Speicherstadt
Feb, 2018Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this shot while on a city break in Hamburg Germany. The location is called Speicherstadt.Time
I had called to this spot earlier in the afternoon around 2pm. The sky was not how I would have liked so my wife and I decided to go for something to eat, along with a few rums! You can see in the photograph what looks like the building in the water, well this is where we went for the food and drinks. I came back to my spot around 4.30pm. Being November the sun was setting. I did not expect the sky to light up just as it did, I was pleasantly surprised!Lighting
All natural lighting as the sun was setting slightly to the left of the frame. I loved how it lit up the buildings to the right of the image. This of course was the main factor in my composition.Equipment
I always shoot with Canon. My current camera is a Canon Mk IV. 17-85mm Lens. Filters used for this shot were firstly a Lee Filters 'Little Stopper, and Lee Filters 0.9 soft grad. The position of the soft graduated filter was important as I didn't want to add too much darkness to the buildings and make them unnatural looking. Manfroto tripod and of course a shutter release, I always use this when shooting long exposures.Inspiration
I love travel, and I love Germany. This particular area of Hamburg is just so cool to walk around. This is definitely a class shot. I am not the first to take it and I won't be the last. Most shoot this dead central but Prefer how I have shot it off to the left. The light was wonderful. I actually came to this spot about four times during my five days in Hamburg to get it how I wanted.Editing
I always spend my time in post processing, if you think you have shot a beautiful image why not give it the time it deserves. When post processing images I never add in anything that wasn't there at the time the image was taken, that is not my type of photography. For this image the challenge was giving balance to the sky, and the buildings. I slightly darkened the sky and gave a little more light to the buildings to make the final shot look as it did with my eyes at the location. I also removed the inevitable couple of dust marks that any landscape photographer will have, added a little but on contrast and sharpened.In my camera bag
My bag is full of Lee Filters for various conditions. I think anybody taking landscape, seascapes or cityscapes should use filters. I don't only use them to balance the sky and foreground subject, but they can be a great way of adding mood to an image.Feedback
Getting the Balance right between the sky and buildings can be quite tricky at this location. I was quite lucky in that the sky was quite moody with a few dark clouds. When using filters be careful in which you choose to use. A hard grad would not be suitable, soft grads will be more forgiving when you have something strong breaking the horizon, like the buildings in the image.
