Recommended Photography Locations Near Portsmouth

Whilst living in Portsmouth and being situated on the south coast of England, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to explore not only the city itself, with me showcasing the locations on offer in Part 1 and Part 2, but plenty of the areas around it, giving me a variety of photographs which I’ve enjoyed.

To continue the theme of sharing these photographs with you, here’s an article detailing where I have managed to find when out of Portsmouth but within at least an hour’s drive of the city centre, making them easily accessible for you. The only thing I’ll hold my hands up about at this point with this blog is that some of these locations and photographs were discovered and taken prior to me having my camera. This will mean that the camera settings will be that of my iPhone chose at that moment. Not ideal for sharing my thoughts with camera set up but at least you’ll have the locations and picture idea.

Camera settings:

Left hand picture: Exposure 1/750s, f/1.8, 4.25mm, ISO 25 (Automatic from iPhone XS)
Right hand picture: Exposure 1/120s, f/1.8, 4.25mm, ISO 25 (Automatic from iPhone XS)

Location: Porchester Castle (Google Maps)

This one I stumbled upon when on a run around Porchester Castle and managed to find this picture of the sun shining through archway of the castle that I really liked. I’m sure if I were to return, or should you explore there, there are plenty of places for photo opportunities.

I’m sorry, this is the first instance of me having to apologise for not having control over the camera settings so I can’t take you through my thinking. I just pointed and shot.

Camera settings

Left hand picture: Exposure 1/60s, f/4.5, 18mm, ISO 400
Centre picture: Exposure 1/125s, f/5.6, 18mm, ISO 360
Right hand picture: Exposure 1/50s, f/4.5, 18mm, ISO 400

Location: Hill Head Beach (Google Maps)

The first thing that I will say about this location and these photographs are they I can’t promise you the results that I got. Clearly, I was blessed to be able to capture the sunset like this with that amazing pink hue. Whether it be Hill Head Beach or Lee-On-The-Solent Beach, you’ll be blessed with some great sunsets like this one all along the coast.

For once, I’m very happy with the camera settings and captured these pictures really well. A longer exposure to capture the reflections on the water, a low ISO to ensure there’s no noise and a wide aperture to keep the depth and focus on all items in the frame.

Camera settings:

Lefthand picture: Exposure 1/750s, f/2.4, 1.54mm, ISO 20 (Automatic from iPhone 11 Pro Max)
Righthand picture: Settings lost due to processing from another person’s phone.

Location: Fareham Creek Trail, Cams Hall (Google Maps)

Just off of one of my favourite running routes in Fareham is this fallen tree that not only provides a great walkway over the mud and sand but doubles up as a great photo opportunity when the sun is low at the end of the day. I find it a cool location that has plenty of scope to get creative with.

Unfortunately, these two were shot on an iPhone so didn’t have any control over the settings.

Camera settings: Exposure 5s, f/5.6, 18mm, ISO 12800

Location: Butser Hill (Google Maps)

To be able to take pictures of the stars, you need to get out of the city and away from the lights to allow the beauty of the night sky to really open up. Well, near Portsmouth you have the top of Butser Hill to offer you that, which is near Queen Elizabeth Country Park.

Right. Camera settings and I can already feel your wide eyes at the obscenely high ISO. OK, I can explain… It had been a while since I’d taken my last set of photographs of the stars and I’d forgotten what settings were needed. Instead of looking them up again, I set up the camera with the ISO recommendations on there and just used trial and error with aperture and shutter time to try and capture the picture I wanted. Now overall, the picture came out pretty decent in the end but I know that I can achieve a lot better and you can see how smoothed over some elements are to hide the high amount of noise!

Since then, I’ve somewhat got a set up rehearsed for when I’m shooting the stars, which is:

Exposure time: 10+ seconds
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO 400-2000 (depending on conditions and outcome of previous pictures)
Making sure I have a tripod!

Camera settings: Exposure 1/800s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 100

Location: West Wittering Beach (Google Maps)

To finish off this blog, I could not leave out this wonderful sunset shot that I capture at West Wittering Beach. Situated just over the county border in West Sussex, this is in my eyes one of the best beaches and as you can in the evenings, when accompanied by the beach huts, makes for an amazing location for you and your camera.

As commonly found with shooting straight into the sun, the camera settings were difficult to get. So I admit, a lot of credit goes to the post production work that was done to bring out the details of this picture when it comes to the foreground of the picture and the beach hut. Thank goodness I shoot in RAW!

I’ll talk through how I set it up anyway. The ISO was at the lowest rating due to me facing directly though this be where I was facing some issues when it came to fully capturing the beach hut. Aperture was at its highest to allow as much of the picture to be in focus even though my primary target was the lock on the door. Shutter speed was trying to compromise between the brightness of the sun, so I didn’t drown out the rest of the picture, and allowing even time for the light to come in from the beach hut’s surfaces. In the RAW picture, this is very much a silhouette but was tweaked to create this wonderful picture.

If there are any pictures in this blog that you liked the look of and would like to purchase it for your own personal use, be it a wall print or otherwise, then be sure to head over to my Alamy portfolio where you will be able to view them, along with . If what you’re looking for isn’t on there, then send me an email quiltycoversblog@gmail.com and I’ll be able to sort this out for you as not all photographs make it there.

Like the content of this photography blog? Then be sure to check out my other photography blogs, letting you know how I go about finding my photography locations and giving tips and tricks for other locations that I visit, providing inside thoughts on how to capture the shot you’ll want.

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