N-Photo - The Nikon Magazine - UK (2019-12)

(Antfer) #1
on film,” she said. Super Shot 1 was
eventually chosen due to its incredible
sense of movement, with the water being
captured as it ’s drag ged from the steps and
pulled back into the sea.

PIER PRESSURE
The plan was to return to the car and head
to Shaldon, but Babbacombe’s nearby
fishing pier caught Neil’s eye. “That looks
like a nice shot across there,” he pointed.
“Especially with the fishermen on the pier.
It might even be our best chance at tr ying a
really long exposure.”
Sally quizzed Neil’s reasoning for
suggesting an aperture of f/9. “I wouldn’t
normally go beyond f/11, because of
diffraction,” he explained. “f/8 is usually the
peak point. At f/22 you would get a larger
depth of field, but to me, the quality is a
more important aspect.”

For Super Shot 2,
the pair would attempt
to merge the sky and
sea, with as little contrast
separating the two as
possible. “A soft, blanket-white
sk y will reflect of f the sea, so you’ll get
less contrast bet ween the t wo,” said Neil.
“This makes the horizon line less of a
distraction – I try to eliminate any sort of
tonal distractions.”
Neil explained that he sometimes uses
a sof t or medium graduated ND filter to
merge the sky and sea together. “The only
thing I don’t like about medium ‘grads’ is
they’re more likely to produce a dark line,”
he said. “That’s why I often balance the
tones later on in post.”
The natural lack of contrast in Super Shot
2 meant the pair simply needed to use an
ND filter to blur the clouds and sea.

Sally watches the incoming water as Neil
demonstrates a perfectly timed shot.

that she focus on the handrail – about a
third of the way into the image. He then
rever ted back to manual focus, which
caused patches of red to appear on the rear
LCD. “That’s focus peaking,” he explained.
“The red patches represent the area of
focus. I use it to check that the camera
is focusing exactly where I want it to.”
Shooting at high tide meant the water
was rising above the bottom of the steps
that led to the tree. This was the moment
Sally needed to capture if she was going to
convey plenty of movement in the sea.
It was now time to turn off Auto ISO and
input the camera’s base ISO of 64. This
would prevent the camera from attempting
to compensate for the lack of light and
finally allow Sally to achieve the long
exposures she desired.
Neil then fixed his Kase filter holder onto
the lens and dropped in a six-stop ND filter.
He suggested they start by using a
two-second exposure, which they lowered
to one second due to the incrementally
lively nature of the water.
Here, the mirrorless camera really
showed its worth. Sally could amend her
shutter speed to compensate for the filter,
and watch in real time as the EVF, or rear
LCD, adjusted the exposure accordingly.
“This is just great,” she said. Neil nodded:
“Unless your exposure is over 30 seconds,
you can do it all in-camera.”
All that was left to do now was take the
shot (or shots as Neil soon pointed out).
“If I was on a shoot, I’d stand here taking the
same image for the nex t 30 minutes, so I’d
have plent y to choose from,” he expressed.
This might sound like overkill, but the water
kept hitting the steps at varying intensities.
Persistence was Sally’s best chance of
capturing the most interesting moment
of movement possible.
She chuckled: “I have huge regard for the
photographers who captured everything


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Neil says... I’ll aim to have as little contrast as
possible between the sea and the sky. I don’t want
a clearly defined horizon line. If I need to, I’ll use
an ND grad filter to darken the sky and bring it more
in line with the aesthetic of the water. I sometimes
stack filters too. If you’re using decent glass, you
can get away with stacking a 10- and a six-stop,
but it’s worth thinking about how the increased
exposure time will affect the sky; sometimes you’ll
see very little difference in cloud movement at 16
stops than you would at, say, 13. I tend to take
multiple exposures and choose my favourite.
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