Last night, I met up with an old friend on Stanage Edge in the Peak District. The intention was to shoot the sunset, as the sun was due to set just to the side of the edge. If the weather played it’s part, the light on the edge would be spectacular. Often when that’s happened, I’ve found myself elsewhere, looking back at Stanage Edge and wishing I was there.

This time I was in the right position at the right time of day and year. All I needed now was the weather to play it’s part.

Initially it looked like we were on for a great sunset which is when I took this shot.

I shot this with the Fuji XT3 and Fuji 16-80 lens at 21mm. It’s a handheld Exposure at 1/20” using f/11.0 and ISO200. I was also using a Kase Wolverine 3-stop Reverse ND grad filter on the sky to balance the exposure.

At the time I couldn’t see much colour on the camera, but I could see the sky was nice. Looking at histogram I could see the exposure was good, but the image appeared a little flat on the screen. I made an exposure compensation adjustment to refine the histogram, but I didn’t feel confident. Whilst I knew technically how to use the camera and had no problems with it’s operation, I didn’t feel I could trust it.

Interestingly, this is exactly what happened when I switched to using the Panasonic G9 exclusively over the past couple of months. I think this shows that learning to use a camera is much more than knowing how to operate the controls. You also need to understand how it responds in different situations and how far you can push things to get the best exposure. Basically, you need to learn to trust it.

After that, I just need the weather to play it’s part. On this occasion the sun quickly disappeared into a bank of dense cloud and with it the possibility of a good sunset vanished.

I hope you like the image and have a great weekend.