Sunset near Mijas 2

Supplementary to the last post on shooting into the light. This image was taken after the sun disappeared. It works better for me without the distracting sun burst.

Technical: Camera as before, 73mm, 2.5seconds at f/16. 3 stop ND hard grad over the sky.

North of Mijas, Spain

Outdoor Photography Magazine recently ran an interesting feature on shooting into the light. On the whole I feel the usual advice that this is something to be avoided holds true as that bright point of light dominates the composition let alone the exposure. On this occasion, however, the composition depends upon the path meandering through the hills so I was stuck with the position of the sun. 5 stops of Lee ND filtration was still not sufficient so I also had to break my rule on using a maximum of 2 filters and hold a third filter in front of the filter holder to make up 7 stops.

Technical: Canon 5D Mk3, on a tripod, 7 stops of ND grad filtration (hard and soft), 24-105L lens at 85mm, 1/50th Sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100.

Location: Hillside North of Mijas, Spain. Off an unpaved road then a short trek but not hard to get to.

This church clinging to a hillside had caught my attention so I went back at dawn. The mist was a nice surprise.

Tuscany is a stunning photography location for lots of reasons. There is a timeless look to the landscape and buildings that is very pleasing. We were lucky to have hot weather interspersed with heavy rain which gave rise to a very atmospheric dawn.

Technical: Canon 5D MK2, 70mm, ISO 100, Filters were not suitable for a single image as the backlight was too strong on the church so had to be a 3 exposure HDR (Photomatix). RAW file processed in LR3 with tonal adjustments and slight sharpening made using Niksoft tools.

Location: Near Greve, Tuscany (Toscana).