My first attempt at Long Exposure Photography

[ChrisH]

I had my first opportunity to use my new 10 stop ND Filter on Saturday. The result is an image of Marlow Weir, which has achieved the cotton wool effect of the flowing water, but due to lack of wind did not achieve the wispy clouds I was looking for. Back again as soon as the weather conditions are favourable.

Camera settings were: -

Exposure: f/4 Shutter Speed: 10 seconds ISO: 100

I think perhaps I should have used a higher exposure value to have slowed the shutter speed still further. Any tips from anyone?

Please view at larger size for full effect.

[Donald]

I think perhaps I should have used a higher exposure value to have slowed the shutter speed still further. Any tips from anyone?

I'd agree, Chris. About the only time I go to f16 and definitely f22 is with the NDs on, in order to maximise shutter time. So with this one for example, if you had gone to f16, you would have been looking at something like 2m 40sec. And that makes a huge difference when you want some movement in the clouds.

[ChrisH]

Thanks for your comments Donald. If the weather remains fine this evening I will go back and shoot it again.

[kalyt]

Hi Chris

The scene is lovely. All idyllic.
Im not big fan, of the way you exposed the highlights, they are a bit to bright for my taste. To avoid this I would have gone for a other aperture, around f11 - f13, and if necessary increased the shutter speed. For my taste the movement in the water is great.

[Donald]

Just another thougth, Chris.

It doesn't require a degree in Maths to work out exposure times, but to make life even easier I use a lovely little free app on my phone called 'ND Filter Timer.'

You set the correct exposure with no filter on. Then on the app you, in you case, would select the '10 stop' option under 'Filter' and then put in the shutter speed that you had without the filter. The app then tells you what your exposure time is with the filter on. Of course, you DO NOT change the aperture after you've put the filter on.

I find it works every time.

[ChrisH]

Thanks Donald.

I am using "Long Exposure Calculator" (an iPhone app), which I suspect is similar to the one you are using. Works very well too,

[Manfred M]

Chris - this is an aspect of photography that is very much driven by both your personal taste, the interpretation you are trying to provide and of course the local conditions when you are taking the pictures. Some people like showing the water as a textureless homogeneous mass while others hate any long exposures at all. I think that the best way to tackle this is by bracketing the exposure and then picking the one that works best for the scene when you get back to the computer to process the image. I personally prefer preserving some texture in the water as large homogeneous masses tend to result in a weaker composition as the water turns from something that naturally has movement into untextured negative space.

The second aspect of this type of shot is the long exposure impact on the sky as the clouds move. I find that I often like a longer exposure on the water than I do for a sky, so often end up blending two different images to get the effect I want. Again when one brackets, you get a lot of options to play with in post.

This image does not work particularly well for me because the sky is uninteresting and the water is too. It would be interesting to see this image with both less and more motion in the water, but suspect that you might have gotten a more compelling shot had the water shown more movement against the sky you had when you took your shot.

[ChrisH]

Hi Manfred

Thank you for your comments. I agree with you regarding personal taste, however my image was by way of an experiment and not a serious work of art.

The water flowing over the weir to a degree achieved what I was looking for, however the sky and main section of river below the weir did not. This was my first attempt at long exposure photography and I need to experiment further to find away of producing exactly what I am looking for. Your suggestion of exposure bracketing is well worth a try.

[Manfred M]

This was my first attempt at long exposure photography and I need to experiment further to find away of producing exactly what I am looking for. Your suggestion of exposure bracketing is well worth a try.

I'm not sure what PP software you use, but if you shoot at the same focal length and aperture setting and haven't bumped your tripod too much, blending together multiple images via Photoshop layers and layer masks can easily get you the best of all the shots. It's a very powerful, but fast technique.

You could, for instance use the sky from one and different ones showing different flows of the river and generate a composite that pulls all the best bits into a single image.

[NorthernFocus]

As already mentioned I'd recommend while you are set up you take several shots at different shutter speeds. It's basically impossible to visualize what the result is going to look like so best just shoot at various settings. Besides, it's fun to see the different results.