Right technical help needed! I recontly bought and 9 stop ND filter so I can do some long daytime exposures. Had a play at the local canal gate the other day and yesterday at a local waterfall.
Had some wonderful help from ALexis (@abirkill ) on using them. Did a test to see if it is true 9 stop which to my releif it is as I got it off ebay. Also there is no colour distortion which again is great. So pleased with it for the price. To take the shots I took a shot without the filter one and used an App to work out the exposure time with it on. All worked out fine. However I realised that if I increase the appature upwards (from f8 to f11 etc) that increased the exposure time. Lightbulb came on and realised I can get the same shot but exposure anywere inbetween 15second to 4 minutes etc.
Anyway to my questions. I was shooting at the waterfall. Had the place to myself so could do some experimenting. However I took some shots at 15, 30 and 45 second exposures. All turned out good and got the blurred water effect I was after. However I though what exposure settings are other people using? These exposures seems fairly short too me but never got round to doing any 1, 2 or 4 minuit exposures. Would love your opinions on the exposure durations that work for you on waterfall, fast moving rivers etc. Aim I at the right duration (15 to 45 seconds) or do I need to push it up to around 4 minuits?
I was at the local creek today too.
Took some shots without my ND filter (wasn't enough full light) or was there - did I not push my exposure time high enough.
I did achieve the soft water effect (with a 4 second exposure) but could I have done better ?
I am interested in reading what others have to say. http://365project.org/sewsharyn/bits-and-pieces
Using a "big stopper" ND filter allows you the luxury of slowing down your shutter speed even in mid day sun (great for creating empty streets etc) however if you want blurred people you may find it slows down too much. For flowing water then it really comes down to how much of a soft effect you want in your water.....shorter 15-60sec exposures give you soft water, longer and you can run into getting a fog effect, particularly if you are taking photos of the surf.
In my opinion, I find that the longer exposures of 2-3 minutes really do not have much more of an effect on the rushing water. I use a 10 stop ND filter.
The first shot is with a 10 second exposure and the second shot is a 2 minute exposure.
I find that often a shorter time will have a more pronounced effect, particularly with waves and ocean colours. Sometimes I will use 1/2sec to 4 secs. Maybe 15 secs at max. Long exposures up particularly around a minute will just flatten out everything too much.
Let me start with a tip for calculating the exposure. You have a 9-stop filter, so simply take the exposure time without the filter and multiply it by 512. That will give you the proper exposure for your settings with the filter added. So 1/60th becomes 8.5 seconds (round either way based on taste.)
As to duration, I've tried to keep mine in the 15-45 second range. Longer than that produces a grey "ice like" effect on water that I don't find pleasing. Also, the longer you shoot, the more noise and color shift you're going to introduce. A filter that shows no apparent shift at 15 seconds will almost certainly show a dramatic shift at a one minute exposure.
Of course, there's no right answer to "how long". It all comes down to what effect you like the best. Feel free to experiment and come up with your own unique style!
@kannafoot interesting info! Thanks! I was all just trial and error'ing - like I do with everything photography related. But that's the fun part for me:)
try rushing water at about 1/4 of a second, then step up 6 or 7 times. bracketing is your friend, especially if you're a Canon shooter (Nikon hobbles all but their top end cameras to 3 brackets max, which messes up multi shot HDRs).
use that exercise not just to get a feeling for your camera/lens/subject combination, but then have some fun and do some HDR with the batch, see what comes out.
I just got an iPhone app called LongTime that helps with these calculations. I have a low end variable NDX that isn't marked, so it's not too helpful, but I'm hoping to get some serious ND filters for my new 16-35mm ultrawide zoom to try out the kind photography that you're exploring.
good luck, look forward to seeing your results. (+follow).
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Took some shots without my ND filter (wasn't enough full light) or was there - did I not push my exposure time high enough.
I did achieve the soft water effect (with a 4 second exposure) but could I have done better ?
I am interested in reading what others have to say.
http://365project.org/sewsharyn/bits-and-pieces
The first shot is with a 10 second exposure and the second shot is a 2 minute exposure.
As to duration, I've tried to keep mine in the 15-45 second range. Longer than that produces a grey "ice like" effect on water that I don't find pleasing. Also, the longer you shoot, the more noise and color shift you're going to introduce. A filter that shows no apparent shift at 15 seconds will almost certainly show a dramatic shift at a one minute exposure.
Of course, there's no right answer to "how long". It all comes down to what effect you like the best. Feel free to experiment and come up with your own unique style!
use that exercise not just to get a feeling for your camera/lens/subject combination, but then have some fun and do some HDR with the batch, see what comes out.
I just got an iPhone app called LongTime that helps with these calculations. I have a low end variable NDX that isn't marked, so it's not too helpful, but I'm hoping to get some serious ND filters for my new 16-35mm ultrawide zoom to try out the kind photography that you're exploring.
good luck, look forward to seeing your results. (+follow).