How the image was made - Cromer pier at sunset

We've had some interesting skies recently here in North Norfolk and earlier this week I saw a squall pass through and had a feeling that the light behind it was going to make an interesting shot.  I grabbed some gear and headed over to Cromer for a shot of the pier.  Since posting some of the shots I've been asked by a few people about how the shot was made, what equipment I used, etc. so I thought I'd do what will hopefully be the first of a regular series of  blog posts detailing how the photograph was created.I'll aim to keep the format of these 'Infoposts' the same throughout and am always happy to answer any questions which I may not have answered in the post.  Feel free to drop me a line to info@christaylorphoto.co.ukEquipmentCamera: Canon 5d MKIIILens: Canon 16-35mm f2.8L MKII (zoomed to 23mm)Tripod: (my tripod of choice is the Manfrotto 055 with Manfrotto grip ball head - best tripod I've owned - really well built, sturdy and packed full of useful features)Lee Filter system: the 100mm Lee Foundation Kit with Heliopan Circular polariser & 0.6 ND grad filter (soft grad) - all purchased from the lovely people at Teamwork DigitalWellies!Camera settingsShooting mode: ManualISO: 100Shutter: 3.2secAperture: f22White balance: CloudyFile type: RAWTips & Tricks• To feature the water & rocks in the foreground I had the tripod legs at their lowest.• Use the in-camera level (if your camera has one) to ensure the horizon is as level as possible, although this can be straightened in post-processing if necessary• The milky look of the water flowing between the rocks is achieved by the slow shutter speed allowing the movement of the water to blur.  In my experience the water generally looks better as a wave is receding - usually it has more bubbles and can create nice streaks of movement.• To prevent moving the camera when pressing the shutter button you can use a remote shutter release (either cabled or remote controlled) but I prefer just to set the camera to the 2 second delay timer so I press the shutter button two seconds later the camera releases the shutter with no movement from me.• Beware of the water coming in and moving the camera as it moves around the tripod legs - also it can cause the legs to sink into the sand which will create some blurring.• I set the White Balance in camera to Cloudy which will bring back the warmth to the image since the camera auto white balance will try to take out any colour casts (ie. make a sunset look less warm) and is often the cause for people being disappointed in the look of their sunset images.  Since I am shooting RAW files this isn't really important for the final image as I can change the white balance in Adobe Lightroom to bring back the warmth but it's nice to be able to see how good the images can look in the back of the camera.Post-processingThe first stage of the post-processing is to select the best images to process (no point loading all of them into Lightroom if I'm not going to use them).  Once I have my folder of keepers I load them into Adobe Lightroom CC to bring out the best in the image.The first thing I do in any image processing is to ensure the image is level, if the horizon is visible then ensuring that is level is the best bet.  Then I will crop the image if needed.  The rule of thirds is a good composition rule to work with in landscapes but by no means a hard & fast rule.  In the two shots in this post I've placed the horizon dead in the middle of the frames as I think the sky and beach have equal importance in the shots.The next steps are just to work through the various sliders in lightroom to ensure the brightness, contrast & colours of the image are how I want them to look.  I will often tinker with the white balance to bring back more warmth in a sunset if needed.  Make sure the white & black points are at either end of the levels graph.Since I've shot this image at f22 there is a good chance that any dust on the sensor will show up as little spots in the sky so I remove them now using the Spot Removal Tool.Finally I sharpen the image using the sharpen settings and export it as a jpeg.I don't want to go into too much detail here on the Lightroom settings as the aim of these posts is mostly about getting it right in camera as much as possible but I do offer one-to-one workshops covering every aspect of photography from the basics of exposure through to post-processing.  These can be tailored for the experience level of the student from absolute beginner through to aspiring professional.  Please contact me if you'd like to discuss the options & pricing.The below is another shot taken the same evening, a little earlier on when the sun was lighting the back end of the squall more intensely...160429-b-005For more information on my Norfolk photography training workshops click here.FOOTNOTE: A few people have asked how this shot can be sunset when the sunlight appears to be coming from the East (behind the pier) - the clouds in the shot are being lit from the sun behind me (setting in the west) which is where the confusion comes from.  I promise this was sunset not sunrise! 

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Seckford Hall wedding photography - Fiona & Daniel

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Chaucer Barn wedding photography - Jody & Richard