I always anticipate the outcome of long exposure shots and have not done it for a long while, but I do enjoy seeing them posted on NPN especially the seascapes. Too much exposure? Still too dark? Enough surreal water flow? Was this a decent enough composition? Is it in focus? All those thoughts snapping through the mind as it’s quickly getting dark and your tripod is in the wet sand and you hope you remember where you placed the camera bag.
This image was made a few minutes after sundown at a Maritime Preserve in So California during an extreme low tide last week. I felt a long exposure with the right wave would provide an attractive layer of smooth mist and flow over the mud flat and help isolate the usually submerged rocky outcrops and show them as an intertidal ecosystem. Prep work was done by looking for the right low tide to line up with sunset.
Specific Feedback Requested
I recognize it is a very busy composition does it hold enough attention to explore the overall tidal zone? Color and light-wise does the image retain the feel of the twilight?
Technical Details
Nikon D7100, Nikkor Lens 16-85 @85 mm (equivalent to 127mm, ) 5 secs, ISO 100 Tripod with battery remote.
All processing in Lightroom. I opened up with the Shadows and Clarity sliders for the Californian Mussel beds and the Saturation and Texture slider for the Surf Grass with a few global Dehaze clicks. I used two masks: one to darken the sky to access the soft pink twilight; and the other to open the highlights of the water sliding into the Preserve. I do like the final results and hope I got the right balance of light and textures on the grass and mussels without losing the softness of the twilight scene. I took exposures at 2, 3, 4 and 5 second, focusing got to be a challenge due the low light so I think I went to the horizon line with f22.
This is a beautiful scene, no doubt. With some luminosity masking you could pull up more of the tonal detail in the tide pool rocks and algae, but that is a matter of your vision for the image and what you’ve presented works quite nicely as is. The light is excellent and certainly conveys the sense of post sunset that you were after. That being said, my feeling is that there is an opportunity missed in this picture. When I first enlarged it, it felt as though something was lacking or missing. And the lack, I think, is dynamism. The missed opportunity I’m talking about is the quietude of the tide pools juxtaposed to the crashing of the surf on the rocks beyond. To my mind, shooting the whole scene at 5 sec. leaves the image feeling too placid, too sedate compared to the hints of what’s actually there. I mean, it isn’t a dead calm day and I can see that. You could have done two exposures, one at say, ¼ sec for the surf and the other at the 5 sec you have, for the tide pools, and blended. But that’s a lot of work. But to capture this scene in one take, again for my taste, I think shooting at ¼ - ½ sec or thereabouts , would have added another level of complexity to the scene. Strictly my two cents.
Stephen: This looks great to me. I like the color palette especially and the long exposure effect on the water. I just returned from Hawaii and did some similar experiments so you’ve set a standard. Beautiful scene superbly rendered. >=))>
Thanks for your input and 2 penny thoughts @Kerry_Gordon. I have blended focus stacks and HDR images but have not done a shutter speed. Interesting. I thought about blending a Western Gull from another image in the surf grass to give it a livelier look.
I did a lot of tide pooling in places such as this in my younger years (marine biologist). Therefore this is close to my heart. I think you captured the essence of the place really well and the processing has been done expertly. The light can be wonderful in the morning and you’ve captured it well. There’s nothing like putting on a pair of waders and going out there in the morning when the tide is low and the wind hasn’t come up yet. Personally, I don’t find the composition too busy. It’s not a simple composition but that’s ok. You could crop in from the left to simplify it but then you’d need to remove some of the sky as well.
