Despite a forecast of constant rain in Vancouver, the sun decided to make a brief appearance late this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to head out for another 'blue hour' shot.
This time, I headed over to a pier in North Vancouver, imaginatively named 'The Pier'. This gives a different, but more distant, view of the Vancouver skyline than can be seen from Stanley Park.
I had intended to take some 300mm shots from here, but the inadequacies of my tripod thwarted this plan, as the light breeze was just too much for that focal length, even with the tripod weighed down with my camera bag. I therefore decided to take advantage of the clouds and the wind and try a long exposure photo to capture the motion in the sky, as well as to smooth out the water.
I used my 10-stop claimed (12.3 stop measured) ND filter for this shot, and after calculating the required exposure in constant light and fudging on some extra time to counter the decreasing light levels, came up with a 20 minute exposure at ISO 400.
The result is probably a little underexposed compared to what I would have liked, but makes for quite a nice 'low-key' skyline photo. Of course, 20 minutes at ISO 400 resulted in rather a large amount of noise in the photo...!
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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great one, Alexis. you have a magnificent city skyline to work with, congrats on the math working out. (how many exposures did you take for this one? you don't get many at those esposure lengths, do ya? ;)
@cameronknowlton Definitely just one exposure! Certainly with a crop-sensor camera like mine, any exposure of more than a couple of minutes needs dark frame noise cancellation performed to be really usable.
This exposure started shortly after sunset, I closed the shutter towards the end of the 'blue hour', and by the time the dark frame had been subtracted and the camera was usable again (which was, of course, another 20 minutes) it was pitch black!
Another fantastic shot, FAV! Thanks for sharing you setting info. AND for keeping me inspired, that maybe one day i'll get stunning shots just like you. :)"
This exposure started shortly after sunset, I closed the shutter towards the end of the 'blue hour', and by the time the dark frame had been subtracted and the camera was usable again (which was, of course, another 20 minutes) it was pitch black!