Predawn rain.

[tbob]

I don't practice this type of shooting, but the thought occurs that if it is 'very' windy, might not hanging a free-to-swing bag on the tripod be counter-productive to a still shot; the action of the wind on the bag actually adding (very low frequency) vibration?

Back to the photos;

In #1 I find the barn is a little too central, but I appreciate this was at the beginning of the experiment.

In #2, which is my favourite, I see a small, slightly brighter, halo on the roof line which looks unnatural. I agree that a little more structure in the boards might be a good thing, but I think the brightness of them is OK now, if you also raised their level, I feel that wouldn't suit the apparent weather conditions.

Hope those thoughts are helpful, Dave

I have never tried the bag as weight thing, but my gut feeling is that I agree with you. The tripod is set so two legs are downwind and I push down with my arms. As is evidenced by the first image, the set up is rock solid. In less gusty winds I don't touch the tripod.

I know what you mean about the barn position. The central position of the barn works for me, given the strong lines in the image, and was planned that way. The barn is at the apex of the triangle, anchored on a stable base, with the diagonals in the clouds suggesting movement. But of course given my artistic abilities that may not be the way it works.

[xpatUSA]

Ted also mentioned a IR filter but that is an area I have no feeling for; so far beyond my ken as to be an alien concept to my brain, not that it may not be brilliant! But a longer exposure I can conceptualize.

Well, it might help to think of any kind of filter that one might put on the lens. Start with the simple haze filter which blocks UV and maybe some blue (never use them myself). It works by blocking a band of wavelengths from reaching the camera sensor, as we all know. Although the amount of light reaching the sensor is thereby reduced a bit, the necessary exposure setting remains about the same.

Now suppose you put an orange filter on (one that passes orange but blocks blues and greens) which I understand is done to increase contrast in black&white shots. By blocking those lower wavelengths, the amount of light reaching the lens is significantly reduced, so the exposure setting must be increased. Furthermore, putting a red filter on causes even more exposure to be required.

Now, your camera has a filter inside on the sensor that blocks IR wavelengths to a great extent. But no filter is perfect so a little bit of IR does reach the sensor. If now you put a filter on the lens that only passes IR and indeed blocks most of the visible light, you can still shoot a scene but with incredibly long exposure times needed because so little light is now reaching the sensor, eh?

Often, scenes shot in that way have quite a high contrast with black skies and white foliage. I imagine that barn would turn out pretty good on a partly cloudy day in mid-morning or mid-afternoon with some sun on the barn roof and walls . .

[bnnrcn]

Both lovely Trevor I would add some structure to #2 though.

[Rebel]

Very nice Trevor, love the colours in #1!