Midday Harbor Pier View
<—–Before
After—–>
[twentytwenty]
[/twentytwenty]
Midday Harbor Pier View | Rockport Harbor, ME
Ever since I could remember the pier view looking out to Rockport Harbor was obstructed with a dock piling spaced every seven feet. Today was a rare moment because the midday harbor pier view was finally unobstructed because all the rotten pier pilings were removed and awaiting their new replacements.
The Technical Layer
To read additional technical and location content please click on the tabs below.
Technical: Camera Settings
Technical: How & Gear
I wanted to include the harbor pier and dock, so I determined the angle of view I wanted to photograph and the 20mm fit the bill perfectly. I put my Nikon D4s onto my Induro ground-pod and connected my 7″ smallHD monitor to help me frame the image using live view. I tried several iterations of moving the camera’s location until I found the image content I wanted.
This became a compromised image, as shooting mid-day is a photographer no-no of sorts. I also knew the 20mm was going to make the boats in the background smaller. Therefore I simply concentrated on what I felt the subject was, the piling less pier. It was a story that ‘s hard to tell unless you are acquainted with the pier at Rockport Harbor.
At the time of capture, I knew that the midday light was going to be a problem. I needed to capture images with separate shadow and light exposures to retain details. Therefore I made my images with exposure bracketing set at .7EV knowing that I would use HDR or image blending in post production.
Technical: Location & Inspiration
I spoke with the Habor Master and found out that the pilings were going to be replaced later that day and next. She said that typically every ten years the town replaces the pilings that have gone bad. With this info in mind, I figured I would not have this unobstructed view from the dock in evening light, so I started to grab my gear and went to work. This was an opportunity that was not going to wait for golden hour sun light.
Technical: Craft
In post production, I used Photomatix to make an HDR image. I also create a single HDR image in PS. I created a layer for each in PS and then blended those two images. I did this because the output from both workflows was not realistic enough for me however when they were combined with the correct opacity, the image became closer to what I envision that afternoon.
