Photographing Leeds Castle tomorrow at sunrise

[TonyHetherington]

Yup, I'm nuts. More nuts is my dam lovely girlfriend who said she'd come with me!

Anyway, sunrise 0442 tomorrow.

I'm going to Leeds Castle in Kent;



to hopefully have a play and get some shots with still water and nice light!

Anybody got any tips?

I'm imagining small aperture, long(ish) shutter speed with low iso, mirror lock up function for stillness (I'll take my tripod) and remote release.

I also have a couple of filters I want to have a play with (they're my dad's from years ago - thought they'd be worth a try!) and also a CP which I imagine would be the most useful thing; to make the water reflections clearer as well as sky light more vivid?

Appreciate the thoughts chaps!

Tony

(0442!!!! We'll be getting up at 0330!!!!)

[Dogsey]

You mad fool ... stay up instead!

[Famous Graham]

If sunrise is at 4:42, don't you need to be there for at least 4?

[TonyHetherington]

really? is that the way it works? What I was after was very still water and that kind of half-light that looks so nice!

[Famous Graham]

I'm not sure, I've only ever seen the dawn from the front

Drop Mr Carter a line, I'm sure he can elucidate

[TonyHetherington]

I'll do exactly that

[GetCarter]

Yo Bro

(like they say at 4 a.m.)

Having done a fair bit of this early worm /mirror reflection stuff, I've found that :

1/ You can never trust the weather forecast... but look for a still as well as a bright day. High pressure bang overhead usually does it.

2/ You'll probably find the water is not flat before sunrise - but there is about 15 mins just after the sun rises where water/land temperatures equalise and the water is completely still. This is also the time when you will often get mist rising from the water. (Bring it on!)

3/ Generally, 30 mins after the sun is up, the relative temps change and the water will lose all it's reflections.

4/ It's a COMPLETE BUGGER when you get up that early and the light/water is crap.

5/ This is about 80% of the time

Good luck... for it's luck you need.

For others who haven't yet been bored to death by my enless posts: some where I got the luck

http://www.stevecarter.com/2005/Buttermere13-07-06...

http://www.stevecarter.com/2005/feb7.jpg (about 45 mins aftet the sun arrived, but -3C)

and one NOT early morning!

http://www.stevecarter.com/2005/06-2.jpg

Edited by GetCarter on Friday 8th June 20:45

[crmcatee]

Is it open at that time or are you coming across the public footpath across the golfcourse ?

[falcemob]

Don't bank on the right weather tomorrow morning. The forecast is similar to this morning's weather which at 4-5am was pretty naf with heavy cloud and rain. On a positive note, if it isn't raining but still cloudy you may get some good atmospheric conditions (think that's the term) which could make for some good pictures.

[TonyHetherington]

GetCarter said:

Yo Bro

Fantastic, thanks very much indeed Steve! That's exactly the sort of info I was looking for

Rather frustratingly, just found that my Focus won't now be ready until tomorrow afternoon so we'll now be doing the sunrise shoot on Sunday morning. Nevertheless, I'm still determined and (quite strangely) looking forward to it! I like trying new things and a walk at that time, with everything so still, will be lovely I'm sure!

My fingers are very very crossed for nice weather. The forecast is good but, as you say, not really worth banking on that!
Thanks again, much appreciated, ma bro

[TonyHetherington]

crmcatee said:

Is it open at that time or are you coming across the public footpath across the golfcourse ?

No, it's not open. I phoned up Leeds Castle during the week and explained exactly what I was after. They said that the big main entrance is shut at that time (opens 10.30am) however there is a public footpath that goes right through the centre which you are, of course, allowed on! She said you can walk to the footpath (and told me where I could park my car) so it's about a 15-20minute walk from car-leaving-place to the Castle. She did say that, legally, I'm not allowed to stray from the path but she said I won't be the first person to have ever done this and as I'll be there with tripod, big camera etc that it will be obvious and although a security guard will more than likely come along it shouldn't be a problem. A good thing is that both my girlfriend and I have yearly tickets to Leeds Castle (you go once and it's valid for a year) so I'll take them hopefully showing the guy that I might be off the path, but I have a valid ticket for it.

Fingers are still crossed

[crmcatee]

Which end are you parking at - the Park Gate pub end or the uptowards Leeds village end. I would have thought coming down from the A20 Parkgate entrance would be the logical one since you would be walking down across the golf course towards the castle rather than coming down with the sun behind you. The entrance from the park gate is beside their large Leeds Castle sign - they tend not to keep the entrance that well advertised I think to deter folk from getting in for nothing - normally a security guy in the hut just inside the fence will radio to his colleague on the other side of your descriptions and to expect you out the other end.

