Explained: Inertia

Intertia

It’s been quite around here. Too quiet. Here is a run down of how I got this shot titled Inertia

Equipment

Pentax Kx, 18-55mm kit lens, ND1000 filter, 0.6 ND gradual filter, tripod, Adobe Photoshop

Method

I have always experimented with different ways of achieving this sort of photo at night, but this particular shot was taken the same way early in the morning.

I had been out on the rocks at Angourie, Northern NSW for a good hour or so while the run was rising and the tide was on it’s way in. There was a shark attack involving a local surfer around the point while I was there but there were still plenty of guys out on the waves where I was standing, I would be freaking out if I was out there when it happened.

As I was setting up my shot I was trying to frame the rocks in a perspective as much as I could, rather than as scattered blobs with no purpose, I was perched between two rocks with my legs and the legs of my tripod just above the water line when the waves came in. Because the sun was still rising I had to continually adjust my exposure for every few shots, and I had continuous problems with glare for the first 30 minutes which ruined a few shots. Eventually I took out my cheap black umbrella and set it up to prevent the light hitting the side of the camera where I could.

For the best shot of the lot I had my exposure set for about 20 seconds, and with aperture of f22. I was also using my ND1000 and Grad 0.6 filters to prevent blowout in the water and so I could get the 20 seconds out of the shot.

Post Processing

In Adobe Photoshop I adjusted the contrast of the shot to darken the rocks a little and I also did a bit of sharpening which helped tighten the areas where water had fuzzed the edges. Sometimes you get that when you have moving water over certain objects and it can’t really be helped, especially if the water is moving fast. After that I converted it to gray scale using the Channel Mixer and I was done.

Explained: Harwood Bridge Sunrise

Harwood Bridge Sunrise

I have had a few people ask me about how I made this shot of the Harwood Bridge, and decided I would share the steps I take for a variety of my photos on my blog.

Equipment

Pentax Kx, 18-55mm kit lens, ND1000 filter, 0.6 ND gradual filter, tripod, Adobe Photoshop

Method

This is one of the first shots I took with my new 10 stop Neutral Density filter (ND1000). It is not usual for me to scout an area before taking photos, but I live around the corner from the bridge and new exactly what I wanted and where to go. I set up my tripod and camera on the north bank on a little jetty, and faced east at about 5:00am, and waited for the sun to rise.

I usually try and take my water shots at the longest possible exposure, so I had my camera set up for a 30 second shot at F22. The weather for this kind of photo where you have an interesting sky is best when it is cloudy and windy, which is exactly how that morning was. Even at 30 seconds, you can still see the wind on the water. I took quite a few shots from various angles as the sun rose and used my ND gradual filter to reduce the light on the left side of the image where the sun was brightest.

Post Processing

I usually process most of my photos in order to get an image that looks as much as possible like the scene I see when I take the shot, and I do so in Adobe Photoshop. For this particular image I had to remove quite a few dirty spots (from water spray, remember it was windy) and I also did a slight Brightness/Contrast adjustment. Finally I cropped the image and I was all done.