Rocky beach headland

[PhotoByTrace]

So this morning I travelled north to a new location that I found one day while out exploring on my bike.
Will certainly make the trip again as it has a lot to offer. Comments, suggestions, feedback always welcomed

f/14 1.3secs ISO 100 32mm 2 stop soft GND


f/11 2secs ISO 100 16mm 2 stop soft GND + 4 stop ND


f/14 2.5secs ISO 100 32mm 2 stop soft GND

[Stagecoach]

Impressive Trace. Great use of the foreground in each and equal interest in all areas of the scenes !

Grahame

[FrankMi]

You are getting really good at this Trace! I love the dramatic sea with an equally dramatic sky.

[Brownbear]

Gorgeous! I prefer the first two for the beautiful colour but all are stunning.

[mknittle]

I can't pick a favorite Trace. They are all so good.

[NorthernFocus]

These are awesome, Trace. You're really killing these seascapes.

[Mike Buckley]

Beautiful! The foreground interest in the first one really is spellbinding.

[Andrew1]

Number one is much better than its monotoned version.

[IzzieK]

I love them all, Trace....

[Downrigger]

Beautiful set. It strikes me as interesting that the monochrome is somehow so convincingly a moonlit shot(!?)

[Nancy Moran G]

More photos that have me chomping at the bit to buy some of these filters! But I know expertise has alot to do with it too.
Beautiful, glad I don't have to pick a favorite!
Nncy

[Shadowman]

Very nice, I was going to ask if you used a filter but then saw it in your very thoughtful inclusion of camera settings.

[John 2]

1,2 then 3 in that order for me Trace. Very nice images.

[deetheturk]

Stunning Trace,thanks for sharing!

[kdoc856]

These are all fantastic. Almost missed them, glad I didn't.

[PhotoByTrace]

Wow guys, thanks for all the positives. I had other chores to be done yesterday, so this is the first opportunity I've had to come back in.

It strikes me as interesting that the monochrome is somehow so convincingly a moonlit shot(!?)

It's funny you say that as that is how I felt about it as I was processing it, and found it somewhat confusing. I think it is because I chose to use one of the selenium toners in Silver Effex as part of its processing.

Number one is much better than its monotoned version.

Hi Andrew, I feel the same way, but for me it is simply that I love the colours of nature; just as Christina said.
I've been trying hard though to "see" in b&w as part of trying to extend/improve my photos, and as I was taking that image I had *thought* it might make a dramatic b&w. But I then found myself struggling more in processing it in monochrome than I did in colour; I think because the picture I'm aspiring towards in my mind isn't as clear.
So I'd be very interested in why you prefer the first image, which is a very similar composition, over the mono... it would help me in my quest to visualise better in B&W.

[benm]

Very nice photos. Somewhat reminiscent of J.M.W. Turner's paintings.

[PhotoByTrace]

More photos that have me chomping at the bit to buy some of these filters! But I know expertise has alot to do with it too.
Beautiful, glad I don't have to pick a favorite!
Nncy

Hi Nancy, I love playing with filters, especially the NDs. I really enjoy the way they can help me transform a scene by altering the shutter speed either a little or a lot. And really I learned about it, simply by getting them and playing with them. Over time I started to learn approximately what shutter speeds give which effects, whether it be water, sky or people/animal motion.

In my opinion, if you decide to get an ND filter though, I'd recommend starting with a 3-stop (.9) or darker. The reason I say this is that we often have the ability of changing shutter speed through our aperture choice, and up to 2 full stops reduction in aperture is often reasonable to achieve in camera. Yes, that also influences our depth of field, but much of the time in landscapes we are trying to have sharpness from close foreground through to infinity, so it is only diffusion that might be our enemy by closing the aperture further rather than putting a 1 or 2 stop filter in front of the lens.

I bring up this point, as often NDs are sold in sets of 1, 2 & 3 stops but I don't feel they are great value. I thought I might stack them to get the higher stop effects, but have found I get unreliable colour results from stacking (no longer neutral). And have had that experience across three different brands (Tiffen, B&W and Hitech). My 4-stop is probably my most used ND, followed by the 10-stop. I have used my 2-stop in nature photography where I've been trying to capture slight motion with a shallow depth of field (flowers in the breeze for example), but that's about it.

Oh, and I also love my GNDs. There is almost always one on the front of my camera if I'm shooting a landscape. I know that bracketing and blending can often easily achieve the same result, so it depends on what you are comfortable with in processing. I tend to use a filter first and only use bracketing and blending when the shape of the landscape makes it difficult to hold back the sky sufficiently with a GND. But many others are very comfortable with bracketing and blending and that is simply part of their processing workflow. In which case a GND is superfluous.

Just thought I'd share my experiences here in case it helps you in your decision-making at all.