Behind the EXIF – Ripples

This Behind the EXIF is my shot from the weekend that covers why you need to enjoy and experience first (then take photos) and what the photographer sees is not what others do.

As a birthday present last year I was given a Trial 30 Minute flight, which is one of those things that first exhilarated me and secondly scared the crap out of me. I’m not afraid of flying by any measure and have been in small aircraft a lot of times, but to actually be flying it that is another matter.

So first things first I set out to enjoy the flight and make the most of the time in the air getting to fly the plane. All the shots I took were at the end as the pilot brought the plane into land.

Being late in the afternoon the sun was at that special angle where the light of the still water was nearly a mirror.

Technically the shot was on Auto No Flash and nothing more. I wanted to get some shots not spend time on the camera. I spotted the boat quite some distance away and knew that this was the shot I wanted.. not just and suburbs from the air.

It wasn’t until I got home I realised that I had made a beginners mistake. On friday night getting shots on the new AAMI Park stadium I had dialled up a autoshot in the rain, but pushed the ISO to 640 and the Nikon D90 doesn’t take the ISO back to auto when you go to Automode.

What this meant was that the all the shots that I took were basically to bright. The series of shot I took of the boat and water were all suffering from the same issue that the water was to bright and the shot was blown out.

As a result this is one of the more processed shots in Lightroom as well, with a crop on the left hand side to remove part of the water that was completely blown out, and then two horizontal gradients in Lightroom. The left hand gradient to darken the shot and the right hand one to lighten the shot. Then a lot of juggling to balance the overall shot with the aim of keeping it as natural as possible.

This shot has been interesting to see on flickr for what people thought it was…. which I still have trouble seeing. The first reaction of people is that it is lines in sand, not a boat on water. Which also goes to show you that the viewer of your art will never see what you did.

I am very pleased with the overall result and hope you are as well.

Ripples

The EXIF Data

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 1/3200 sec
Aperture: f/14.0
Focal Length: Sigma 18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-6.3
Lens 116 mm
ISO Speed: 640
Flash: Auto, Did not fire
GPSVersion ID: 2.2.0.0
GPS Latitude: 38 deg 2′ 47.32″ S
GPS Longitude: 145 deg 6′ 26.35″ E
GPSAltitude Ref: Above Sea Level
GPSAltitude: 297.605922551253 m
GPSDate Time: 2010:05:09 05:31:54Z

And you can buy this image on Red Bubble here

One Response to “Behind the EXIF – Ripples”

  1. Superb shot. Your eye for detail and post processing prowess have far outweighed any problems that resulted from incorrect settings. Great work. Really affective.

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