First stab at long exposure - started with a Waterfall

[Hawkeshead]

First time out trying long exposure photography, and focus stacking and an ND filter. Steep but fun learning curve. All images are from the same waterfall in Karura Forest, Nairobi. The river water is brown because of the red soil.

D850 24-70mm

ISO 64 4.0sec f/16 62mm focus stacked

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ISO 720 1/10 sec f16 56mm

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iSO 64 4.0 sec f/11 31mm

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ISO 64 2.0sec f/14 38mm

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ISO 64 4.0 sec F/7.1 24mm

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[Anjin San]

Very nice...waterfalls are my favorite subject. However...4 seconds is a bit long for me, I like a little more texture in the water. ive used 2 seconds some...but 4 might actually be just fine depending on flow rate. These are just a touch too smooth for me ...but still excellent shots.

 

[Hawkeshead]

Cheers Neil, first time so it was a complete finger in the air job. Thanks for the advice

 

[DRwyoming]

Good on ya for getting out there. FWIW, I like the vertical next to last shot the best.

Direct light patches are really difficult to deal with in water blur shots so FWIW I try to shoot these kinds of images either when they're entirely in the shade or on overcast days.

 

[Hawkeshead]

Thanks for the steer on lighting Dave, some other shots did get a wee bit blown out when the sun came out. Fun dabbling though. Will head back there and give it another shot either very early or late afternoon. Interesting learning curve juggling all three new techniques, long exposure, focus stacking and a variable ND filter.

 

[Tadzio]

Very nice captures

 

[Anjin San]

Cheers Neil, first time so it was a complete finger in the air job. Thanks for the advice

Still very nice shots though...I might buy myself an ND filter and play but usually low ISO and stopping down gets the shutter speed down to a second plus or minus and while I know f22 affects IQ some...it isn’t so much for digital viewed output.

 

[arshuter]

Nice shots, I'm a big fan of waterfalls.

 

[Hawkeshead]

Hi Neil,
I picked a reasonably priced variable filter to try out without busting the bank, as I do sunrise/sunset and beach pics m, which being just south of the equator has strong light and wanted to look at ways to manage the glare without banging up the ISO if I needed long exposure. Not sure if this is the correct procedure but something that seemed to work through trial and error -in manual mode, set the aperture, dial in iso using auto iso to iso64 which adjusts the shutter speed, then turn the variable ND till the shutter speed is sufficiently long (avoiding the dreaded vignetting diamonds if I have stopped down too far). Once done, turn off auto iso then take a shot or set focus stacking on. The posts above have made me realise that I needn’t have such long exposure which as you say, means it can be done without a filter ( I found speeds between 1/2 to 1.5secs could be done without the filter) as well as the option of closing down the aperture.

 

[Jim G]

Hi Neil,
I picked a reasonably priced variable filter to try out without busting the bank, as I do sunrise/sunset and beach pics m, which being just south of the equator has strong light and wanted to look at ways to manage the glare without banging up the ISO if I needed long exposure. Not sure if this is the correct procedure but something that seemed to work through trial and error -in manual mode, set the aperture, dial in iso using auto iso to iso64 which adjusts the shutter speed, then turn the variable ND till the shutter speed is sufficiently long (avoiding the dreaded vignetting diamonds if I have stopped down too far). Once done, turn off auto iso then take a shot or set focus stacking on. The posts above have made me realise that I needn’t have such long exposure which as you say, means it can be done without a filter ( I found speeds between 1/2 to 1.5secs could be done without the filter) as well as the option of closing down the aperture.

Hi. You can also try a polarizing filter by itself or in conjunction with a variable nd filter. Singh Ray also makes a combo of the two. The polarizing filter is very useful to cut glare on water.

JIM

 

[Hawkeshead]

Cheers Jim, appreciate the heads up. I did look at the The LEE 100 kits, which whilst having great write ups is a tad expensive especially if you go the polariser/little n big stoppers and ND grad routes . I have only started exploring landscapes and want to dip my toe in the water so to speak, so I am holding off going large on the outlay. Will take a peak at Singh Ray.

 

[Charlie Lasswell]

Nice shots, a stellar first attempt!

 

[R.Philip]

Good job for a first timer. They only get better with experience and experimentation.

 

[Yezdi]

Awesome captures....