Interested to see the results - might do that myself one day.

[TonyHetherington]

We parked at the church in Leeds village and then walked through the public footpath throught he fields in there (it's what the lady told us to do). Worked out very well, not a soul around and we even saw sheep asleep (never ever seen one asleep before ).

We were actually in front of the castle from 0420 until about 0510. Unfortunately the sun rise was not very amazing at all, as you can see from the shots, but there was mist which gave a real atmosphere!

I struggled getting the exposure right so you could see the mist as well as the sky and foreground reflection (swans saw to a never-still water!).

I'm not 100% chuffed with them, but as a first try and a sun rise which never particularly came (it simply "got lighter" ) I don't think they're too bad!

I need to clean my sensor, that's for sure

1.



2. This one I used an old red filter of my dad's to see what it'd do! I think the effect is a bit OTT but hey, you don't know if you don't try these things


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


Soooo, not amazing I don't think but certainly learning more, and more, and more. Oh and some more And it was a throoughly lovely walk at stupid o'clock this morning - Gina even enjoyed it too! Slept well when we got back though i can tell you

Appreciate any comments or feedback about how I could change/do more? Thanks to all for your advice!

Tony

.....yawn.........

[imperialism2024]

Not that I've done much sunrise photography, but I've found that to get the colors to really pop out (if that's what you're looking for), it's necessary to start shooting a bit earlier than you did with these shots.

I think this was about an hour before sunrise (it was back in December) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.



1/5 sec; f/4.5; 44mm; Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5

[Zad]

I haven't shot anything like that (despite having seen summer sunrise from the wrong end of the day all too often). It is a fantastic time of day isn't it, especially if the atmosphere is right and the dragon's breath mist starts rising.

Might a graduated grey help bring the foreground up a bit? If the mist does rise then a long exposure will help blur out any ripples in the water, which will fade into the haze, making it look very ethereal. Failing that, it might be a good subject to experiment with a little tasteful HDR.

Mike



(Carter, your pics never get tiring!)

[Famous Graham]

Number 5 is really atmospheric

[bulb763]

I like 3 best. I think it's because of the detail in the castle, which the rest don't have

[le gravy noire]

Tony,

it's a shame your discipline wasn't rewarded, and it can be bitterly disappointing when putting in such effort and not experiencing something spectacular.

Try to consider the direction of the light, as it is of critical importance. Had the sun been rising behind you or tangentially it may have beautifully lit up the stonework, and at that time of day the angle and quality of light would have shown the texture and shape beautifully. In the case of these shots it seems that direction has thrown the castle into a silhouette having the opposite effect.

Obviously it is not always possible to capture the composition and the light that you want, so consider which is more important, the eerie dawn feeling with rising mist, or showing the subject matter at this best?

To try to give an example, this shot was taken with the sun on my left coming down facing the wall. What i wanted was to light the slate roof and clumps of grass nicely to show their texture.



I've got a watch with a compass in that has proven invaluable for planning photos when off on a location hunt. Its actually the most technically advanced piece of equipment I have (its got a good light and a second timer for those long bulb exposures, and I can read the time without my glasses on )



Matt

Edited by le gravy noire on Sunday 10th June 18:00

[TonyHetherington]

Hi chaps!

Thanks very much for the feedback

Having just looked at them from a fresh I'm a bit happier with them actually. Too much silouette in the shots though rather than detail of the castle. Which, Matt, is exactly your point and I see exactly what you're saying! The problem I was having was that an exposure suitable for the castle blew out any decent colour (which was sparse anyway) in the sky/foreground. To show where we were in location to the Castle; here shows the bank we were on (moved up and down that) and UP is North, so the sun would have been coming from the right, i.e. rear light. So that is the reason for the silouettes it seems! Equally though I was after nice colours in the sky (which would have come from looking at the east, is that right?).

I did want to go around to the other side of the castle (which would have the sun behind me - on the right of this picture looking to the left) however I didn't want to spend 20mins walking around and sunrise happen and be great and me end up missing it .



The result though is that I'll definitely give it another go - it was rather fun and next time we'll go to the right hand side of the picture looking at the castle (i.e. with the sun rising from behind us) to get some clearer detail in the stone work of the castle itself, rather than the silouettes I had from yesterday.

Thanks for the advice and feedback chaps!
Tony

Edited by TonyHetherington on Monday 11th June 09:48

[EmmaP]

Next time you go, expose for different parts of the scene. Each shot can then be used as a separate layer in Photoshop. Using layer masking, you can then mask out the unwanted aspects, hopefully getting a well balanced shot that reveals both highlight and shadow detail.

Sounds like you had fun