Long Exposure Photography

As you know, I have fallen in love with long exposure photography, where long exposure shots or long exposure photos, have an ethereal quality usually only found in fine art. Personally I think the results are stunning.

I have been photographing wildlife for many years and still get a buzz from capturing a raptor in flight or a nervous fox. However, I cannot deny the pull which long exposure photography has on my creative side. 

I explored some of my early attempts at taking long exposure photos in a previous blog post ‘What is long exposure photography. I then expanded on this article in my ‘How to take long exposure photographs‘.

Once again I am using the K&F ND1000 filter kit. I am keeping the in camera long exposure noise reduction ‘on’ even though it doubles my time waiting for an image to be completed in camera, I cannot see any good reason not to use the technology.

Long Exposure Photography and Water

Unfortunately I am about an hour or so away from the sea and any decent waterfalls. I think Pistyll in Rhaeadr is the closest to me, so I am shooting rivers, weirs in particular, to get fast moving water for my shots.

The image below is the weir on the river Severn in Worcester. My settings were ISO 100, f/25, 90 seconds exposure. There wasn’t a lot of detail in the sky to start with, but what I do like is the depth and detail created in the water. 

long exposure photography

ISO 100, f/25, 90 seconds exposure

Because I am just experimenting at the moment I made a slight change to the f-stop for this image, from f/25 to f/16, [ISO 100, f/16, 90 seconds exposure.] If you compare it to the image above I feel that it is a lot flatter, with the sky completely washed out and the water appears over exposed due to the wider aperture.

ISO 100, f/16, 90 seconds exposure

Another Day, Another Weir

This time I popped down to my local weir on the River Severn in Shrewsbury. My settings for this image were ISO 100, f16 3.2 seconds exposure. Personally I really like this image because I was able to retain detail in the sky and trees, but still maintain a nice impression of movement in the water.

long exposure photography

ISO 100 f/16 3.2 seconds

My settings for the next image were ISO 100 f/8 2.5 seconds, as you can see due to the wider aperture I have similar detail in the sky but the shadows in the trees are very dark in comparison.

long exposure photography

ISO 100 f/8 2.5 seconds

I altered my settings for the next image to ISO 100 f/16 3.2 seconds, I have effectively shut the aperture down by two steps and increased the exposure time by .7 of a second. As you can see there isn’t a great deal of difference in the water, other than it being slightly lighter, but I have regained some of the detail in the trees. Personally I prefer the composition, with the weir leading your eye through the middle of the image.

long exposure photography

ISO 100 f/16 3.2 seconds

My favourite element of this weir is the silky appearance of the water before it commits to flowing over the lip and onto the weir itself; I love the way the water bends the reflections. I have been trying to capture the feeling of serenity it invokes in me as I watch it, it can be almost mesmerising. I think I have managed to capture it in these two images, which use a different perspective. Which is your favourite, I think mine is the second image because the way in which the water leads your eye down the weir.

My settings for this image were ISO 100 f/16 6 seconds and for the next ISO 100 f/11 10 seconds.

long exposure photography

ISO 100 f/16 6 seconds

I love everything about this image.

long exposure photography

ISO 100 f/11 10 seconds

The seaside is calling me for my long exposure photography

As much as I enjoy photographing rivers I was inspired to try this form of long exposure photography after seeing images of the sea like the one below by Jay Caboz, absolutely stunning. You can expect my next post to be filled with images of the sea off the coast of Wales.

Twelve apostles meets Lions Head mountains Cape town

Twelve apostles meets Lions Head mountains Cape town, South Africa