Three steps for capturing old boats

1 Compose the image

A sideways shot of the boat rarely works, so move round to the front or the back. The idea is to use the lines of the boat to ll the foreground and mid-ground areas so that it leads to a feature of interest in the background. This can be pointing inland, if there’s something worth including in the shot, but usually it’s the sea in the background that makes for a more visually pleasing image. If you have the rear of the boat in the foreground, then it suggests that the boat might be heading back to sea again. If, as is more likely, it’s the prow (front), then that gives the visual impression that the boat has beached and, if it’s rotting away, will never sail again.

2 Capture the detail

You’ll want detail from front to back, but really, the boat should be occupying most of the front and middle area. This type of image lends itself to blending two shots together, having focused on the boat in the foreground and the sea in the background. However, if you’re doing it all in one shot, you want a narrow aperture to get as much depth of eld as possible, ensuring that all of the boat, as the main element, is in focus. Focus on the top of the prow as the key point.

3 Don’t overexpose the sky

In this image, the boat was in the shade thanks to some unhelpful clouds, which increased the risk of the sky area being overexposed. Certainly, some exposure bracketing here would have been useful, blending the images in-camera or in post-production. Alternatively, you can do it the old-school way and use a graduated neutral density lter, aligning it with the sky and any illuminated distant scenery, especially if the foreground is in the shade.