Time out before the rains

WHAT:
This is the pier at Shorncliffe, north of Brisbane City. Taken at about 3:30pm before a heavy downpouring of rain.

WHY
The Shorncliffe pier is a favourite hang-out of mine for both relaxing and for photography. It's always crawling with fishermen, walkers, joggers, cyclists and people like me.

This shot was one of my last for the day before I went home - I only took it on a whim and I'm glad I listened to my instincts as it was about the only one worth printing from the outing! I loved how the fading light was hitting parts of the white railings.

HOW
I hand-held my camera at eye-level to take 3 images at exposure values of (-2,0,+2). I stood in the centre of the pier. The man on the left was just walking into my frame and I swung the camera slightly to the left to include him in the image.

Captured using aperture priority, f8, shutter speed 1/640, ISO 200.

POST PRODUCTION
I used Photomatix to combine and tonemap the three images taken at the pier. Because the man on the left was walking as I took my three shots, he initially had a pretty awful 'ghosting' effect. I decided to re-create my HDR image and selected the 'attempt to reduce ghosting artifacts' option. This resulted in the man being nicely frozen in time without any noticeable ghosting effect.

After I'd played around with the various levels in Photomatix, I then opened the image in photoshop. I then increased the vibrance, contrast and clarity levels to really bring out the clouds and subtle differences in the grain of the wood in the pier.

Shorncliffe kids

WHAT

Shorncliffe pier taken at approximately 3pm. Approximately 40 mins north of Brisbane City.

The wooden pylons at the upper right of the shot are the same as those in Shorncliffe sunrise.

WHY

I love the whole beachfront area at Shorncliffe, particularly around this pier which is popular with locals for fishing and sea-gazing. This shot was originally going to be of the pier only- the kids (not mine!) ran into the shot just as I was about to take it. I prefer the scene with them in it as it gives interest to what otherwise would be a large empty space on the right.

HOW

I used aperture priority mode and because it was very sunny on this day, the camera automatically used a fast shutter speed to prevent over-exposure. The high speed of the shutter can be seen by the mid-air suspension of the water being splashed by the children, as well as their 'unblurred' movement.

POST PRODUCTION

Contrast was increased using photoshop.