Date Taken: 06/04/2014
Location: Waterrock Knob, milepost 451
Brilliant crepuscular rays beam in the distance from the Waterrock Knob Overlook, milepost 451 near Cherokee, NC.
Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens: Nikkor 18-105
Focal Length: 32mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/13s
Aperture: f/11
Filters: 3-stop and 2-stop graduated neutral density filters, stacked
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Arriving at the overlook Wednesday, the brilliant light in the distance dictated my composition. Since there are several small (distracting) trees only a few feet in front of the overlook, I needed to stand in a spot where their interference to the composition would be minimized or eliminated. I also zoomed in a little to avoid any branches creeping in to the edge of the frame. I did keep some of the trees a bit further out in the frame to use as a foreground and provide some depth. Since I zoomed in to 32mm (equivalent to 48mm on a full frame camera) I didn’t want that foreground to be out of focus, so I used my trusty depth of field calculator on my iPod Touch to be sure I was far enough back to have full sharpness throughout.
The vivid crepuscular rays in the distance also presented a host of challenges. First, I needed to hold back that brilliant light while maintaining some semblance of a foreground, so after initially using just a 3 stop graduated neutral density filter, I ended up stacking a 2 stop filter on top to better balance the light. The use of the filter darkened the clouds significantly however, which required some dodging in post processing to restore what I actually saw.
The use of those filters also slowed my shutter speed, and with the wind slightly blowing I needed a speed quick enough to keep the trees in the foreground from blurring, and 1/13 was as slow as I could go. And of course, with a shutter speed that slow I used a sturdy tripod to keep everything still – in fact, regardless of shutter speed I use a tripod and shoot “mirror up” with a remote shutter. I considered opening my f-stop to f/9 or f/8 to speed my shutter a little, but I’ve found that (for this particular lens, anyway) f/11 tends to yield the best depth of field.
Post-processing required some dodging (lightening) of the clouds above the rays, and very slightly pulling back the highlights in the sky. A slight color levels bump on Lightroom finished the job.
For More Information
- Additional photographs by Solitary Traveler Photography
- Categories where this photo is found: Mountain Horizons, Overlook Views