Sunset at Portland Aluminium Smelter
I decided that Black and White was best to show this back lit industrial skyline to best effect.
I decided that Black and White was best to show this back lit industrial skyline to best effect.
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Nov, 2017Views
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Contest Finalist in Industry Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken at Point Danger looking back to the Portland Aluminium Smelter in Portland Victoria Australia.Time
It was taken at Sunset at 7pm.Lighting
It was a funny story actually as I had arrived here to get shots of the Gannets. This location is the only Gannet colony on mainland Australia. My wife and I arrived all excited only to find that it was fenced off and my lens wasn't long enough to get anything worthwhile. So I turned around at sunset and saw the silhouette of the Smelter 360 degrees away from the Gannet colony. The sunset was bringing out some nice clouds and even a little mist to enhance the scene with highlights on the foreground grass as well. I decided in post that the monochrome treatment was best to focus on the Smelter silhouette. It goes to show that sunsets are not always about colour!Equipment
Olympus OMD EM1- Mk2 with Olympus 40-150mm Pro lens @ 56mm on MeFoto Travel tripod.Inspiration
I was inspired by the architectural texture of the Smelter construction and the way the sunset was highlighting the silhouette.Editing
Yes. Clarity +30 Vibrance +15 Whites +8 Medium Contrast Curve, Shadows up a little with luminosity mask to bring out the foreground grass, moderate sharpen with Unsharp mask. Then black and white filter (auto).In my camera bag
The Oly OMD EM1 Mk2 with the 12-100mm pro lens is my standard travel kit. If travelling in the car I will also pack my Oly 60mm Macro, Oly 40-150mm pro and Oly 300mm pro lenses. Tripod for travelling is the MeFoto travel but I always have the much heavier Manfrotto 410 head and D55 legs in the car and will always prefer to use this for landscapes if I don't have to walk too far from the car. I am 69yrs old and carrying heavy gear very far is no longer an option for me! I will always carry a remote, various ND and Polar filters and filter holders. Also I carry a headlamp and a torch for the dark but also for isolating small subjects especially flowers and plants for macro work.Feedback
Firstly keep your eyes open and look around. Here is my mantra: look 360 degrees around you and in each direction - look high, look low, look wide, look close. Move your body and eye position not just your tele lens. Be flexible as in this case where I went to shoot birds but ended up by sheer chance to grab a nice sunset and landscape. Look fro silhouettes at sunset - ist not always about the colour. Always shoot in RAW so you can always bring up the shadows when required such as in my foreground in this example. Check and recheck your Histogram - especially if shooting into the sun like this as its easy to blow out the highlights if you don't pay attention.
