That result is never as good as when your exposure is damned near perfect in the camera
My porch has a view of a tiny peek of the ocean. With the 500mm lens you can just get a glimpse of it through these two palm trees that are about 1000 yards away along the lagoon, but if you move a few inches left you catch the corner of the house, and move an inch right and you’ll run into the post on the corner of the porch. There’s not much latitude for movement, but at the end of the summer I noticed the sun setting closer and closer to those palm trees, and really wanted to try and get a picture of them, the peek of water, and the sun. I figured I had two days to make it work, no more.
I mean, I could make it work other days. Get a ladder, climb on the roof, whatever. Just rig something so I can move the camera off the porch and still get up high enough to see over the neighbor’s fence and the avocado tree, but these are the dark days of 2020 when there’s fuck-all to do so this is the game. Gotta take it from the porch, or not at all.1 For the next month I tracked the sun a couple days a week, watching it setting a little farther south each day.
Mid October the sun was almost there. I practiced exposures a bit so I could get it perfect on one of the two good days. I figured the best days would be around the 14th, but we had some clear afternoons in the week leading up. Here was the 11th:
As you see, there were some clouds rolling in. The next two days were cloudy, I didn’t even get a sunset on the 12th, but it cleared up just before sunset on the 13th. I was rushing, and I had to crop a bit of the rain gutter out of the upper right corner (which is why it’s 4×5 ratio), but got this shot:
Still not quite perfect. Maybe one stop underexposed. I could bring it up in the photoshops, but even if I had that program or something like it that result is never as good as when your exposure is damned near perfect in the camera. A weak Santa Ana was forming so the next night was good for one more shot:
Bam!2 Money, baby! This is straight from the camera, as shot.
I did cheat some. I bracketed the exposure and let it fire five times, though the setting I chose in the middle was the best, identical to the previous night then up 1.3 stops. More exposure blew out the sun and less lost details.
The setup from the porch looked like the picture inset. Note I have an inch or two to move right before I hit the post… almost enough to get the sun centered. I don’t remember if those were the final camera settings. If you care, this was 1/40th at f/22, and I got there with spot metering, preserve highlights, and cranked the middle exposure +1.3. At least according to the exif data in NikonView.
Since film is free in the Z6, I also took a bunch if brackets from before the sun hit the palms until it was beneath the horizon, and there were a plenty of really nice shots. I even had one in the middle of the trees… but I am not going to show you any more.
This is my favorite. I like it slightly to the side, and just kissing the water. Something about asymmetry speaks to me these days. It’s more aesthetically pleasing, especially when cropped to an 8×10 print, which I do just by lopping 2 inches off the right side.
The next night was cloudy before sunset, so this was my last chance.3 My weather luck held up on the 14th though, so there you have it. October, 2020’s magnum opus.
Go back and look at the money shot again, right click and view file, it’ll expand to 2200px. That’s about 1/3 the original size, and the detail amazes me. An almost impossible shot with technology even a few years ago and, while I shouldn’t call it easy, it was easy enough it feels like cheating.
This was the first print I made at North Coast photo. That same evening, in fact. I sent it off an hour after the sun set. It looks even better on paper, in your hand. Contact me if you want a print, I’ll make you one in a heartbeat. The one on my wall is 8×12, but It is easily good for up to 12×18 at the original ratio, or 16×20 cropped. If I know you I’ll do it at my cost.
Only like six people have ever looked at this blog, so you probably have my email or phone number.
1. Yeah, I’m full of shit. If I’d missed it I’d totally have stacked some boxes for the tripod to stand on or climbed on the roof the next week.
2. I sure hope you read that as if it was uttered while squeezing a Spice Weasel
3. Pretend with me, or the title Palmhenge isn’t as fun. We can intone “Lo, and the sun shall only kiss the gap on the third week after the solstice,” or some crap like that.