Kotor Bay Dreaming – Montenegro

Sunset over the bay of Kotor, Montenegro. In an area of lesser travelled Europe known as the Balkans, this small city and the region blew me away!

The effect of the sky you see here was achieved with the use of a 10-stop ND filter, which essentially blocks out 10 stops of light, allowing me to open the shutter for longer in bright conditions that I otherwise could not do so in.

Kotor can be reached by bus very easily from neighbouring and more popular Croatia, aswell as other adjacent countries. I travelled by bus from Tirana, Albania, and the second half of the journey was nothing short of spectacular.

TECHNICAL INFO
Nikon D750 | Nikon 16-35mm @ 24mm | f/10 | 30s foreground, 126s sky | ISO 50
Location: Kotor Fortress
Post Processing:
– Seperate exposure for the sky blended in using a mask. The sky was captured at 126 seconds at the same time, with the use of a 10-stop NiSi ND filter to enable this
– Seperate exposure of the bell tower from earlier in the evening blended in
– Colour correction work undertaken to ensure the sky, mountain range and city lights blended in together seamlessly, because they were all taken at different times (almost 2 hours between the first and last exposures)
– General cleaning of dust spots in sky
– Verticals straightened (using the church bell tower as a guide)
– Sharpening applied