Naples Sunset
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
Every town on the water with a long pier or good viewing area facing West seems to have a ‘happening’ – crowds that gather every night to see beautiful sunsets. Naples, Florida is no exception. In fact, at the Saturday art show in town, every photographer had at least one print of the Naples Pier at sunset. So, one afternoon we joined the crowd.
We walked to the end of the pier to get a good spot but then I decided to go back to the beach and for my sunset shot. At first, I shot the pier with the sun glancing off the structures on the left side. Next, a group of shorebirds in the setting sun filled the viewfinder. Then I ran to the other side of the pier to shoot the setting sun behind the pier. In the first shots, the sun was placed behind the two sheds located halfway down the pier. Then I noticed a bank of clouds on the horizon that would prevent a view of the sun slipping down into the ocean – the shot I originally envisioned. Instead, I moved along the waterline to try to show more of the length of the pier in the frame. The shutter was pressed each time the two surfers by the pier disappeared behind a wave. In the end, the cloud bank helped add interest to the image. After editing the images, I narrowed it down to twelve captures, each composed a little differently. Some images had the horizon high in the frame and some low. The last one, my favorite, is the image in the post.
First a note of caution – be very careful when shooting sunsets. Looking through the viewfinder can be harmful if the sun hits your eye. Make sure you do not look directly at the sun. For those interested in the technical side, I shot this image at f8 @ 1/160 of a second with a 24-70 zoom at the 70mm setting and used a polarizer. I metered well away from the sun to get a slight overexposure. In Lightroom, I lowered the final exposure two stops. The horizon was adjusted slightly to get everything level. Some saturation and adjustment of color temperature completed the image.
As a side note, the difference between the captures during editing came down to the placement of the waves. In some frames, the waves were too strong and eliminated much of the color reflection. In others, the waves hurt the composition.
This image resembles many of the prints I saw in the Naples art show. But that wasn’t my aim. The real fun was being there and working the light, the composition, the details and looking through the viewfinder to reach that magic moment when it all comes together.
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