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Pan's Rock, Ballycastle, Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Canon EOS 5D Mk II, EF 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm
f/8, 2 minutes @ ISO 100, 10-stop neutral density filter
The Pan's Rock is a formation at the eastern end of Ballycastle Beach on the north Antrim coast. It's a popular spot for fishing and so a footbridge has been built out to it. The bridge is necessary as it becomes an island at high tide.
This is one of my favourite images of recent months. It represents several challenges, both artistic and technical, which needed to be overcome to make it the successful print that it is.
To start with, this was my third attempt to make the photograph. Secondly, to get the angle I wanted required an unconventional camera setup. This meant that there was significant work in postprocessing required to correct the image's perspective.
But first, some background.
This is an example of a constructed image. That is to say, I didn't just stumble across the photograph, I sought it out and planned it. Some (even most) of my images are 'found'. I go to a location at a time when I hope the light and weather will cooperate and photograph compositions as I find them.
Finding images in this way requires a certain amount of luck, but as the saying goes, luck favours the prepared mind. I study maps, sunrise and sunset positions, and the weather forecast to maximise my chances of finding a successful image.
Making a constructed image likes this can be much more difficult, as I have previsualized what I want it to look like. This means that conditions have to be perfect in order for it to work.
In the case of this image, I had seen other photographs of the location and the (perhaps clichéd) 'pier leading into the water' idea appealed to me. I hadn't come across such a scene that I felt worked well before and was eager to give it a go.
To get the image I wanted, four critical elements had to coincide. These were:
As I mention above, the rock itself is an island at high tide, which means that at low tide it's connected by lower-lying rocks. This would ruin the photograph, as these would hopelessly clutter the area under the bridge, spoiling and obscuring its clean lines.
Like any photograph, the quality of the light is a big influence on the success of the image. I knew I either wanted sunrise/sunset light or fog to make the image. This photograph uses sunrise light, but I'd like to revisit the scene in fog and make another one - it would have a totally different character.
Notice that I separate the weather from the light. Poor weather can make for great light, and vice versa. However, I knew this would be a long exposure and so needed an absence of rain for the two minute exposure to ensure the lens stayed dry.
As this is a popular fishing spot, I needed to make the image at a time where no fishermen were on the rock. Not that I would mind having one there, but the long exposure would make it harder to get a successful image with a potentially moving subject in the frame.
It took three attempts to make the image. The first was on my first trip to Antrim in 2009. It was a terrible day with low cloud, persistent drizzle and mist - unpleasant to be out in, but not necessarily bad for photography.
I was the only one on the beach and the tide was perfect. The shot would have been quite a ghostly image with the bridge leading out to the rock floating in a white emptiness. However, the drizzle was drifting in sheets from the north making it impossible to keep the lens clear.
For the second attempt, it was an evening on that same trip. The light was excellent and the tide was also well in. Perfect! Racing the clock to get to the beach before sunset I was sure this was going to be it.
However, it had been a somewhat damp day and the camera bag had gotten slightly wet on earlier shoots. I'd put the cameras and lenses back in it, and the whole lot into the car. Due to the dampness of the air, they didn't dry out and when I took the cameras out of the bag, the temperature and humidity change caused condensation to form on the inside of the front elements of all my lenses.
This isn't the end of the world, as eventually it'll evaporate, but it can take a couple of hours. No way to make the image before the light was gone, so off back to the B&B I went, dispirited.
I made a couple of other passes by the spot on both trips, but in each case the tide was out and therefore there was no image to be made.
On this particular morning, I was returning with another photographer from making the image of Fair Head and Colliery Bay. We had to drive past Pan's Rock to get back to the B&B, so it was the perfect opportunity to capture the scene with some good light.
Arriving, we found that all the conditions were perfect. The first problem was to set up the tripod in order to get the best perspective. Walking about halfway out on the bridge, I selected the spot.
The problem was height. At eye-level, the perspective is much too flat to be successful. You don't get any sense of the shape of the rock, and the bridge itself obscures much of the notch at the northern end. In order to get the image I wanted, I needed to be much higher. Thankfully, when buying my tripod I had specifically ordered one that extended much more than I would normally need, and this allowed me to gain the elevation required. You can see the setup in the below image.
Pan's Rock Setup
Photograph courtesy of Neil McShane
As you can see, the camera is well above my head. The image also shows the difference in perspective that the lower camera position gives - you can barely see the rock at the end of the bridge.
The height of the camera makes it difficult to compose. As I didn't bring a stepladder, I couldn't look through the viewfinder. Thankfully, using live view, I was able to compose the scene with some accuracy.
The camera is positioned as close to the center of the bridge as possible (the tripod legs look offset in this image, but the left hand leg is actually resting on the handrail). This makes sure the bridge is in the center of the final image, with the forced perspective of its shrinking into the distance leading you up to the island.
As this was daylight, a two minute exposure is not possible without some sort of filtration. Even at f/22 and ISO 50 the longest possible shutter speed would be less than two or three seconds - not long enough to completely smooth the wave action.
In order to achieve the desired effect, I used a ten-stop neutral density filter. This is effectively a welding mask for the camera, reducing the amount of light passing through it by a factor of a thousand.
The resultant exposure is sufficiently long to completely smooth out the waves lapping over the rocks and gives the clouds a rushing appearance as they moved in from the north at a moderate pace. This lends an otherwordly character to the scene which I feel helps it considerably.
Postprocessing is a big part of the creative process in photography, and some images need more work than others. This one needed no more than the usual work for contrast, tone and colour. However, it did need quite a bit of help with perspective and distortion correction. Below is the original image, direct from the camera with no edits applied.
Pan's Rock - Unprocessed
There are four problems here. Firstly, the vignetting in the corners is due to the filter holder showing up in the image. I had to screw the ten-stop filter directly to the lens, then the filter holder for the graduated neutral density filter in front of that. This put the front of the holder far enough out that it shows up in the image. Fixing this required cropping the image in from the sides and top.
The second problem is the crooked horizon - due to the awkward nature of the camera position, it was difficult to compose precisely. This was easily corrected as part of the cropping process.
The third problem is the curvature of the horizon caused by barrel distortion in the lens. This is an unavoidable problem in some wide-angle lenses and requires correction. I used the 'lens correction' filter in Photoshop to fix it.
The fourth problem is the fact that the camera is not pointing directly down the line of the bridge - again, a result of the awkward camera position. This can be seen in the planks at the bottom center of the image - they are not parallel with the bottom of the frame. Again, the 'lens correction' filter in Photoshop permits the correction of horizontal perspective like this.
Tonal changes consisted of a levels adjustment, a contrast mask, a moderate curves adjustment and some subtle boosts to the colour.
My goal with this article was to give you some insight into the creative process and to share some of the factors that go into making a successful landscape image. Above all, careful choice of camera position and careful composition go a long way toward making an image work.
I hope that you have found this article interesting. If you'd like to improve your camera or post-processing techniques, I run regular workshops at my studio in West Cork, and also in Dublin. I am also available to speak at camera clubs. Contact me for details.
Pan's Rock, Ballycastle, Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Canon EOS 5D Mk II, EF 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm
f/8, 2 minutes @ ISO 100, 10-stop neutral density filter