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Peter Dyndiuk's picture

Mid-day photography, making the best of harsh light.

While exploring along Kane creek in the Pioneer mountains of central Idaho, I stopped at a large beaver pond and had to try and capture an image! It was around 1:00pm with clear skies and moderate wind, but the scene was too beautiful to pass up.

I ended settling for stacked long exposures to create a more peaceful water surface, and in the end I think the long exposures were the right choice.

45", f5.6, 70mm - three exposures focus stacked.

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12 Comments

I love this! You captured an amazing scene. I think too many people rely on golden hour light (including myself).. But I think the lightning is terrific and definitely like the long exposure.

Thanks so much!

It really was a difficult shot to pull off; really difficult footing - my legs were burning by the time I finished the shoot, lol

I think I spent at least 20 minutes there fine tuning the scene!

Time well spent. Its a good pain👍

I like your shot: a nicebalanced and we'll structured composition and you made it well to compensate the harsh light. Yes, it seems the right idea to make a long exposure.

Thanks Dg9ncc!

Great shot! You made the right choice!

Thank you El Dooderino!

Why f/5.6 if you wanted a long exposure, Peter? A smaller aperture would have required less "stacking". Just curious.

sooo... The long exposures were the last sequence I shot, I was very fatigued by that time. The previous shots were at f/11 (where I intended), When I switched modes on the camera to BULB the aperture defaulted back to f/5.6. I was so focused on the shutter speed I forgot to re-check the aperture!

I didn't realize that these were shot at f/5.6 until I returned home and started processing the images!

Happens to all of us! Still, you managed a decent image. I'd have kept quiet about the aperture...

;-)

It's a beautiful image. But, I'm confused. I use focus stacking for increasing DOF in an image but have never seen it change the quality (harshness) of light as implied in your headline.
It's also interesting that you chose such a long exposure on what you call a mildly windy day.

The harsh light and focus stacking are not related. The harsh light was just the nature of the light mid-day with its associated deep shadows and bright highlights.

As for my choice of exposure lengths... I shot several sequences with various shutter speeds, The shots with the 45" exposures yielded the best results in this case. The shorter speeds did not result in any discernable reflections in the water.