Mag

Behind
the Photo
All the photos I had seen from New Zealand were
mountainous landscapes with beautiful snowy
peaks. I’d wanted to capture this for myself and
upon arrival to Milford sound, we were greeted
with a perfectly overcast day, clouds rolling over
peaks, and spots of snow.
To save weight I had only packed my Nikon
D7100 and Sigma 18-35 f1.8. Being a crop sensor
camera, this effectively becomes a 27-52mm
lens which I think is an ideal focal length for
traveling. Having just one lens helps you to focus
more on the subject rather than your gear.
With the weather being cloudy, the lighting was
pretty inconsistent with the sun periodically
poking out of the clouds, so I shot in manual
mode but auto ISO. I did this so there was less
chance of shots being incorrectly exposed, and
fussing around with my settings which could
have made me miss a shot. I wanted an aperture
of f/4 because I know that’s where my lens is
the sharpest and the best chance of having my
subject in perfect focus. My shutter speed was
also a concern because we were on a moving
boat. I didn’t need an ultra-fast shutter speed
because boats don’t move that fast, so 1/250th
was a good balance between letting enough light
in, whilst retaining a sharp photo. With these two
settings dialed in, ISO could then be determined
by my camera to put my mind at ease.
On top of this, I used exposure compensation
of -1 stops to ensure the highlights of the clouds
weren’t blown out and could be adjusted in
post-production. To ensure that I had the
best possible file to work with during postproduction,
I only ever shoot in RAW.