Long Exposure Photography in a Gale !!!
If you’re a fan of Long Exposure Photography at the seaside, with a clear stable subject (pier, or some other sticky-up-thing) with blurred clouds and flattened smooth seas, then we’re soul-mates
Typically, Long Exposure Photography (if not at night or in very low light) requires a high f-stop such as f11 or f16 (diffraction & lens quality being issues above that), the lowest ISO you have (so 100, possibly 50 on some cameras) and to get down to anything below 1-second you still need a Neutral Density (ND) filter
An ND filter is really just like sunglasses for your camera in that it reduces the light entering through the lens and hitting the sensor - but not in a cool way, like Aviators do ;)
NDs come in various strengths, or darkness, so they can add as little as 1 stop by halving the amount of light hitting the sensor, but most people seem to like to have a 3, 6 and 10 stop one
You only need a 10-stopper
I feel like this statement, which applies to most Long Exposure Photography, should come as a SPOILER ALERT lol
Why do I say that though?
Quite simply as when you’ve fitted your 10-stopper if you feel you need less, such as 8-stops, even 6-stops, simply increasing the ISO will give you the change in exposure sufficient to replicate those other NDs with no discernible degradation in image quality these days; so buying a range of NDs less than 10-stops is really just a waste of money! As a true Yorkshireman, I HATE that :D
So now you know, let’s assume you’re all set for a Long Exposure Photography session as you have…
your tripod
chosen lens (often a wide-angle zoom, but I’ll come back ot this one on future posts)
your 10-stopper
your FREE app to tell you how to adjust your shutter speed (assuming you don’t just count shutter clicks!)
and your chosen subject and the sea is at an optimal height
ALL SET :)
And yet, as when I shot these this week, the wind is gusting 35+mph and despite standing downwind to ‘shield’ your camera you can still see it visibly shaking in the wind !!!
What can you do now ???
Simulated Long Exposure (SLE) Photography is the answer
So what is Simulated Long Exposure Photography I hear you ask - well, put simply, its a post production process that combines multiple images to blend them together to give the look of a single Long Exposure Photography image. For this I use Photoshop, but I’m sure its possible in other editing programs too
So these few below are all Simulated Long Exposure Photographs where there’s an added-bonus…
Simulated Long Exposure Photography ‘releases’ you from having to use high f-stops. This means you have far more control over the Depth of Field in your photos
We normally use such as f11 or f16 because we HAVE to to make the shutter speed long enough, but in shooting Simulated Long Exposure Photography we can choose ANY aperture we like, including wide open!
So all these photos were…
shot on a 24-70mm lens on a Nikon Z6ii (full-frame/FX)
without an ND of any kind, including Graduated ND filters (which are totally pointless 99% of the time!)
at f2.8
yes I said that - f2.8 - so wide-open making only the main subject, the sticky-up thing, truly sharply in focus
and at shutter speeds of 1/4,000th second or faster!
but I did need 60 of them, taken 1-second apart, to give me a 1-minute equivalent looking exposure
So here’s the Simulated Long Exposure Photography photos…
As you can see I shot only 1 sticky-up thing, and from only 2 different compositions; this is as the sea was coming in pretty fast, and its a good job I had wellies on. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND shooting images like this on an out-going tide as its safer that way, but is wasn’t an option on this day
Each of the above images is a blend of 60 photos aligned & stacked automatically in Photoshop as a Smart Object, then blended using the Mean option
Due to the amount of shaking of the camera quite a bit of border had to be cropped out from the alignment
This was really just a recce though, as I intend to shoot more around this area when the tide (and weather) is more conducive for a sunset shoot too
Its also one of the places I’m looking into using for a forthcoming Long Exposure Photography Workshop as a seascape one, where we’ll also discuss the benefits of Simulated Long Exposure Photography for those that wish to be a bit more creative and have a means of stacking & blending exposures
Would you like to join me on a…
Long Exposure Photography Workshop ???
If so, you know what to do :)
Drop me an email here dave@scapesphotography.co.uk
Give me a call on 07830 085 112
Or use my Contact Form to tell me about where you think you are now and what you’re like to be better at, and we’ll get you Booked In soonest
Long Exposure Photography in its main three forms of Land - Sea - City is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on! Maybe more ???
The better you become at Photography, the sooner you can move away from the technical side of things and the more you will…
ENJOY YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY