Experimenting with th 10 stop ND filter at the Beach

superduckz · January 7, 2013

More duds than keepers but I'm pretty happy with these for a first effort. Any critiques or advice more than welcome.

jhofker · January 7, 2013

Good stuff! I really like these. Two nitpicks: Is the focus slightly off on the first one? Second one looks like the horizon is just slightly tilted to the left.

superduckz · January 7, 2013

Thanks jhofker. The first one was almost in a wind tunnel under the pier. I don't think it's the focus being off as much as my not being able to eliminate the last tiny bit of vibration from the wind hitting my (really) cheap tripod. Just touching the head lightly with my finger I could still feel a tiny bit of vibration no matter how much I tightened it down and weighted it. Frustrating but as they say you get what you pay for. Since most long exposures in Florida will often (or usually) be on a windy day I think I'll be going on the hunt for something substantially better soon.

Oh and yes the horizon is off. I fixed it but then I'm pretty sure I uploaded the original... I'll get it swapped. Thanks for catching that.

jhofker · January 7, 2013

The wind tunnel makes perfect sense to me. :-) Well done!

Cornflake · January 7, 2013

I also like these. I got a nine-stop ND a while back and I really like it. How long were your exposures?

superduckz · January 7, 2013

Thanks Gentlemen. By the way you have some really nice portfolios and Don I just realized have your blog bookmarked. Great stuff!

Exposure times and aperture were varied throughout the afternoon as I experimented and the sun started dropping. I stayed at ISO 100 all day. When I started out in brighter daylight I set it to 30 seconds at f22 to see what would happen. It was way too dark. So I stayed at 30 seconds opened up the f-stop eventually into almost to single digits until the results worked out. By the late afternoon I was leaving the shutter open as long as 2 minutes when it got darker but went as small as f18 to f22. I essentially just started getting a feel for it and started getting more and more hits. At one point I even stacked a Circular Polarize under the ND to combine the effects and then lost 3 more stops! I figured it out but realized when I downloaded the shots that the stacked filters created a "tunnel" and were clipping into the corner of my frames at wide angle. That surprised me a bit since it wasn't really that deep a stack but so it goes.

It's a really interesting process and gives REALLY satisfying results when it all work out. I think I could have saved a lot more shots with a more stable Tripod but so it goes. It's not like I "need" an excuse to shop for more equipment!

Earache · January 7, 2013

I really, really, like #3 Steve - it uses the blur effect to transition from reality to fantasy and the pastel tones are wonderful!
The lone short stick makes the composition for me.
You learn fast, man!

You should pick up one of the Image Stabilized Tripods from Canon - they're only $3,745.99 at Amazon.

Cornflake · January 7, 2013

Thanks for the kind words about my blog! If you have an iPhone, pay the 99 cents for ND Calc. It's an application that lets you convert the exposure that's right without a strong ND into the exposure that's right with it. Just math, but I can't do it in my head. It works perfectly.

superduckz · January 8, 2013

Thanks Don! I was going to look for something just like that to help establish a better starting point when I shoot. I don't have an I-phone though but I imagine there are similar guides out there for "back of the napkin" calcs. The math doesn't scare so much as I have a short memory...

Steve

Cornflake · January 8, 2013

I have a book with a chart for a ten-stop filter. You might copy this, print it and stick it in the filter case.

1/500 sec = 2 sec
1/250 sec = 4 sec
1/125 sec = 8 sec
1/60 sec = 16 sec
1/30 sec = 32 sec
1/15 sec = 1 min
1/8 sec = 2 min
1/4 sec = 4 min
1/2 sec = 8 min
1 sec = 16 min
2 sec = 32 min

The math seems a little inexact to me but small differences don't matter much when you use such a filter. Exposures slower than eight minutes are irrelevant to me, as I lack the patience.

superduckz · January 9, 2013

I will! That's perfect! Thanks again Don! now if it'd stop raining I would go experiment!

Experimenting with th 10 stop ND filter at the Beach

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