Portland dusk

Portland Bill Lighthouse at dusk, Portland, Dorset, England

Portland Bill Lighthouse at dusk, Portland, Dorset, England

Back home the other weekend on a lazy sunday afternoon and the light was looking good, headed out to a location I always enjoy shooting, its nothing spectacular but its one I found by having a wonder and I know when I go there I’ll be the only the only photographer.

Making this shot work was all about including the cliff shape on the left side of the frame, getting an interesting foreground to draw the viewer in, motion in the water and some cool colours in the sky. With these kind of sunsets you can never tell if the best colours will be at this point or if they will keep building into the twilight – on this occassion it just faded away as the sun passed the horizon, always hang around though – I’ve made the mistake of leaving a location only to look back from the car park at the incredible twilight colours behind!

Balancing the brightness of the sky with the land is a 0.9 Neutral Density Graduated filter, also used was a 6 stop ND to prolong the exposure and blur the sea, they make a 10 stop filter but I’m not ready for that yet…

Please do leave a comment so I know someone other than my mum reads these!

8 thoughts on “Portland dusk

  1. Hi Ben.
    Nice to read your blog and get some info on your techniques etc. keep them coming ๐Ÿ™‚
    How about some info on equipment used for the shot?
    Paul

    Like

  2. ok in the theme of things – bangin’ shot and it’s not only your Mum reading !!!!
    Keep them coming, we shall be reading with interest ๐Ÿ™‚

    Like

  3. Great shot Ben, particularly interested in how you balanced the exposure for shooting directly into the sun, I tried that recently but even with filters the bright sun was really difficult to expose. Do you use Lee filters?

    Like

    • Yes this was shot with a 3 Stop (0.9) Lee ND Grad, the brightness of the sun is always difficult to expose, for this I had waited for it to be partially obscured by clouds (Pink Floyd Album?!)

      Like

Leave a comment