Kotukumoana (Sea of Herons)

Would welcome any thoughts. Many thanks.

Really very good.

Ben, this is outstanding. Dream-like atmosphere, wonderful light, contrast and colors, excellent DOF and detail, perfect composition - and all this anticipated from two landscape shots, 8 min exposure. Hats off ! One of the best shots I have seen for a while

Hi Aivar, Carsten,

 

many thanks for your kind words! i realise this image joins the ranks of the many 'end of pier' shots that crop up - but i am very pleased with how it developed, the final result matching closely with the previsulisation.

 

Carsten - as a fellow 'stitcher' you've hit the nail on the head regarding the differculties experienced.

 

thanks again

 

Ben

Wonderful job - outstanding among "end of piers" Tell me more about "stitching"

Hi Frances,

 

sorry for the delay in my responding. By previsualising the composition as being made up of a number of individual frames, it is possibile to photograph and then stitch the individual frames together to recreate the previsualised scene with a high resolution. of course another approach would be to compose the entire scene through the viewfinder, perhaps planning to crop later. However this latter method results in a lower resolution to the final image and hence small possibile printing sizes.

 

When stitching works well, the extra effort pays off. however it can also overly complicate the photographic process.

 

thanks again,

 

Ben

It's definitely an interesting and technically provoking shot. I'm not sure how well it resembles that classical velvia look you aimed for (it still seems quite 'digital', especially when viewed large), but considering it's a long exposure stitching result (I bet it was a very cold morning, too), the result is rather impressive. White balance is especially interesting and difficult to achieve (so many shades of blue, yet the railings is white).

An altogether inspired composition.

 

Many thanks for your very helpful and insightful comments. I expect you are correct in the image not resembling Velvia 100F. I am unable to tell how accurate the effect is as I have not shot film before. Actually the process of stitching squares and trying to emulate film looks inspired me to purchase a 2nd hand medium format camera, and I am now enjoying learning to use 'the real thing' rather than emulating a look.

 

As for the white balance I must confess that I also adjusted the railings slightly. The blue look is as I remember the morning (the golden colours I hoped for never arrived). However setting the white railings looked too cool left as they were.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I hope to return to this spot one day and shoot it on actual Velvia.

Love this !!!!