Daylight Long Exposures [Strong ND Filters]

I mix my work between standard urban street shooting and long exposure waterscapes and fast moving clouds. The quality of long exposures is better enhanced when you can shoot in straight daylight, early morning and evening. The B+W 1000x 10 Stop Filter and Hoya’s NDx400 Filter are two examples of strong filters to give you maximum shooting times for motion blur and to create stunning creative effects for your shots. This type of effect has been used with wonderful colour shots but more known to black and white imagery. The sky is the limit with how you can use these filters, try using them with waterfalls, streetscapes, train stations and during rush hour times in major urban centers.

Recommendations

1. Purchase the largest size with step down rings so that you may use it across all of your lenses.
2. Go beyond the boundaries of just the ND filters and add in a Polarizer and strongly encourage the use of Graduate ND Filters from the Cokin or Lee Filters ensure that you aquire the correct filter holders for the drop in filter types. This helps give that balance ground and sky exposure without having to use HDR software.
3. Invest in a strong tripod matched with a cable release or remote for your camera.

Shooting Tips

1. Focus your shot and turn off your Auto Focus, the place ND Filter onto lens and add appropriate Graduate Filters over top of the ND Filter.
2. Use remote releases as your exposure may go longer than 30 seconds up to several minutes depending on time of day.
3. Always check your histogram to ensure correct exposure for highlights and shadows.

~ by dbshanks on April 9, 2009.