Defenders of London | Weekly Photo #35
Some will recognise this distinctive structure but for those that don’t, this is the Thames Barrier situated just east of London, not far from the Isle of Dogs. It was erected in 1982 to protect the city against high tides and storm surges.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 28mm | 209 Seconds | f/10 | ISO200
As you will probably know, I do like a long exposure photo. Something about the ethereal, minimalistic look they provide means that for me at least, it’s the perfect technique to use when capturing a busy, sometimes overly cluttered London Cityscape. The process allows some of the tension in the scene to be defused enough to ensure the main subject can stand proud and distraction-free in the frame.
You can check out more reasons to give long exposure photography a try in an article I wrote a while back called Slowing Down Time | Why the Long Exposure?.
I took this photo a couple of weeks ago while on a shoot with Andy Conway. Andy is an excellent photographer and up and coming YouTuber based in the South of England. After meeting at Canary Wharf, we decided to leave the hustle and bustle behind and head east to capture the Thames Barrier. The weather was pretty miserable, the sky was lifeless and the light was flat so there was really only one thing for it. A black and white, long exposure image was on the cards for this shoot. After spending a minute or two scouting the location, we settled on this side-on composition of these imposing structures that appear to be standing in-line, at the ready to defend the city against their tidal enemy. With the camera mounted and a 10-stop filter attached to the lens, I went about capturing this 209-second exposure.
After converting to black and white, I process the image with a high key, minimalistic look which helped to emphasise the strong architectural lines of these powerful, intimidating structures. I used local adjustments in Lightroom to dodge and burn parts of the image to get the tones and brightness how I wanted and finished up with a bit of split toning to cool down the overall image and give it the clean, slightly metallic look I was after.
One last thing before we wrap up. For some, giving long exposure photography a try can be a bit daunting, but in truth, it really is quite straight forward if you understand what’s involved so, I wrote a 10-step guide that you can follow if you want to give this technique a try. Use the link at the bottom of this post to subscribe to my newsletter and a PDF copy will be sent straight to your inbox.
Cheers,
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.