The Pacific coast at Bandon, Oregon is graced with a generous collection of sea stacks of various shapes and sizes. It has the potential for dramatic sunsets and is on many photographers’ bucket lists. Some go so far as to crown it the best stretch of shore on the entire Oregon coast.
The day began about 80 miles to the south and we made our way north, stopping along the way in the Samuel H. Bordman Scenic Corridor and other locations that demanded our attention. It was overcast as we moved up the coast. But that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for the many wonderful places to shoot. As the day continued, the clouds gave away to hazy sun. But by the time we got to Bandon Beach, the marine layer with its bank of clouds was again encroaching on to the shore.
Still, our motto is, ‘You work with what you got.’ So we gathered our gear and descended the long stairway leading from the overlook to the beach below.
The tide was out so the entire beach was accessible to us. Parts would have been cut off had the tide been in or, at best, we would have had to wade through surf to get where we wanted to go.
I wandered up the coast, drawn to a sea stack appropriately called the ‘Witch’s Hat.’ I found a composition with potential that included the hat and another much larger sea stack to the left with the orange orb of the sun, dimly visible through the clouds, poised to descend between the two. And, to top things off, a seagull flew in and landed atop the very tip of the witch’s hat.
With uncertain conditions like this, one never knows when the light will be at its best. So once everything was set up, the composition dialed in and the exposure calculated, I grabbed a shot every few minutes or so. The scene itself was subdued but I was hoping I would be able to do some magic with it in the digital darkroom. With fingers crossed I watched as the sun continued its descent but the light remained unchanged.
While I was doing this, a lady came up to me, camera in hand. She was proud of her photos and wanted to share them with me and brought some up on her LCD screen. I don’t mean to be rude but even though it looks like I’m not doing anything, my attention is totally focused on the developing light. But she was insistent. She wouldn’t take No for an answer. So I accommodated her, glancing up every once in a while, hoping to see if the light was developing.
And develop it did! As the sun descended it passed behind a less dense cloud layer and the light show was on. At that point I turned my attention to the task at hand, adjusting the composition to make a greater impact.
In light like this with the sun in the frame, exposure can get tricky. The risk is that the sun will be blown out because it’s so bright and end up as a white circle instead of the orange ball I saw. HDR is a technique I turn to frequently and did so in this instance. So I took a series of five bracketed exposures each time I pressed the shutter.
I wasn’t sure at this point how the final image would be rendered. Did I want the sea stacks to be silhouetted or did I want to show detail? For sure, I wanted to expose the sun properly so that it was orange, not white. And as far as silhouettes go, I prefer detail in the dark areas of my photographs. So the chances were good that I would use at least some if not all of the five exposures. Besides, it’s better to have too many images than not enough.
I paid careful attention to the most underexposed image in the sequence, examining both the histogram and the LCD image to make sure I was capturing the sun. More precisely, it was the red channel of the histogram that I was watching closely.
Periods like this can get a bit frantic. Light develops quickly and then just as quickly fades away. ‘Photo Lady’ was oblivious to the magic that was happening and continued pressing me to look at her photographs. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that when I adjusted my composition, my framing was a bit off. The seagull was cut off from the tip of the hat. Fortunately, I noticed the problem, corrected it and got one last sequence in just before the light faded.
I didn’t get to work on the photograph until I returned home. In Lightroom, I selected a couple of the HDR series to run a quick check with its built-in HDR. Lightroom is really handy for doing a quick check like this. However, when I select the series I want to work on I turn to Photomatix Pro for serious HDR processing. Photomatix Pro has literally scores of adjustments you can make while Lightroom has none. The advantage of Lightroom, besides the fact that you can do a quick check, is that it produces a DNS file while the output from Photomatix Pro is a TIFF.
I did some minor adjustments to the Photomatix Pro file in Lightroom before moving on to Photoshop. All of my portfolio images are finished in Photoshop.
The composition consists of three tonal areas – the sea, the sea stacks and the sky. I used separate Curves layers to apply local adjustments to each of these areas. For the sea, I wanted to emphasize the sun shining on the water. I did this by increasing the contrast, mostly by holding the bright areas constant while darkening the shadows. The added contrast demands attention and adds impact, especially in the area where the sun is reflecting off the water.
Next, I used another Curves adjustment layer to darken the sea stacks. There is a beautiful orange glow around the sunlit side of the sea stacks that I didn’t want to darken so I anchored that part of the curve before darkening the shadows.
I used a third Curves adjustment layer to darken the sky. Again, I didn’t want to darken the sun or the glow around it so I anchored that and darkened the upper left corner.
Finally, I vignetted the corners and edges to pull the viewer’s eye into the center of the frame.
When I looked it the final image, I thought the saturation was too intense so I applied a little negative Vibrance globally to bring it down
The final image captures the drama of the moment. The sun illuminates some interesting patterns in the sky, giving a sense of motion. The darker sea stacks stand out against the brighter sky, creating a dramatic effect. With the dark juxtaposed against the bright, it actually draws the viewer’s eye. And there’s enough detail to give them form and mass. The sea is rather calm but the sunlight shining on it creates a bright line that leads the viewer into the scene. And don’t forget the lordly seagull, tempting fate to survey its realm from atop the witch’s hat. I’m glad it didn’t fly away.
The distraction of ‘Photo Lady’ almost resulted in a lost effort though. If I hadn’t noticed that the seagull was not included in the frame I wouldn’t have had a photograph. Fortunately, I caught the error before the light was gone but there had been more exciting reflections on the water that I missed.
Distractions when photographing come in many forms. In this case, it was a woman eager to share her photographs. And they were nice photographs. Even talking with one’s partner is another form. Distractions are anything that draws your attention from what is happening, especially in a situation like this when the best light comes and goes so quickly.
Then the light is happening, it’s OK to excuse yourself and devote your entire attention to capturing the magic. There will be plenty of time when the light show is over to look at photographs or finish conversations.
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