Lucie Averill had a square crop in mind when it came to capturing this scene. She talks us through her thought process
This is Gwithian Towans, a stunning beach on the north coast of Cornwall, and one of my favourite places to photograph. I visit here often, but the sight of the sea fret drifting in and out, hugging the coast and creating the most beautifully diffused light, is not an everyday occurrence. Once on the beach, and before setting up my camera, I spent time just watching the meandering shapes and textures left by the receding waves. I knew I could shoot facing into the sun without creating strong contrasts because of the misty cloud softening the harsh sun. The beach was busy though, so I decided very early on that I would make a square crop to simplify the composition, and I was glad to be wearing my trusty wellies so I could stand in the water, ensuring that this area of sand was clear of footprints or people.
PREPARING FOR PRINTING
I usually crop images at a later stage, but here I knew I wanted a 1:1 ratio to remove distractions and I decided to use the edge of the wave to lead the eye into the distance. It’s worth trying different aspect ratios as it can dramatically alter the feel of the image.
I made very small global edits to white balance, whites, and blacks. Keeping an eye on the histogram and holding down the Alt key and left mouse button whilst increasing whites or blacks can show if you’ve gone too far and whether they’ve clipped.
Using the mask feature in Lightroom with the various tools allows a more controlled edit of images that can be added to gradually. Here, I used a linear gradient as I wanted to add more contrast to the clouds without affecting the foreground exposure.
To bring out the detail in the wave edge I used an adjustment brush mask and increased the texture. It’s sometimes difficult to see the effect of the edit, so I will push the slider too far to see the changes and then pull it right back to a more subtle adjustment.
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