Lighting the Way | Weekly Photo #99
Spring seems to have finally sprung here in the South of England. Having been out a few times over the last couple of weeks to scout some local woodland locations, the new vibrant green leaves and spring flowers are really taking shape and last week I was greeted with some misty conditions in my local woodland and had great fun hunting down compositions and although I haven’t processed the images in Lightroom yet, I’m pretty sure I have two or three keepers from the shoot. I started to take woodland photography more seriously just last year and having never photographed the spring colours with any real purpose I’m pretty excited to see what the next few weeks have in store and all being well, I’ll be able to share a few of the images I take with you in the coming weeks.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 55mm | 1/400th Second | f/10 | ISO200
I mentioned last week that I’ve been spending quite a lot of time taking photos on the South Downs and along the coast in Sussex so I thought it was about time I shared one of them here. I chose this photo I took while I was walking along the clifftops at Beachy Head.
This stretch of chalky cliffs provides some fantastic views across the English Channel and in my opinion, some of the best vistas in Sussex and on this particular day, I had a bit of time to kill before heading to my intended sunset location just a couple of miles along the coast, so I drove up to Beachy Head to take a walk along the clifftops with my camera.
When I arrived, the light was a little flat. To the eye, it still looked awesome but with the cloud cover as it was and some rather uninspiring light, there wasn’t quite enough contrast for me to make compelling images. It wasn’t a big problem though, as I was still out and about, enjoying this great landscape, which has let’s face it, been quite a privilege as of late. Even if I go out with the camera and conditions don’t lend themselves to landscape photography, I can still use it as a scouting trip and be better prepared for the next time I visit when, all being well, the conditions are better.
I decided to use my 55-200mm telephoto lens to help me to zoom in and isolate parts of this vast landscape and although it was a bit cloudy, there was still plenty of ambient light to photograph handheld so, with camera in hand and the tripod left in the car, I set off from the car park in the direction of the Belle Tout Lighthouse.
After 30 to 40 minutes of taking some so-so images, time was running out up at Beachy Head and I needed to start making my way back to the car. As I neared the car park, I happened to look over my shoulder one last time and I'm glad I did. Maybe I sensed the subtle change in light but something made me stop and turn around and see that a gap in the clouds was allowing the sun to bask the landscape in this fantastic golden light.
I quickly got the camera out of the bag and started to compose the shot. Before this point, I’d been using the lighthouse as the main subject, zooming right in on it to make it appear more prominent in the photos, but this shot was all about that sky, the light and the epic scale of the landscape so although the lighthouse was still needed to help portray that scale, I deliberately placed it on the lower third so I could get as much of that sky in as possible. Exposing for the bright sky and with the ferry heading out across the English Channel providing a nice finishing touch, I fired the shutter.
Back home in Lightroom, it took me a couple of attempts to edit the image. For my first attempt, I pushed the white balance too far to the right in a bid to warm the image and I also increased the shadows too much. The more I studied it, the more I disliked the edit. I needed to be more subtle with the sliders. I needed to exploit the potential but not force it to be something it wasn’t, so with a bit more restraint, I re-edited the image to the one you see here. It’s for that reason, I try not to rush the post-production stage. I might edit the photo, leave it for a while and return to it later. If I still like it, great! If not, I make the necessary changes. Rightly or wrongly, it’s a system that works for me.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.