Fine Art Seascape Photography at Midnight - My Biggest Challenge

hi guys and welcome to this week's video i had a madcap idea this afternoon and i've challenged myself to do it tonight first of all before we get to that challenge apologies about the light and the dark scenario and this poor quality filming i'm guessing but you'll just have to put up with it if you want to see what the results are going to be let me explain what i'm going to do i'm going to i've set myself a challenge i'm going to explain to you guys what that challenge is before i go into the field and take the images it's a bit of a challenge it might work or it might not work but i promise you no matter what the outcome i will uh include it in this video so you guys can see whether i've done well or whether i've failed miserably i promise you i will include everything that we're about to do in this filming tonight right so this is my challenge well it's the first of the spring tides tonight and i've got a choice i either work with the spring tide at half midnight tonight pitch black or come back tomorrow afternoon pretty much the same time tomorrow afternoon midday clearly tomorrow is going to be a bit of a problem because it's due to be a really nice weather and the whole of the uk has pretty much been released to a certain extent so i know it's going to be busy here tomorrow so i've set myself a monster challenge i've come to new brighton lighthouse and my thought process is this i want to capture the tide as it's coming in possibly as it's going out we'll have to wait and see but i want to take some fine art images of the breakwaters here and a couple of other shots i've got in mind some of which i've shot before but not under these conditions but the problems i'm going to be faced with it's this well first of all going back to the pictures that we're about to take what i want to do is take some long exposure images without stating the obvious how i like to flatten the sea out to capture some fine art images but then i also want to combine it with some starry shots okay because it's a really clear sky tonight and i want to combine them both but that comes with many challenges one well without stating the obvious i'm going to be trying to film and trying to photograph by the sea at half 12 at night in the morning whichever way uh so that comes with its own challenges it's dark so it's going to be difficult to film it's going to be very difficult to take photographs it's going to be difficult to focus i'm going to have to multiple expo i'm going to have to create multiple exposures that means maybe four minutes maybe eight minutes for the sea that's no good for starry shots i'll then have to take a separate starry shot then can i combine them then can i combine them in a fine art style so it's a massive massive ask i'm up against the tide that's coming in rather quickly as well so i'm going to be pushed for time and um on top of all of that i'm going to be attempting some really long exposures on wet sand not easy let me give you a situation report now the time is you can see that there's 10 past 11 and the high high tide is here at half 12 and already the tide is is actually up and coming around me so already this is pretty scary so my first protocol now then is to get my settings right and find out how much of an exposure i'm going to need i try my best to talk you through this process the best that i can but i apologize that it's very loud and i also can't show you guys what i'm looking at but take my word on it in the five minutes i've been studying i just get myself set up the water is actually coming up and around me so this is a little bit scary right so my first protocol is this straight into live mode straight into manual i'm going to look at possibly shooting this at f 5.6 let's drop my iso right down to 200 it's not going to be anywhere near so 5.6 is quite open in terms of an aperture iso 200 it's not the best and that's fine i have to go straight into bold mode f 5.6 iso 200 then i'm going to bring my timer up and i'm going to rattle off a four minute exposure to see what that's like and if four minutes doesn't cut the mustard i have a choice then either to go to eight minutes or increase my iso or depending on what the format exposure is like both what's really difficult about this is i'm struggling with light and i can't see the lighthouse blinking egg but i want to bring you guys along just to see how much of a headache it can be at times best bet focus onto manual let's go straight into infinity so i'm just going to focus on i'm thin on infinity and i'm going to roughly gauge where the horizon is and where the lighthouse is right let's have a quick look at that [Music] oh gotta make sure my level is right all the normal protocols and everything's tightened off it's gonna easily be four minutes possibly eight minutes two second timer press one two of four minutes away it goes now the tripod and camera are on concrete so i'm not worried at the moment about the camera dropping or dipping down into the sand those waves aren't powerful enough to shake the camera so at at this present moment in time i'm fairly happy with that right assuming i can manage a four-minute exposure and the picture looks fine for the floor i then want to give consideration to the sky but of course that's going to come with its own problems clearly a four minute exposure is no good if i want to try and capture stars i think with my 16 mil lens on there i think a 25 second exposure is probably the longest i'm going to be able to attain i'm going to have to keep my what my aperture really wide open as wide open as i can with that particular lens which is f4 and my iso is probably going to be through the roof about iso 4000 oh oh the tide's coming right up oh do you know what this is really quite scary it's really quite scary yeah so there's lots of challenges ahead and because the tide is now coming up over my feet and over my tripod legs and the waves are fairly large up there [Music] i don't know maybe maybe i shouldn't have started this challenge oh if it's if it's too easy then everybody would be doing it climbing working in the dark iso 100 f 8 on bold mode i'm at a four minute exposure using my bulb timer built into the camera two second delay click one two and away she goes all right if we have a quick look at that so that's good i like that that's really nice this is what i was saying about the light that's being cast onto the water and here is actually a shadow from the fort on my right hand side but uh i'll be able to sort that out in post-production not sure what i'm going to do with the skyline yet we'll just have to wait and see right so now let's grab a shot of the sky so i'm going to go straight to manual mode and already set 25 seconds at f 5.6 and the only thing i need to change now is my iso and there you go so 25 seconds f 5.6 and iso 500 and that is perfect for the sky the reason why we can't go longer than 25 seconds is because the stars in the sky will streak if i expose for any longer