Compositions & Techniques

The photo above was taken at my secret ocean photography location in Southeast Maine along the Casco Bay. I just so happened to be there at sunset and the beach homes looked amazing backlit with the golden sky. Shooting into the sun, I had to use a fast shutter speed but that would look boring. To my favor, a cluster of storm clouds were rolling in and it would look even better to have those clouds streaking across the sky. So, I slapped on a 10-stop neutral density filter and went to town. The camera was set up on a Manfrotto MT190x for maximum stability against the strong winds. I metered the picture and the camera told me f/8 at 1/50th of a second, ISO 400. Clearly, not slow enough to blur motion. With the ND, I dropped the shutter speed to 1 whole minute at f/8 for maximum sharpness front to back and native ISO of 100. I decided upon this specific composition because the line of oceanfront houses creates depth the picture and the colorful sky was what I was looking for in a long-exposure.

As you can see, the horizon is on the bottom third which allows for more of the beautiful sky to be shown off. I feel the picture would have been even better if there was some sort of leading line that linked the foreground to the middle ground such as a jetty or sand grooves. Since I was shooting in .cr2, I had add saturation and contrast in post. The histogram was relatively even throughout the RGB range which allowed me to brighten the shadows and restore some of the detail in the highlights. I also used an adjustment brush to go over the houses a bit to make them draw the attention of the viewer. All in all, the picture is definitely print worthy and it should be on my wall sometime soon.

The image does convey any bit of story. I just saw an opportunity and I took it. No particular message it's trying to send. But in relation to my life, it shows a lot of color, there's a bright side and a dark side. That's like me, I have a bit of contrast. The fact that I'm a landscape photographer makes it all the better to look at.