Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: MattyD on November 11, 2013, 06:59:46 am

Title: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: MattyD on November 11, 2013, 06:59:46 am
Taken in Norfolk UK - Quite a nice evening, but light not as good as I would have hoped for. Will definitely go back and shot again though.

Total exposure time about 3 minutes (its in fact 6x30 second exposures blended together for the sky)

Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on November 11, 2013, 07:56:29 am
Nice one!
Should work very well as B/W conversion too.
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: ned.ward on November 11, 2013, 08:42:07 am
Matty,
Smooth and sharp if that make sense, the long exposure look. Great colours and composition. I like boats, seascapes etc. Good work.
Cheers
Ned

Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: wolfnowl on November 12, 2013, 01:33:29 am
Going to be a while waiting for the tide to come in for that one.  Nicely done!

Mike.
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on November 12, 2013, 07:15:47 pm
Beautiful shot, beautifully processed.

Can you elaborate a bit on the workflow for "6x30 second exposures blended together for the sky"?
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: MattyD on November 13, 2013, 12:02:05 pm
Cheers all!

Beautiful shot, beautifully processed.

Can you elaborate a bit on the workflow for "6x30 second exposures blended together for the sky"?

Cheers...and sure :)

Long story short - I have a 10 stop nd filter which I hate using (colours are off, contrast is off), so I started thinking about another option, and I came up with the idea of taking lots of shots over a period of time and then blending/stacking them together in PS.

I used a 0.9nd filter and took 6x30 second shots.

Once I get home I load them into PS as layers and then you can change the transparency of each layer to fully smooth out the images.

What you're left with is an image that is in effect a 3 minute exposure with superior colour and sharpness (compared to using a big stopper.

The only downside is you have to take multiple images where you might normally take one... But of course with multiple images I can shorten the exposure time (by removing images).


Anyway...as it happens I'm not the 1st to think of this, and just yesterday I read this...I'm sure this explains the process better than I have!


http://www.verdantvista.com/gallery.php?doc=tut9

http://www.verdantvista.com/blog.php?article8

Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: Chris Calohan on November 13, 2013, 02:35:25 pm
This is a really slick technique and I am off to the beach in a few to make some exposures.
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: Harald L on November 13, 2013, 03:52:07 pm
Impressive work. Thank you for the recipe.

Harald
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: dhancock on November 15, 2013, 04:05:10 pm
Great shot!
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: Chris Calohan on November 17, 2013, 07:31:00 pm
Certainly not as dramatic as Matty's, but I went out and gave it a shot today just to see how the effect worked and to experiment with layer percentages. It's an interesting approach and given the right lighting, this could be quite beneficial as another PP tool. I did both of my shots is relatively bright light. The sun was darting in and out of clouds though for the most part it was almost always masked by a good amount of haze.

The first is a simple water across the bay shot and the second is of mustard grasses and sea oats on the dunes.

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7420/10915779174_ee0541f1d2_o.jpg)

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7339/10915645535_9945c78c5f_o.jpg)
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: MattyD on November 18, 2013, 06:00:08 am
Nice work Chris,

The effects a little hard to see, but Its there. I suggest next time use an ND filter and aim for 10second exposures....Take a minutes worth and stack them together. The effect should be more obvious then.

Heres another shot Iv just posted. Still had to use an ND filter for it, but by stacking images I was able to get a 6-7 20 second exposures with little effort.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=84212.0 (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=84212.0)
Title: Re: Just a simple boat (long exposure)
Post by: Chris Calohan on November 18, 2013, 07:32:55 am
I did use an .9 GND, I just tried to do it at too late a time in the day and my exposures were too short. When I can get a decent sky to work with and no rain, I'll give it another go. It did work, however and that put a smile on my face. Thanks for the info.