving quickly, had a dream like appearance as did the water. The contrast between this and the sharpness of the bridge is what i was after.
