Gavick Pulse  PANO7444
Titchfield Haven, Febuary 5th, 2010.
Five image panorama
RAWs processed in Adobe Lightroom Two.
Images Aligned and Stitched in Adobe Photoshop CS4
Nikon D200. Sigma 10-20mm @ 14mm.
0.6sec @ f/11. ISO100.
.9 [3 stop] Hitech ND Grad. Hard edged.
Shot in Manual. Exposure set by trial and error.
So this shot has been about four years in the making now...
I absolutely love the harbour down at Titchfield Haven. Its where I go to relax, write and think, and its normally my first port of call if I go out shooting.
Ever since I took up photography, I've been trying to get a image of the harbour that really stands out. I've tried panoramics, single shots, vertoramas and HDR's, exposure blends, Infrareds; all sorts, but I never seem to capture a shot that really does it justice.
I wasn't even planning on shooting this evening. I'd been sat doing paper work and planning a project all day, was going to tidy the house and veg for the evening.
I'm so glad I didn't.
My gear was already packed, so I figured I'd go stretch my legs and the camera for a bit; fresh air always helps me think better.
After a slow amble down to the beach via the scenic route, I was greeted by an extremely high tide, slapping waves, and quite a bank of hazy, browny orange, not very photogenic cloud.
As this wasn't exclusively a photo trip, I figured I'd hang around, have a walk about and see what happened.
I experimented with some different angles on the harbour, shooting into the almost stormy light which side lit the boats beautifully. I was happy enough just getting balanced, usable exposures shooting into the light without filters [I was using my new Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8, and I don't have a Lee filter ring for it yet...], when about 40 minutes before sunset, this amazing light show started to gain strength.
Unfortunately with the ridiculously high tide, finding a composition on the beach was impossible, there was no beach....
I needed a composition, and quick; I've missed enough sunsets by dithering and thinking they'll last for ages to have learned my lesson by now.
Theres a tiny, and I mean tiny, bit of beach between the sea wall, and... the sea, at the edge of the harbour, near the sluice gates, its the same spot I used for my first startrail images. But that night the tide was out, so I had room to move and dance about, to keep warm of course.
Not so much luck this evening, with the harbour waters slapping against the wall next to me.
I tried various compositions and variations as the sunset went through all its splender. Slow shutter speeds, fast ones, panoramics like this, vertoramics, single shots, all sorts. And for the most part they worked. I got a couple of 'keepers' just from this one spot.
But this image just stands out for me.
I'm not very good at shooting into the sun. I've always struggled with flare and getting a correct exposure. But I didn't really have much choice on this occasion.
I tried my .6 [2 stop] ND Grad, but the low sun eaily overpowered it. I settled for my .9 [3 stop].
I found slightly over exposing the sky, whilst keeping the foreground lit perfectly, created a gorgeous, luminous glow on the bottoms of the clouds and along the horizon as the slowly falling sun cast the last of its rays over the scene.
I've always bought into using the right density filter for the job, to stop any of the highlights from blowing out, but I'm starting to realise that looks even less realistic, as you lose a lot of shadow detail in the unlit cloud, and still get a blob of over exposure, unrecoverable brightness in the centre of the light source.
By allowing the area around the sun to over exposure, I feel I've captured the sky more along the lines of how I saw it, as I know I definitely didn't see lots of detail in the cloud around the sun, as it really was blinding.
By using a slow enough shutter speed, I managed to keep detail in the shadows around the sea wall and sluice gate, but with the right filtration I managed to keep the stunning tones and details of the wild sunset.
Its a fine balance. A stop of difference either way and this shot would lose all its impact.
Needless to say, I'm extremely pleased with the outcome of this shot. I captured the scene pretty much exactly how it was, and I've managed to overcome shooting into the sun, though I think the cloud cover played a big part in making that happen.
Either way, I love this shot. Its probably one of my favourite of recent months.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
For now, goodbye, and thanks for looking.
Matt.
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