Take a trip to the coast
Most photographers love shooting by the sea and spring is the ideal season, with vivid wild flowers on the clifftops and the possibility of colourful sunrises and sunsets
CLIFFTOP FLOWERS 13
Wild flowers don’t just grow in woodlands and fields. There are plenty of colourful flowers on the clifftops, too. In particular, bright pink thrift is a common sight on coastal clifftops in May. They make a fantastic foreground for big vistas, so you’ll want to get as close as possible with a wide-angle lens. This will make depth of field a bit of a challenge, but fortunately, many modern Nikons feature focus bracketing, where the camera can be set to automatically take a series of shots focused at different points throughout the scene, which can then be blended together in Photoshop to create a single image that is sharp from foreground to background. Go to the Photo Shooting Menu, select Focus Shift Shooting, and set the desired number of shots and focus step width.
SUNRISE AND SUNSET 14
With the weather being more settled at this time of year and cumulus clouds being more common, the chances of a colourful sunrise or sunset are high, and the coast is a great place to shoot. Colour is reflected not only on the sea, but also in rock pools and wet sand, increasing its impact; rock pools, in particular, can make excellent foreground interest in compositions, too. The difference in brightness between foreground and sky can be extreme, so use a graduated ND filter to control the contrast. Make sure you arrive in plenty of time to get set up and ready to shot before the colour develops – at least 30 minutes before sunrise or sunset, and use a sun position app, such as Sunscout, to make sure you are in the right place at the right time.
INCLUDE PEOPLE 15
Landscape photographers often go to great lengths to exclude any evidence of human activity from the their shots, but including activity in coastal shots can add extra interest. In spring, people start using the water again and you’ll see plenty of boats, paddle boarders, surfers and swimmers in the sea from April onwards. You don’t have to make them too prominent; use people or their craft as points of interest in a wider view, or to provide a sense of scale on a beach or against cliffs. You’ll probably want to keep them sharp in the frame, so if they’re moving,
make sure you set a fast enough shutter speed to freeze any movement – this will vary depending on the speed of movement and how prominent they are in the frame, but probably 1/250 sec would be a minimum. You may need to increase your ISO to be able to achieve this. Look out for sailing boats silhouetted against a colourful sky at sunrise or sunset, and surfers emerging from the sea onto the beach. Rowing boats on the shore can also be used as foreground interest to lead the eye into a wide-angle coastal view.
16 Long exposures
You can blur movement so that waves take on a smooth, silky texture, or with more extreme exposures, the water will completely smooth out and take on a glassy appearance. For a long exposure, you’ll either need to shoot in very low light, or use a neutral density (ND) filter. For less extreme exposures, use a six-stop filter, such as the LEE Little Stopper, and for really long exposures, use a 10-stop or stronger filter, such as the LEE Big Stopper. Compose and focus before you fit the filter if you can’t see through it. Take a test shot before you fit the filter, and calculate what the filtered exposure should be (there are lots of smartphone apps available for this). For exposures of longer
At this time of year, the chances of a colourful sunrise or sunset are high and the coast is a great place to shoot