Last week's post around filters and long exposures was mainly about the filter hardware and a brief report on the meetup where I got to play around with good quality filters. This week I wanted to get a bit more into the thought process around creating long exposures, and what I was trying to achieve during the meetup.
So let’s start with the why of using long exposures. What am I trying to capture with the long exposure that is so different and appealing that makes me buy more expensive gear, carry around a heavy tripod and spend long periods of time in a single place and produce a tiny amount of photos?
The answer to that is twofold and at first glance contrasting. On one side I want to capture the passage of time, often at a scale the human eye can’t capture, and get an image with a strong sense of movement. On the other side I want to capture the lack of movement, the stillness of the world at a geological level.
Both are a manipulation of time in a medium that is usually associated with the capture of the instant, but has since its inception been capturing the passage of time through its subjects.
first try
25s @ f/22, ISO 200
The image above shows my first attempt at the long exposure on the meetup. I was trying ascertain above all the quality of image I could get with the equipment on hand. This image is good at showing that there is no real loss in image quality, colours don’t have a very strong cast and that can be easily corrected in Lightroom. No loss of detail on the static objects, and has an even exposure across the frame with no vignetting or light leaking in. But as a photograph, it has plenty of faults.
The way to show the passage of time in a single picture is the juxtaposition of immovable subjects with fast moving subjects. In this case the fast moving waves of the river, and slow moving clouds, against the stationary stones at the water’s edge and buildings.
For a greater effect you should give more emphasis to the juxtaposition by framing more tightly on the waters edge, or on the buildings and sky.
the ghost photographer
30s @ f/14, ISO 200
On this second image, taken about an hour after the previous, I was more at ease with technical aspects and was experimenting more with composition and subjects. I decided to create a ghost using a fellow photographer in the frame, to add to the movement of the Sky. Usually this ghost effect is not desirable, but I thought it would be playful to use it and also get more experience with side effects of long exposures.
So for me the meetup was a great success, with the hands on experience, just enough guidance to help us not to completely waste our time trying to figure out the gear. But a lot of liberty to wander around the location, with plenty of time to figure out the best use of the filter system and our own cameras to get the best out of the day. And the weather helped, which is not always the case in London.
I was so impressed that I have acquired the basic Lee Filters system for my own usage, but more on that on the third part of this series of posts later on this week.
-- Gear Fujifilm X-T1 Fujifilm XF10-24mmF4 R OIS MEFOTO Backpacker tripod Lee Filters : Big Stopper + 0.6 soft ND -- Post Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop. Photoshop: Clean up and sharpening. NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.