Location

Another piece from my trip to Lagos in Algarve, southern Portugal. I’ve submitted a landscape version of this sunrise, and normally I don’t like submitting two similar shots taken in the same session, but partly because I’ve simply not had time to get out with my camera much recently, and partly because I do still enjoy the portrait version of this shot, I thought I’d submit it.
I hope no-one minds too much, I will have some new stuff to submit soon (I hope…

Technique

I love water (I’m sure most people had guessed by now) and love photographing it’s movement, so one of the first things I look for when I’m shooting a waterscape is something that is going to give the water an interesting shape as it flows around it. Rocks are great for this, as well as providing great texture and interest in the foreground, and wet rocks are even better as they reflect the light beautifully.
So I found a place that had rocks just below the water line which were being revealed as the tide receded backwards and then covered again as the waves came in.
This often involves standing in the water with the tripod, and as the water can move the legs of the tripod, it’s better to wedge them against rocks if possible, rather than in soft sand.
One thing I’ve learned here through painful experience is the value of decent footwear when paddling around in the water. I used to wear flip flips, but they have no grips on wet rocks, and can often be pulled off by the tide. I’ve cut my feet up pretty badly on rocks, and almost lost my camera to the water becauses I’ve slipped, so now I’ve learned that if I’m going to wear sandels then they have to be ones that fit all around the foot securely and grip extremely well.

The previous shot I submitted from this morning was taken moments before the sun came over the horizon. This shot was taken a few moments after the sun had cleared the horizon line, so the brightness range was very wide.
I took a spot meter reading from the rocks to give me my mid-tone (base exposure). I wanted to capture movement in the water with a shutter speed of a couple of seconds, so I had to close the aperture down to around f20.

The sky however metered at around 10 stops brighter than this base exposure, which meant that it would be hopelessly blown out highlights and I suspected that it wasn't possible to get a shot. I used two 3 stop neutral density graduated filters, laying them along the horizon to try to bring the sky back to within the range of the camera's sensor.
However, in the moments that it had taken me to meter the sky and put the filters on, the sun had grown more intense and this was the only shot I managed before it no longer became viable to shoot into the light.

I'm aware that technically this shot isn't correctly exposed, the highlights have blown out...but somehow on this photo I don't actually mind too much....the brightness tells me the story of the rising sun, of the dawn of a new day and the beautiful cleansing warmth of the early morning sun.

The final step in making the exposure was waiting for the water to recede away from me, which revealed the rocks below the surface and gave the water the leading lines.

Post Processing

I try to get as much correct in camera as I can, as I'm not really a big fan of sitting infront of the computer tweaking images.
This was shot in RAW, and in processing I've cleaned a few water drops that were on the filter, pushed colour saturation a tiny bit, pushed the contrast a tiny bit and applied a little sharpening.

Metadata

Taken on Praia do Camilo, Lagos, Portugal
Nikon D80 | Sigma 10-20mm | Nikon Cable release
Manfrotto 190XProB w/ 322RC2 ballhead
Lee 0.9 (3 stop) hard GND | Cokin ND8 (3 stop) soft GND
3 seconds | f20 | 10mm

RAW workflow in Apple Aperture (contrast, saturation and sharpening).