than 25 seconds there you go and if we have a look at that that should be perfect i'll just zoom in you know what's really strange is that the water is probably fine enough for the 25 second exposure let's have a look up there yeah it's all nice and sharp everything's all nice and sharp and i go up into the sky and you can see like 25 seconds is offering me a little bit of motion blur on these stars so 25 seconds is too long an exposure and the reason why it's too long at exposure is because i've calculated using a 24 mil wide lens and i'm not i'm zoomed in i'm at 35 mil lens so because i'm zoomed in at 35 mil then 25 seconds clearly is too long so what i'm going to do is slow my shutter speed down by one stop one two three and i'm going to open my aperture by one stop one two three so now it's 13 seconds at f4 the light will still be exactly the same but hopefully over a 13 second exposure there won't be any blurring of those stars but the proof is in the pudding one two and away she goes and again let's have a quick check at that let's zoom in zoom in everything's nice and sharp there you see so we look at the before that's before and that's the after and that's acceptable i'm happy with that i'm really really happy with that i can't go any wider and i don't really want to increase my iso but that's the other alternative is to increase my shutter speed again and compensate by increasing my iso but i'm happy with that that's perfect under these conditions i don't think i'm really going to get better than what i've already got using the equipment that i'm using getting quite hairy right we've exhausted this area so i'm going to go now water in me wellies i've exhausted this area so now i'm going to go on to location number two and hopefully i can grab one more shot before the end of the night [Music] [Applause] all right let's give you an update um i was after being keen look at that it's five to two in the morning high tide was at half twelve i finished from the first location came up to the second location but clearly the high high tide is way way too high so i had to make a decision either go home and ignore this shot or hang around until the tide starts to recede obviously i decided to hang around not sure if that was a wise idea or not but uh sorry let's give it a go before i venture down onto the beach and start taking a few more shots these clearly gonna have a few more problems i'm gonna have to deal with the tide is now receding and i don't think i've got concrete to place my tripod legs on i'm gonna have to try and find something that's um more stable than wet sand wasting your time trying to place your camera down on wet sand so i'll have to find something so this is going to have a few more challenges i'm quite happy with how the first shoot went i was reviewing the pictures in the van and there's a couple of things i'm not happy with one of them is beyond my control and a second one that is within my control that i probably messed up on or not given enough thought to first of all the light on the sea i don't like the way the light is cast on the sea it might well be something i either learn to put up with or i can maybe change or fix in post-production but the second one and this is the real killer for me is i've come here to shoot this tonight because it's a full moon the full moon i know is i will cast a bright enough light to light up the sea over two or four minutes as it happens a four minute exposure but i anticipated getting a better sky than the sky i've got now without stating the obvious your astro photographers aren't out photographing night skies when it's a full moon unless of course they're photographing the moon simply because the full moon is so bright that it's going to pollute the night sky with the light i still thought this afternoon while i was at home in my front room that i would get a better night sky than the night sky that i feel i've already captured right so that might be uh something that i've messed up with but of course it's a learning process it's all about learning right on to part two let's get down onto the beach wish me well right so the first shot is on its way a four minute exposure uh the first challenge is as i said earlier wet sand so i've had to wait for the tide to go out a little bit further than i needed to just so that i was able to rest all three tripod legs on the break water concrete bits and pieces whatever they've got not quite sure what they're called but the little stanchions of anyway so my three legs are now currently spread really wide over three different break waters but at least i now know that that camera on that tripod is not going to move so a four-minute exposure exactly the same thing again four-minute exposure and then i'll take a separate image for the sky and that's it that should be me done and dusted it's amazing how quick the tide actually recedes pretty scary stuff really so this has been an epic challenge tonight an epic challenge i'm convinced that this was a complete waste of time waited two hours for the tide to go out far enough to grab the second shot and it just all happened so quick the problem was and i couldn't show you uh on the video because obviously it was too dark but trying to get the legs off the damp sand so that obviously i can extend my shutter speed for four minutes was proven to be a real nightmare so i needed the uh seat to be out far enough so that i could prop all three legs on one of the concrete break waters and when i eventually did that the sea was pretty much out and just gone too far so i think the second half is a complete whitewash in the first half is probably okay but true to my word i did say that you know right or wrong work or fail i would show you the results so i'm not sure if it's now going to be back to me in the studio or if we're just going to check the results and that's going to be the end of the video if it is the end of the end of the video can i just say thanks a lot for watching sorry about the blair witch thing going on here tonight i do apologize i couldn't have shown more of of the surroundings but it is pitch black so i apologize about that but if you've enjoyed this content do me a favor if you want to find your way back here then subscribe to the channel and help support it by giving me a thumb up and all the rest of it until the next time guys cheers [Music] [Applause] so [Music] you

Channel: Gary Gough (Pro Photographer)

Views: 14,753

Rating: 4.9485292 out of 5

Keywords: landscape photography, photography, Landscape, gary gough, video, landscape photography tutorial, photography tips, tips, beginner photography, Photography tips, landscape photography tips, fine art photography, fine art landscape photography, fine art seascapes, fine art seascape photography, seacape photography, photography at night, photographing at night, photography in the dark, gary gough photography, fineart photography, black & white photography, New Brighton Lighthouse

Id: cGW7jr54J6g

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021