First attempt at long exposure

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Samsonite

Senior Member
Hi All,

Dont know if this is in the right section, but hoping i can get some opinions on a few pictures i took yesterday. It was my first attempt at long exposure of a rocky beach, i was trying to get the nice silky smooth effect you see by other photographers.

I was using my D5100 with the 18 - 55 Kit lens, a tripod, shutter release remote and a ND 8 Neutral Density filter. The best results were obtained with with an exposure of between 6 and 10 seconds, with an aperture of between F32 and F36. From 10 seconds onward was just very bright and over exposed....

Im confused by the results... The pictures lack color and sharpness, I cant tell whether this is because they are over exposed, whether the filter is crap, or the focus isnt right.... What are your opinions?

Do I also need a Circular polarizing filter for shots like this?

Here are a few of the pictures....

Pembroke (44) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (41) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (17) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (13) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (10) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (8) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (7) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pembroke (5) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Comments and critique much appreciated!

Samsonite!
 
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STM

Senior Member
One common them I saw with the images is they were lacking in contrast. When you have exposures that long, sometimes it is best to use a little trick I learned a long time ago. If you have the ability to lock the shutter open on B, you can place a black card (flat black si best) in front of the lens, open the shutter and remove the card. You don't have to be super precise, you can use a stopwatch or just the second hand on a watch. When the time runs out, place the card over the lens and release the shutter. This will all but eliminate any unsharpness due to mirror slap or even the shutter opening.
 
D

Dave_W

The Dude
I'm not too sure camera shake will affect a long exposure, will it? But I do agree that the images are begging for a bit more contrast and maybe some vibrance.
 
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STM

Senior Member
Dave_W said:
I'm not too sure camera shake will affect a long exposure, will it? But I do agree that the images are begging for a bit more contrast and maybe some vibrance.
Click to expand...

Sure it can. Even if it only contributes to some unsharpness for the first second of the exposure, that blur will still be there. That is one reason why some of the film cameras had a mirror lock up button. It is especially critical in closeup photography where everything is magnified many times
 
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Samsonite

Senior Member
I was shooting in jpeg, and VR was left on... I'm not sure I understand what you mean about using the black card and bulb mode? Is it because the shutter opening and closing causes a bit of camera shake?


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S

Samsonite

Senior Member
Would a circular polarizing filter improve the image quality? The ND filter is from a cheap set off eBay. Could that effect image quality?


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nikonpup

nikonpup

Senior Member
turn off vr when using a tripod. Do you have any other nd filters? Do you have picture any pictures w/o the nd filter of the same area?
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Before talking about the sharpness, contrast and color saturation, all that can be corrected up to a certain point in post processing, I'd like to mention that the first critique I have is that the camera was not leveled. When shooting the ocean or lake or anything with a large volume of water, you have to make really sure that the water is leveled. So you can start with leveling the camera, or at least crop the pictures to level the water.

So what I'm saying is start with basic and learn from there. Post processing is a very important part of digital imaging, but somethings should still be basically taken care of at time of exposure.
 
R

Rexer John

Senior Member
Samsonite said:
Would a circular polarizing filter improve the image quality? The ND filter is from a cheap set off eBay. Could that effect image quality?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk!
Click to expand...

A polarising filter only works with polarised light. You wont have much polarised light in the scene you were shooting.
Polarised light is present in a blue sky, a polarising filter will give the biggest effect at 90 degrees to the sun.
On an overcast scene you still get polarised light in water reflections, glass, car paint work, foliage etc.
A polarising filter can also help cut through haze.
It reduces the amount of light so allows a slower shutter speed just as an ND filter.

Your glass is only as good as it's weakest element, an eBay ND filter is likely to be the lowest quality element in your lens.
 
G

Geoffc

Senior Member
For this type of thing everything should be manual. Pre focus and then turn off AF before inserting the filter. If it's not sharp without the filter it won't be with it. Set the white balance, don't use auto. Set the aperture and shutter in manual mode. If you take an exposure reading without the filter you can get phone apps that will tell you what to add for the filter or look on the web.

Use mirror lock up if the camera supports it, otherwise use the black card trick already described.

As a general point, I think your filter looks like it may have a colour cast but I may be wrong. I recently bought a ten stop B&W filter for this purpose which increases exposure by 1000x. It was expensive but it's probably worth it. Cheap plastic filters will generally give a cheap plastic look, however they are good to practice with before you sink a load of cash.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I''m with Marcel in that the first thing I noticed was a crooked horizon. Shots could have been framed much more carefully.

Lots of things can impact sharpness, cheap filters among them (cheap ND's can also kill color and contrast). Minimum aperture on some lenses (f22-32) can also be a recipe for losing sharpness. A tripod helps, but if it's not a sturdy tripod then wind will produce small vibrations, so if it's got a hook on the bottom of the post hang a bag on there to help steady it. You can avoid mirror slap on many cameras by using either the shutter delay feature (1 second delay between mirror raising and shutter actuation), Mirror Up mode, or a two step remote actuation (press 1 locks the mirror up, press 2 actuates the shutter). VR will impact fine details when used on a tripod.

Many factors go into making long exposures, and we all learn some of the lessons the hard way. Keep at it.
 
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DTigga

New member
My guess is your nd filter is to blame. A cheap nd filter is typically a circular polarizer filter and a linear polarizer in one. cheap ones are like trying to shoot through a welding mask.
 
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Samsonite

Senior Member
Mmmm some interesting points, to be fair i think the biggest mistake I made was probably trying to focus with the filter in place.... Next time will make sure I level the horizon, focus without filter, turn off VR and switching to manual mode. I was shooting in jpeg in shutter speed priority.

The cheap eBay filters and cheap ebay tripod probably effect the results, Clearly my cheap tripod isn't up for the job, as it was swaying slightly in the wind.... Thanks for all the feedback guys, will give it another go when I can....


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BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Samsonite said:
I was shooting in jpeg in shutter speed priority.
Click to expand...

ND8 only buys you so much in daylight. I thought it would be more but was disappointed by how high I had to go on aperture to get the shutter speeds I wanted - if I could. I've since added a variable ND filter to my bag to deal with situations where I want to go darker, but just haven't had the opportunity to test it out yet. I plan on it this weekend if weather permits.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
FYI, I just looked out the window and saw some great cloud movement so I decided to do some test shots. Unfortunately the filter, a Marumi DHG ND2-ND400 Variable ND produced the major dark spots that make variable ND's so difficult to produce. It's going back and I guess I'm going to need to go for a straight ND400.
 
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