First time posting in the group, also first time shooting a long exposure. I was fairly pleased with how this came out, but some feedback and suggestions would be great.
First time posting in the group, also first time shooting a long exposure. I was fairly pleased with how this came out, but some feedback and suggestions would be great.
my kind of shot you would be surprised at the checklist that you have to run down before you take a long exposure. iso, stop,time,focus,are you focused all the way through or do you have a target it can be a lot and if you missed a step well i just hope your keeping it under 1 min cuz wasting 15 min for an oops sucks. i usually put my polarizer on first to cut a bit of the glare then my nd filter after i have made my focus and stop choice. this took me a few times to get right i think you are ahead of my curve it turned out nice there is a lot you could do to this in processing if you want to send me the raw i can show you what i mean but great first attempt
I think it looks great. But maybe you could point the camera up a bit or put it in portrait orientation because I kind of want to see more of the top of the trees.
Thanks, and I can see what you mean with the trees. I'll keep that in mind next time.
thanks for your input. I did some processing on this already, but thanks a ton for your run down and compliments
Firstly, great first effort! I agree with Jeremy on the orientation. With that canopy of trees and the light, I think it would have made for a better overall composition. Those high branches in the background are crossing each other so beautifully, and it'd be nice to see them feature more prominently. Also, how did you modify the colors in post-processing? The blues/aquas feel oversaturated to me and they're fighting the greens and yellows in my eye, and color-wise, it'd be nice if the vegetation stood out more than the rocks reflecting the sky.
Thanks so much, and I agree about the trees. Also, THANK YOU, I couldn't put my finger on the thing that was bothering me still and its the blue/aqua in the rocks. I mostly bumped the warmth, and contrast on this.
You do have to be careful with exposing the tops of trees and skyline since they are very different exposures on a long exposure especially in bright daylight it’s easier in overcast situations also adding the sky also adds an area of negative space that in most cases is unappealing so for me imo you shot this correctly
Just one word: Polarizer!
Certainly helpful, but can give a bleak look with black water & starkly contrasting foam. A seasoning to be used sparingly, IMHO.
In agreement with what has already been said in general, with a couple of things you may want to try in future.
1) you likely (or should) have a fast image that you used as a baseline to check your exposure before adding an ND filter. You can use this image to blend in any areas that may be blurred (eg movement of foliage) in the LE.
2) It is worth taking images at varying (long) exposures to see which produces the best results. It is impossible to judge how flow will turn out and often a shorter exposure will result in more interesting detail.
3) You have probably already figured out if using a dark ND filter you have to get your focus then switch to manual - otherwise the AF may have trouble finding enough contrast and will 'hunt'
Great first attempt!
Figured I'd toss in an update. After reading comments here and experimenting, here's the updated image