With an early morning start, I headed off to Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight. The plan is to capture some of the best sunrise photography on offer.
As I pulled up in the van the sky looked promising and a slight golden glow appeared on the headland above the bay. The sea was quite rough after a night of wind and rain, but luckily the skies had cleared.
Freshwater Bay Location
Freshwater Bay is located on the south west of the island. It has a stony beach with chalk cliffs at either end. The cliffs offer some beautiful vantage points over the bay and along the coast.
To get the best sunrise photography locations you need to head around the sea wall or over to the beach at the westerly end. High tide does cause some big waves to break over the small sea defence in front of the promenade. This can also make some great shots as the waves splash over.
The small stoney beach offers some great foreground elements in the form of some crumbling sea defences and some natural rocks located in the bay. The vantage point on the beach also has great views over the Isle of Wight Coast in the distance. Both give great elements for your sunrise photography compositions.
Wide-Angle Compositions
To get the best out of a wide-angle lens the composition works best if you can include a foreground element. The above photo was shot at. 16mm. This gives the image a bit of depth. It also leads your eye through the photo to the mid-ground. I have used the distant cliffs and rocks in the bay. Then to the horizon where the sun is rising through the clouds.
Some of the best sunrise photography images contain motion. Adding motion to your seascape pictures will add a bit of drama. This can be achieved by using slower shutter speeds. When the sun is very low you can achieve these effects without filters. Try using shutter speeds of around 1/25 sec and lower. The speed of the water can affect how the image comes out so you may need to play around while shooting.
Using Filters to Enhance your images
Using filters enables you to get some very cool effects when photographing water. In general, it has the effect of smoothing out the water surface making it appear velvety. The ND filter allows you to keep the shutter open for longer exposures. An issue you may run into with sunrise or sunset photography is that the sky may be a lot brighter than your foreground elements. To gain equal exposure across the frame a graduated filter is used. This is a filter that graduates from light to dark. It is used by sliding down the filter into the top of the frame until it darkens down the brighter area giving a more balanced exposure.
If you do not have a graduated filter the same effect can be achieved in post-processing in the editor of choice. Then you would take two images, one exposed for the foreground and the second exposed for the sky. These two images are then blended using software to give the same effect.
The most important thing about sunrise photography is that it gets you up early to experience some beautiful mornings and sights. The photographs are always a great reminder of the adventure that occurred and can be remembered in time to come.
Using Apps to get your timings right
There are plenty of applications that you can download to your phone. One worthy of note is Sun Surveyor. Knowing exactly when the sun is due to set or rise, and in what direction can help you better plan to get the best sunrise photography moments.
Check out the Freshwater Bay webcam.