A friend and I went out to shoot some photos tonight and ended up at English Bay. This is from the beach opposite Park Lane, looking out across the bay towards the lights of Kitsilano and West Point Grey. The trail from the lights of an aircraft departing Vancouver International Airport can be seen in the sky.
4 minute exposure at ISO 400, f/11 used to keep the depth of field high enough for the distant lights and nearby rocks. No ND filters used, it was very much dark when this photo was taken.
The rocks were extremely mossy and slippery, so getting myself and the camera to this location in the dark was a slightly interesting!
Thanks for the absolutely astonishing response to my previous photo -- in just 48 hours it's received more faves and comments than any other photo I've put up here. I don't usually respond to comments unless they are asking a question, but they are all read and very much appreciated!
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
If you're interested in any...
Another stunning photo, Alexis! By the way, I really appreciate you answering my questions. So far Arizona has been a bust as far as shooting the Milky Way goes, but I have high hopes for tomorrow night in Saguaro National Forest in Tucson.
The overwhelming response to your last shot just shows the system works. This also is impressive. Great job controlling the light & the colours are awesome.
Wonderful job with the exposure keeping the clarity throughout the depth of the image. The lighting is perfect on both the rocks and the distant light. Love your results!
A beautiful picture. I've never tried such ultra-long exposures, because I'm worried about camera shake, but you've inspired me to try a few to see how it might turn out.
@jonesp No, the rocks were lit by the street and city lights behind me (downtown Vancouver is behind me and to the left).
I took multiple exposures with the expectation of having to blend multiple shots or perform HDR to get sufficient detail in the rocks, however, in the end I was able to extract the detail I wanted from a single RAW file.
Thanks Alexis. Excellent result. I'm still getting to grips with my D800/Lee Big Stopper/Long Exposures in general. Behaves a lot differently to the D300 and I'm still underexposing far too much.
@jonesp You can recover an awful lot of shadow detail with the D800 RAW files.
Make sure you calculate how much light your Lee filter actually blocks -- they, like all extremely strong ND filters, can vary in the manufacturing process. If your filter is actually blocking 11 stops rather than the claimed 10 stops, you'll always be underexposing by a stop if you calculate your new exposure based on 10 stops of light loss.
It's very easy to check -- on a sunny day, take a shot without the filter. Then take the same shot, adjusting the exposure, with the filter fitted until the histogram looks exactly the same (not shifted left or right compared to the unfiltered photo). You can then calculate exactly how many stops of light your filter is actually blocking.
I had a 10 stop filter that actually blocked 12.3 stops of light -- I went through a lot of underexposed shots until I figured that out!
Yeah, thats on the list. I really should get to it sooner rather than later. The D800 can recover a lot so that goes to show you how much I was underexposing.
I'm thinking its a lot closer to 11 stops to be honest but a test as you say, will tell me for sure. I just got lazy with my old setup and came to know exactly what was needed to get the right result. This new (serious) gear really needs to be treated properly to get the best out of it.
I may well do that tomorrow. Will also give me a chance to break in the new Manfrotto tripod. This thing is a beast compared to my old one and should really help with the stability related softness I was having before. I could get away with so much on the D300. The D800 really shows all the flaws.
Thanks for the advice Alexis. If you see some properly exposed long exposures from me in the near future, you will know I did as you suggested :-)
this is amazing that this is a single exposure, I can't quite wrap my head around how you got enough exposure on the rocks to pull out this much detail without the city lights being blown out. Fav for me, your work is something to aspire to.
I am amazed at the ratio of views you get verses the number of Fav's and comments! something is wrong with those viewers !;) now this is my favorite kind of landscape shot! I love the foreground being in such great focus and the mid and background also in focus! I would buy this in a minute! Surely you do this for profit also? Maybe all the viewers are jealous of your talent? I am but am willing to admit it!:) great work! And I say that because I know this is real "work" from start to finish! :)
@ellimae I do get a lot of people who follow me without ever making a comment on any of my photos. I guess they must view and like my work otherwise they wouldn't follow me (or would unfollow me), which is the main thing. I'm hardly in a position to complain anyway -- I follow a pathetically small number of people and am always behind commenting on their photos! I can hardly be surprised that other people don't comment on my work if I don't comment on theirs! And it makes me appreciate those who take the time to comment and/or fav my work even more!
I sell some of my photos via Getty Images but I don't sell many images directly -- this is something I'm hoping to rectify as I build my portfolio. There are a lot of galleries in Vancouver, but there are also a lot of incredibly talented photographers -- the bar is *very* high!
@abirkill well I surely did not mean to offend anyone, I was just trying to compliment you! Now I can see why they all follow you! And having that meny followers isn't all it's cracked up to be! It's work to , trying to keep up with them all ! That is probably why I have missed most of yours! Anyway I know you have work to do! Thank you for wonderful views:)
January 23rd, 2013
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I took multiple exposures with the expectation of having to blend multiple shots or perform HDR to get sufficient detail in the rocks, however, in the end I was able to extract the detail I wanted from a single RAW file.
Make sure you calculate how much light your Lee filter actually blocks -- they, like all extremely strong ND filters, can vary in the manufacturing process. If your filter is actually blocking 11 stops rather than the claimed 10 stops, you'll always be underexposing by a stop if you calculate your new exposure based on 10 stops of light loss.
It's very easy to check -- on a sunny day, take a shot without the filter. Then take the same shot, adjusting the exposure, with the filter fitted until the histogram looks exactly the same (not shifted left or right compared to the unfiltered photo). You can then calculate exactly how many stops of light your filter is actually blocking.
I had a 10 stop filter that actually blocked 12.3 stops of light -- I went through a lot of underexposed shots until I figured that out!
I'm thinking its a lot closer to 11 stops to be honest but a test as you say, will tell me for sure. I just got lazy with my old setup and came to know exactly what was needed to get the right result. This new (serious) gear really needs to be treated properly to get the best out of it.
I may well do that tomorrow. Will also give me a chance to break in the new Manfrotto tripod. This thing is a beast compared to my old one and should really help with the stability related softness I was having before. I could get away with so much on the D300. The D800 really shows all the flaws.
Thanks for the advice Alexis. If you see some properly exposed long exposures from me in the near future, you will know I did as you suggested :-)
I sell some of my photos via Getty Images but I don't sell many images directly -- this is something I'm hoping to rectify as I build my portfolio. There are a lot of galleries in Vancouver, but there are also a lot of incredibly talented photographers -- the bar is *very* high!