Tag Archives: long exposure

Silky waves, sometimes

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I have been promising a post about shutter speeds and sea photography for a while. It seems I am going to do two; this is the first. Long exposure photography, achieved with ND (neutral density) filters, has become ever more popular in recent years. I enjoy it too. Adjusting the length of the exposure, even during the brightest time of day, is one way to expand the creativity of my image making. Over time, I have found that I have begun instinctively to know roughly what shutter speeds are going to achieve the effect I am after. The following pictures were all taken within an hour of each other earlier this month, at one location, Climping beach on the West Sussex coast.

Sussex coast

20″, f/16, ISO 100, 200mm, Big Stopper

The ‘Big stopper’ is a 10-stop ND filter. That is, it reduces the light getting to the sensor by 10 stops, so an exposure of 1/250th of a second becomes four seconds. The first two images here were taken using a Big Stopper. Note how in the top image, at 20″, breaking waves have become an ethereal mist, really not like water at all. Reduce the time by a half and there is more of a hint of wateriness, but not much.

sussex surf

10″, f/22, ISO 50, 140mm

At four seconds (below), some of the movement of the waves is beginning to appear.

sussex surf

4″, f/22, ISO 50, 200mm

This increases as the exposure time gets shorter.

sussex surf

1.6″, f/7.1, ISO 100, 120mm

And then (below) we begin to reach my favourite zone for capturing breaking waves, something between half a second to 1/5 usually seems to suit me – I like to capture some sense of the form and energy of the waves, but without ‘freezing’ them.

sussex surf

0.5″, f/11, ISO 100, 200mm

My favourite picture from the morning is this one, at 0.3″. I am fascinated by the way the water splashes, scattering into different directions, and this shutter speed seems to be good at capturing that with an almost painterly effect.

sussex surf

0.3″, f/11, ISO 100, 135mm

The exact shutter speed will vary with the force of the surf. My second post on this topic will be from a very different set of conditions experienced at the coast in Norfolk last week.

Finally, not every shot of the sea has to be a long exposure! Sometimes you just have to go faster. Turning round from my chosen breakwater, I saw these gulls playing chicken with the waves:

gulls and sea

1/800, f/10, ISO 200, 200mm

gulls and sea

1/1000, f/10, ISO 200, 200mm

* * * * *

A backlog of 365s: 365/59 is from 2010, taken at RHS Wisley.

leaf macro

365/59

365/58 is from 2009, when I was at my daughter’s school gathering images for their new prospectus. This one was a bit of fun, experimenting with shutter speed during a PE lesson.

gym lesson

365/58

365/57 is from 2014, taken in my garden as I started to flex my macro muscles for the forthcoming bug season. It always takes a while each year to get my macro ‘eye in’ after the winter when I tend to concentrate on the landscape.

midge macro

365/57

There may be a hiatus for a few days as I am off on an adventure. More anon.

Jade Pool

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Cornwall

f/11, ISO 50, 133secs, 16mm. 0.6 ND hard grad, Big Stopper, and circ. polariser.

We spent the Easter weekend in Newquay, on Cornwall’s wild Atlantic coast.  While the others surfed, I explored the rocks on Fistral Beach. Although the day we had set aside for exploring further afield was rained off, I had two lovely afternoons with my camera and long exposure filters.  Fun.

Seven Dials

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London

ISO50, f/11, 16mm, 6×60 sec exposures


I was out photographing the floods again today but I thought I’d ring the changes here with a shot from last Friday. Traffic light trails around Seven Dials in Covent Garden, London.

PS For those who were curious after my post yesterday, I told her it would be better if she learned to take pictures with the camera she had, showed her the HDR button on her iPhone and invited her to join my camera club!

Hampton, floods and a big stopper

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Molesey Riverside

ISO 50, 16mm, f/11, 215secs


I found an hour this afternoon to take some pictures of the now-thankfully-receding floodwater at Hampton using my 10-stop ND filter. I expect the novelty of the ‘big stopper’ will wear off eventually but, for now, what fun! As for the floods, the Thames is definitely considerably lower today, but we had heavy rain again this evening…
Hampton Court

ISO 50, 16mm, f/11, 246 secs


I was amused when a young woman came up behind me and asked if she could take a picture with her iPhone ‘through’ my camera. What would you have said?

An adventure in Dorset, with filters

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Dorset

f11, 30 secs, ISO 100, 24mm, cropped
Lee circ. polariser and Big stopper

Yesterday I had a bit of an adventure.  I attended a one day, Lee filters workshop in Portland, Dorset led by Jeremy Walker.  I have been thinking about investing in some filters for a while, particularly to try my hand at some long exposure photography, but also to balance my exposures in camera, so I can spend more time out taking photos and less time in front of my computer. When I came across Jeremy’s course online, it seemed the perfect way to learn how to use the filters, and to try before I buy.

long exposure

f/11, 2 minutes, ISO 800, 28mm
Lee 0.9 pro-glass, big stopper

After an early start and a two and a half hour drive, I found myself tucking into some much needed coffee and meeting Jeremy, Ed (the Managing Director of Lee filters) and Luciana, my fellow student.  We were provided with a set of filters for the day and were soon heading off to capture the waves and pebbles on the shore of Portland, Dorset.  The weather was inauspicious but, as we quickly learned, with filters you can make a photograph out of the most unpromising conditions.

long exposure

f/11, 2.5 secs, ISO 100, Lee circ. polariser, 0.9 pro glass

I am mostly a solitary shooter, finding it difficult to concentrate when in company. Add to that learning how to use the Lee filter system, and it is perhaps hardly surprising I did not take nearly as many exposures as I would normally when at the coast.  But Jeremy and Ed are good company and they were very patient with my rather fumbling, disorganised approach.  I also appreciated all the chocolate!

coastal long exposure

f11, 45 secs, ISO 400, 28mm, Lee 0.6 ND grad, circ. polariser, 0.9 pro glass

There is something very satisfying about using filters.  I think part of the pleasure is that you’re forced to slow down.  It takes time to select the right filter(s), set them up and position them (although I expect one becomes much quicker with practice!).  I liked taking it slowly, just enjoying the process and the experience.  Of course, I also learned a lot and not just how to use the filters.  For example, I can now adjust the kelvin value in camera, which was rather fun.  I chose to emphasize the blue tint in the light.  Well, I like blue!

dorset

f/11, 8 secs, ISO 200, 24mm. Lee 0.6 ND grad, 0.9 pro glass

Of course, back at home, I had to convert some images to black and white.

black and white black and white

Now I just have to buy some filters and start putting every thing I learned into practice.  I leave you with what is possibly my favourite shot from the day. Of course, it’s a blue hour shot, and that’s my favourite time of day, as I have said often enough here.  It also breaks rules (look at that horizon in the middle and all that emptyish space) but, as you know by now,  I like breaking the rules.  We may not have had a sunset, but we made the most of what the weather dished up.

Dorset

f/11, 30 secs, ISO 200, 24 mm. Lee 0.6 ND grad, 0.9 pro glass

If you are interested in learning about using filters, I heartily recommend Jeremy’s workshops. And no-one is paying me anything to say so!

City of London

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cityscape

View from City Point, Moorgate.

Despite the portability of the Sony NEX-7 I rented over the holidays, it was good to get back to my trusty Canon.  Everything is so much more intuitive, at least to this long term Canon shooter.  This is a blend of eleven 30 sec exposures taken at dusk on Saturday.  Back to NEX images tomorrow.