After visiting Seacombe ferry terminal over the past weeks for some sunset shots of the Liverpool waterfront, I decided it would make a nice change to capture the sunrise instead especially since the sun would rise from the direction of the city centre.

I’d also just recently taken delivery of a Cokin P neutral density (ND) graduated filter set and was keen to try them out on a landscape shoot.

So, just after 7am this morning, we (I dragged my able assistant along - don’t worry, she’s a morning person!) arrived at the waterfront to find a number of other photographers already set-up and the sky was already turning a light blue.  I felt like a schoolkid arriving late for class!

Anyway, with auto-bracketing on and my new ND grads in place in front of my EF-S 17-55mm, I set about taking a series of shots with the intention of stitching them together.

Why stitch?  I could easily fit the most significant parts of the Liverpool cityscape into frame with my lens set to 17mm, but the resultant image would be too much sky and river.  There’s just not enough detail to be able to crop down a single shot so I prefer to take several and fill the frame with more buildings.

Here’s an image that’s actual comprised of 15 individual exposures - 5 sets of 3 bracketed shots tone mapped and stitched.  It’s too wide to see in full here so click it and view the original size to see it the detail.

I’m happy to say that this particular pic has been featured on the RedBubble Liverpool group.  Now, if only someone would buy a print…

It wasn’t easy, getting up so early on a weekend, but I will do it again and next time I’ll be further to right so that I can get the sunlight reflecting off the other side of the buildings.  I’ll also shoot in vertical format instead of horizontal so I can get more sky and water without losing any detail.  It means a bit more post processing, but when I’m faced with clouds and reflections like this I’d prefer to capture them.