The Royal Albert Hall | Redux
After several rather unsatisfactory visits over the past few weeks, I was finally able to just about get the shot I've been trying to get today.
I'd been waiting for the right combination of being able to set up a tripod for a long exposure, combined with a vaguely interesting sky, the sun in the right position to be able to avoid harsh shadows on the building, and not so many people all around it that I wouldn't be able to largely blend them away with the long exposure.
I had to wait quite a while for the sun to be out long enough to meaningfully register in the two minute exposure. And although I was hoping for some nice blue sky with a smattering of clouds, we ended up with this rather moody grey sky which I feel does the job of making the sky at least interesting.
On a couple of previous occasions the sky was just plain featureless blue which was a bit boring. And the last time I visited was a total blow out as there were teenage fans sitting all over the steps already queueing at lunchtime for the evening concert that day, so even a long exposure wouldn't have done any good in removing them!
In this frame, there was a couple with their son (obviously a recent music graduate) who spent an awfully long time taking pictures of him in front of the Albert Hall from every conceivable angle, sometimes standing still for minutes on end in various positions, but they are rendered as a vague blur here.
Anyway, this seemingly pretty simple and basic photograph took quite some time and effort to finally achieve! Now I can call it 'done' for the time being and move onto the next on my hit list. I have to say I'm really impressed again with the performance of the Firecrest 16-stop screw-in ND filter at doing a great job here. Having struggled for years battling odd colour casts with my previous ND filters this one really does seem to hold up with minimal changes needed in Lightroom.
This is another prime example of a Grade I listed building in London, officially #1217742 at Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, SW7 2AP.
The Royal Albert Hall | Redux
After several rather unsatisfactory visits over the past few weeks, I was finally able to just about get the shot I've been trying to get today.
I'd been waiting for the right combination of being able to set up a tripod for a long exposure, combined with a vaguely interesting sky, the sun in the right position to be able to avoid harsh shadows on the building, and not so many people all around it that I wouldn't be able to largely blend them away with the long exposure.
I had to wait quite a while for the sun to be out long enough to meaningfully register in the two minute exposure. And although I was hoping for some nice blue sky with a smattering of clouds, we ended up with this rather moody grey sky which I feel does the job of making the sky at least interesting.
On a couple of previous occasions the sky was just plain featureless blue which was a bit boring. And the last time I visited was a total blow out as there were teenage fans sitting all over the steps already queueing at lunchtime for the evening concert that day, so even a long exposure wouldn't have done any good in removing them!
In this frame, there was a couple with their son (obviously a recent music graduate) who spent an awfully long time taking pictures of him in front of the Albert Hall from every conceivable angle, sometimes standing still for minutes on end in various positions, but they are rendered as a vague blur here.
Anyway, this seemingly pretty simple and basic photograph took quite some time and effort to finally achieve! Now I can call it 'done' for the time being and move onto the next on my hit list. I have to say I'm really impressed again with the performance of the Firecrest 16-stop screw-in ND filter at doing a great job here. Having struggled for years battling odd colour casts with my previous ND filters this one really does seem to hold up with minimal changes needed in Lightroom.
This is another prime example of a Grade I listed building in London, officially #1217742 at Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, SW7 2AP.