Long Exposures

[RussHeath]

I've been trying to shoot more long exposure landscapes recently . . .

These are the Coal Docks on Dry Tortuga in Florida (taken with ND400 filter):



Smathers Beach, about 30 minutes after sunset:




Any feedback is always appreciated! I'm really enjoying playing with the ND400 filter. It lets me think about doing these kind of exposures in bright sunlight (like the 1st photo). All sorts of possibilities!

[OsmosisStudios]

What's the EXIF on these?

[RussHeath]

First (B&W): 30 seconds, f/16, 16mm, ISO 100



Second : 103 seconds, f/16, 11mm, ISO 100



All the other details are available from the flickr pages.

[Digidave]

Love that blue hue on the second one! Very cool.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by RussHeath

First (B&W): 30 seconds, f/16, 16mm, ISO 100

Second : 103 seconds, f/16, 11mm, ISO 100

Maybe it's just me, but at those times the effect is just too little. Your water must have been very calm for 103 seconds to yield such a flat surface. For best results, more turbulences are needed.

Im planning on getting my hands on an ND1000, stacking it with my ND8 and Circ Pol and seeing how long I can go!

[AnnaV]

Love these! I ahve been playing around with slow shutter speeds and haven't come with anything as good as these. Well done.

[RussHeath]

Dave --Thanks! It was close to that color, I just cooled it off a tad when converting from RAW.

Anna -- Thank you, it's certainly a fun thing to play with.

Osmosis -- I like your plan, but expect just a tad of vignetting if you really do stack three filters . . .

[OsmosisStudios]

Shoot longer focal lengths

Or use a lens with a very small filter ring and step-up ring for the filters (as I do with my 50mm and 67mm filters)

[Japaslavian]

Originally Posted by RussHeath

Any feedback is always appreciated! I'm really enjoying playing with the ND400 filter. It lets me think about doing these kind of exposures in bright sunlight (like the 1st photo). All sorts of possibilities!

I've been using an ND400 for a couple years now, and it does a good job in the early morning/late afternoon, but in the daytime it really isn't enough on its own I've found. Mostly because 30 seconds is really the minimum for the silky smooth effect, and having such wide-angle lens (10-22mm), shooting at f22 results in less than spectacular quality in terms of sharpness.

For instance:

30 seconds at f22 with ND400

Not as sharp as I would have liked, and the effect isn't really complete.

I know a few guys who stack an ND400 with an ND8 and a polarizer to cut the reflected light and get can a nice shot at f8 in the 2 minute range. Like this:
http://londonxpress.deviantart.com/art/Outpost-39675461


I just picked up a B&W ND 3.0 (10 stop reduction) to stack with the ND400, mostly so I can get back into the f8-f11 arena and still shoot in the 90-120 second range in daylight.
We'll see what happens.



Oh, and lovely shots!

[private]

I LOVE The second photo - Most people love the golden hour, but I truely prefer the Blue hour...I LOVE it! Print that on Metallic paper