The River Thames in full flood
Whilst not exactly the Yukon in the Spring melt or Niagara Falls, the River Thames can still be interesting!
In January 2023 the River Thames was in full flood through Marsh Lock in Henley-on-Thames. Red boards were displayed at the locks meaning no one should venture on to the river.
How then best to capture an image of this display? This was a great opportunity to test different shutter speeds and break out my new filters.
I like how this photo ended up but did it take years of deep learning to take a photo like this? The short answer is no. With modern cameras a little bit of trial and error can quickly get you the results you are looking for.
A bit of trial and error…
Many photographers wouldn’t show some of the following photos but I think it is helpful to show the thought process and then some of the things that can go wrong!
I was using my A1 with the 16-35 GM lens on a decent tripod. 28mm gave me the best frame from where I stood on the edge of the lock. I chose f11 as I had to take this as a single shot and needed to get as much as possible in focus. I also wanted to keep the ISO as low as possible so all of these photos are either ISO 50 or 100.
My main decision was around what shutter speed would make the water look the best. With slower shutters I used increasingly dark filters so the photo wouldn’t be overexposed.
Shutter speeds are clearly subjective but I tried 1/400s, 1/30s, 1/3s, 2.5s and 20s before landing on 1/5s. I thought I had nailed the shot at 1/5s but when I got home I noticed some black smudges on the photo. They were on the sensor and came off quickly but it meant a quick trip on to photoshop to remove them for the final photo.
I played around with the settings in Lightroom to get to a final result. I have been using the presets from www.froknowsphoto.com as a starting point and ‘Skittles’ can work well where you really want to bring out the deeper colours.
1/400s
1/3s
20s
1/30s
2.5s
1/5s massive fail!