Today i got out for about and hour and a half to try and do some more long exposures at our state park... beautiful peaceful place to wonder around. As for the shooting not so beautiful i was only able to get 10 shots off... ALL SHIT!!! so my question today is how much time do you dedicate to a long exposure setup? do you hunt down your location on a previous visit first? I got so caught up in watching the time to do what i had to go and get done i missed the mark on getting a decent shot.
side question what do you do when your camera is a foot off the water and you can't really see how sharp your manual focus is ...do you then switch to auto?
heres 3 of the turds unedited
Go back... But
If these were mine I would think:
Turd 2: isn't really a turd. Nice light in water and shape of beach draw you in...if desired a bit of processing and radial filters and selective vignette in LR...plus maybe Orton in PS.
Turd 3: isn't a turd either but nice to get more light or texture on foregrounds rock
thanks i was just frustrated i think i might lay off manual zoom for a bit and use auto that is where i am having the most problem ...it wasn't a rock its a broken log hahaha see what i men about the focus
I prefer to get one "good" shot than many and so before I set up at a location, I leave my backpack with tripod alone and walk around with my camera only, looking through the eyepiece to find a crop, and angle. I try to remember to find a crop without distractions. Then I try to think about the tools I have in my bag, ie have I remembered nd filters if the sky is too contrasty to my foreground. For instance your third shot could have done with a filter for the lighter part, then you could have increased the lower part so that you didn't blow out the lighter part. As to getting focus, I have difficulty seeing this, at the back of the camera so I use a 2 x loop, it blocks the light around your eye to the back of the camera, you might want to invest in one if you struggle with that, you can get a cheap one on Amazon.
great ideas i will look into x loop thank you
found it but i thought it would be an attachment for the eyepiece not the lcd screen
Composition is the key. Don't force a LE shot with out a good composition that you like and that is benefited form the LE. After that, try a few different exposure times, you may find that for fast moving water shorter times work better and show more dynamism. It might need as little as a half second in some cases. Too much time makes the water too milky and smooth IMO.
For focus, you could try setting up your focus as low as possible at the best guess for the distance you'll have when the camera is in position, and then make sure you are using a mid range F stop 8.0 - 16 etc. to get good depth of field.
My camera thankfully has a tilt screen AND a tilt viewfinder. If you have WiFi you can also use an app to view and ficus the camera remotely (I love my GX8!)
i didn't realize the f stop messed with the focus, i thought that was merely for the aperture. i think i have wifi i gotta look cuz that would be very handy also thought about tethering to phone or laptop.
thank you a ton for the info
The f stop affects the depth of field not focus per say. But DOF is the apparent range of distances that appear to be in focus. Wide opne f stops create a shallow DOF, narrow f stops create a deeper DOF. BUT... too small an f stop and you'll start to get a loss of image sharpness due to detraction, so don't just stop all the way down all the time. It's worth doing some exercises to learn how the f stop affects your image both in terms of DOF and sharpness.
its been 20 years since my last photography class and i was using film i need another class to relearn all this shit....thank you so much for not giving me "your a moron" speech i greatly appreciate the advice and mentoring i will research this topic this evening
check around online too, lots of really great help on Youtube from some amazing photographers. if I ever get a minute I'll put together a playlist of videos I've found particularly helpful.
i researched last night till i fell asleep haha found stuff that was very informative to the point that I'm now more confused who knew there was so much science behind it all
I am by no means going to say that my method is the best method or even a viable method for most, but he's a breakdown.
When I'm preparing for a long exposure shot, it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to and hour, maybe two, maybe three, from start to finish, depending on what I'm shooting. If I'm shooting cityscape with lights, I tend to take longer, as I wait for the perfect movement of cars. I also arrive upwards of an hour or two early when doing sunsets or events like fireworks, but that's because in a city of 9 million people, you have to get there early whether it's lunch or photography.
Regardless, for every shot, before my tripod even gets detached from my bag, I find a composition handheld and I take a quick snapshot to see if it looks as good on my camera screen as it does in my head or in my viewfinder. After that, I continue to search for different possible compositions, and I set up my tripod after I find one that I think is worth it. typically use manual focus for long exposures, especially in low light situations, but if the light is fine I use auto-focus. Luckily, my camera as a rotating screen so I can use it at any angle, so when I focus manually, I switch to live view and zoom in on my screen as much as possible to ensure maximum sharpness. I then take a few test shots to figure out the best exposure, and once that's decided I take upwards of 4-5 photos, checking each one for sharpness. Nothing is worse than taking one shot, getting home, and finding out it's hot garbage and out of focus.
If the exposure is long, like, let's say 3 minutes, I'll walk around looking for even more compositions with my phone as that photo is exposing.
To get a better sense of the variations in time, here are a few examples from my portfolio.
Kegon Falls - took about 6 or 7 minutes from start to finish because there's really only one composition, and I wasn't traveling alone.
Tokyo's Masterpiece - Took me about 4 hours, because I had to arrive well before sunset to ensure I got the best spot, and I took different exposures ranging between 6-16 minutes.
Shasui Falls - Took about 15 minutes because the lens I used is super long and cheap so attaching a screw on ND filter constantly kept messing with my focus. But I tired to move as quickly as possible because I don't like spiders in my hair.
Fuji By Sunrise - about 3 hours in -7 degree weather. This was mostly because I wanted to capture everything from before sunrise to nearing the end of sunrise.
As you can see these numbers vary from situation to situation. I may be a bit of an extreme case, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I'd rather take 50 photos of one composition than 1 photo of 50 compositions. Also, I just love being out with my camera.
The greatest tool for LE photography, is patience.
thank you that is a great deal of help and it makes a ton of sense i always feel like i have to go with more is better but your right if you get home with 50 junk pics what was the point i will check out your stuff and learn thanks
Yeah, it’s alwas a terrible feeling to not get a shot. I’ve had some cases where I go out for 4 hours and never even take my camera out of bag.
I think instead of focusing on how much time you spend, it’s important to find a method that works for you.