Location

Newport Beach, Northern Beaches Sydney Australia.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III

Lens: Canon EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM

Focal Length: 16mm

Shutter speed: 30sec

F: 18

ISO: 500

Filters: Lee 100mm system with 2x filter slots. Lee - 1x Lee 0.6 ND GH (2stops), 1x Lee Coral 3G ND.

Tripod: Manfrotto 055XPROB + 494RC2 mini ball head – I prefer the mini ball head, I find it easier to make small tweaks for landscapes.

Shoot techniques

I’ve wanted to take this photo for a while. Early morning glass. Tripod, filters for sky, long exposure, bracket the exposure, leading lines, rule of thirds. I think this photo looked great straight out of the camera.  

Composition

I really like the leading lines on this image. The right edge of the pool takes you up to the sunrise, the left pool edge to the chain reflections then across to the sunrise. I’m slightly conflicted about the railing on the steps. It does conflict with the eye but it also adds to the atmosphere of a natural scene that keeps it real. Like you were there.  

I like to use live view to review the scene and get the exposure roughly correct from behind the camera. Once the basics of composition (rules like rule of thirds, leading lines, level the horizon) are complete I then do a quick check of focus. I start with infinity focus then zoom in to a part of the seen like the pool edge and sharpen the focus. Finally, I will refine my exposure.

Exposure

I like to limit my ISO as much a possible to reduce image noise. In general, I stick between 100 & 800 ISO. Aperture (f) for landscape varies a bit but I will commonly use a small aperture unless light is a limiting factor (usually compensated by shutter speed). I will never go larger than f8.0 but average f16 – 22. For this shot I used f18 just let in enough light to keep me at 30sec. After exposure was correct I bracket the exposure with time and aperture.

Filters

I use the 100mm system with 2x filter slots. Filters - 1x Lee 0.6 ND GH (2stops), 1x Lee Coral 3G ND. I lined up the graduation along the sky line for both. This cut down the light in the sky, warmed the sky and allowed me to achieve a more even exposure across the image in a single shot.

Shutter speed

I kept my shutter speed at 30 sec and bracketed with aperture for his image. This was a shutter speed to create the glass I wanted for the water.

Post production editing

I did most of the edits in Lightroom. Some of these were local edits of the foreground (dodge) and some colour edits of the sky. I kept the texture down to soften the whole image again to maintain that glassy glow.  

Lightroom for global and some local edits then into Photoshop.

I really only did two things in Photoshop;

·         1 – Nik Collection - Colour Efex Pro 4 - Soft landscape effect used to soften the water in the pool with slightly deeper contrast and colour depth. Layer opacity reduced to 59% and masked out some of the pool edge and all of the sky  

·         2 – Topaz Studio - pre-set effect to bring out the sky colour a little more. I just picked one that suited what I wanted, used it as a local adjustment and wound back the effect so I didn’t overdo it. Effect layer opacity was reduced to 35% and only used on parts of the sky.  

What I’m happy with

I love the image. I find it really calming.  I love the glassy water, the colours and the leading lines.

What I would correct next time

I would like to shoot this again with a better sky that reflected pink clouds all the way through the pool reflection.

Q&A for learning photography

Feel free to post a question about any of the information above.

Cheers

Matt