Ever wonder how to create silky smooth long exposure images? Well, watch this video by Greg Benz to find out how.
Creating long exposure images isn't always easy or quick. To begin, you'll often need a lot of patience along with a sturdy tripod and neutral density filters. An external shutter isn't always necessary but usually highly encouraged. Unless you're shooting during nighttime, neutral density filters are a must. You might be able to improvise without a tripod, but neutral density filters cut the amount of light going into your lens. This fools your camera and metering system into thinking it's dark out when it could actually be midday. In my opinion, when purchasing these filters, it's best not to cut corners on quality and how much you spend. Cheaper neutral density filters could leave a dark red or even purple haze or tint on your final images as they're often made with cheaper materials. You pay for what you get.
I like this video, because in it, he includes many extremely helpful tips for shooting long exposures. One thing that I think is great but not always obvious (depending on the darkness of your filter) is to set up your camera and tripod before attaching the neutral density filter to your lens. Doing so means you can dial in your composition before darkening your field of view.
Watch the video to find out how to quickly and effectively create silky smooth long exposure photographs. Do you have any other techniques or tips to effectively create long exposures?
3 things:
Really like the ISO 6400 trick... I'll have to use that!
I've watched a number of these videos and they all say that you should pre-focus before putting the filter on. I'm usually using a 10-stop ND filter, and for me it's safer to put the filter on and then adjust my ISO to ridiculous levels (50K - 100K) to allow me to use LiveView to finalize the composition and focus. Once that's done, I move the ISO back to the real value for the shot. 90% of the time I'm using my 24-105mm lens for these shots and I'm always afraid of pushing too hard and inadvertently changing the focal length (and focus), or even just trying to be too careful and dropping the filter. It's much easier to put the filter on first and use the extreme capabilities of DSLRs these days to better my chances. I'm wondering why so many famous photogs don't do the same?
The last thing is to remember to turn off your Image Stabilization / Vibration Reduction on the lens when you have it on a tripod. It will actually introduce 'camera' shake!
I usually pre-focus before the filter goes on. I am not sure I trust focusing at high ISO through a 10-stop filter. But I will give it a try. When I saw him set focus, put on the filter, and then start changing the aperture, I was saying "noooooooo..." But he says in the comments that it doesn't matter.
The exposure trick from ISO6400 to ISO100 is useful if it happens to work out that you need a minute of exposure.
On the disabling the image stabilization - I always, always forget to do that. I can count on one hand the number of times I have remembered to do this. I should make a check list.
Disabling VR on your lens, yes. On IBIS cameras, that is not a problem. Make sure that when one says, “turn off VR,” that it is clear that one means, “turn off lens VR.”
…which you did.
Another trick which some cameras have, which makes ND filters not totally necessary, is composite mode → average, multiple-exposure (AME); especially if one wants a vast DoF. The author of this video did not state the strength of his ND filter —which I believe is 5ND— but it does not matter with the AME method; just do 2 raised to the power ‘x’ exposures, where ‘x’ is the number of stops of the desired ND filter strength.
That is to say, for a 2ND filter, take four exposures. For a 5ND filter, take 32 exposures. For a 10ND filter, 1024 pictures. Most cameras will let you take at least 999 exposures, so close enough. Mine allows up to 2000. The great thing about this technique, is that every shot is taken at full saturation of the sensor, with as little noise as possible. Camera shake can be reduced with mirror-lockup, and, for overkill, electronic shutter.
Another way to look at it is if one knows how long an exposure one wants (in seconds), and how long an exposure the light meter is giving you, then divide the latter by the former, and that is how many exposures you need. In this case, his light meter was saying ¹/40th second at f/3.5, equivalent to ⅕th second at f/8.0, at Sv=100/21°. If he wanted a six second exposure, then 6÷⅕=30, (or 6×5=30), so thirty exposures is what will be needed with AME, the camera set at Av=8.0, Tv=⅕s, Sv=100/21°. This also means that your test shot (for exposure) takes a whooping ⅕th of a second, has the full dynamic range, (so you will know right off the bat if the sky will or will not be blown out), and reduces noise in the shadow.
AME does have its drawbacks; if a bright light moving in the image is not cyclic, it may show up as a series of “dashes” of blur, instead of a smooth blur, especially if the exposure time per exposure is less than ten times the interval time between exposures.
Yes, this can also be done with an intervalometer attached to any camera, and a lot of post-production compositing work. The technique I described occurs in-camera, and in raw.