A roaring sea...

[DeeGee]

Went out before breakfast for these. Still can't work out if I was crazy, dedicated or just plain stupid. The wind and rain seemed to pick up as it came up the cliff face and I became grateful of the metal fencing to hold on to.


Camera Canon EOS 500D
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 125
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

Take the rough with the smooth.

Camera Canon EOS 500D
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 1250
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[Alun100]

Re: A roaring sea...

#1 went and put a jumper on Dee!
Where is it?

[Stan]

Re: A roaring sea...

looks a bit bleak

Stan

[Bill53]

Re: A roaring sea...

Well done Di, Whitby still has it's charm when the weather's not so good.

Bill.

[tesarver]

Re: A roaring sea...

Nice set Di

Tom

[anderson.council]

Re: A roaring sea...

Hi Di,

Like the idea of the second one. Hope you don't mind me wondering, is it possible to get a view looking along that breakwater, from a low perspective ? I'm thinking, stormy sea left of image then the breakwater leading into the image and then the smoother waters of the harbour area on the right of image.

Scott

[DaveCK]

Re: A roaring sea...

Hi - i'm looking for tips & advice on taking long exposure shots (10+ mins) with a 20D, ie camera settings, equipment needed etc?

Cheers

Dave

[S_J_P]

Re: A roaring sea...

Hi - i'm looking for tips & advice on taking long exposure shots (10+ mins) with a 20D, ie camera settings, equipment needed etc?

Cheers

Dave

Hi and welcome Dave

Long exposure is an art in itself, and can be difficult to execute well, but with a little foresight and planning it can be very rewarding

To start off you need a very sturdy tripod, and a stable area of ground. I've frequently found that as the tide comes in my tripod has been undermined by the water causing instability, so pick your spot well and think about what will happen over the next 15 minutes.

You'll also need something to reduce the light entering the camera, unless you're after night-time long exposures. Neutral density filters are the way to go for daylight shots, a 10 stop (ND1024 or ND3) filter will reduce the light entering the camera by 10 stops (or a 1,024 x reduction in intensity) which will allow the long exposure times you desire. In bright conditions I sometimes stack a circular polariser as well, this saturates and reduces the sky intensity as well as adding another 2 stops of light reduction. You can additionally stack a further grad filter to reduce the sky further if you so desire, but do be wary of vignetting with the multiple filters, especially when using a wide angle lens. With a polariser/ND stack you should be able to get to an exposure of around 30 seconds on a bright day down to three minutes or so on an overcast day. Not quite the 10 min you're talking of, but approaching that level. 10-stop filters can be expensive (generally they're between £40-£100) but you can try using a £2 piece of welding-glass to start with, it'll impart a significant colour-shift to the image (but not necessarily any less than the more expensive circular screw-in filters) which is pretty easy to remedy in post-production so long as you're shooting in raw. The welding glass can be attached to your lens in a variety of ways, I've used a Cokin P filter holder in the past, but however you choose to fit it, it is imperative that you eliminate all light from the lens-side of the filter otherwise you'll be plagued by reflections. You can use tape or cloth to achieve this.

Be wary of running very small apertures, f/22 or smaller for example, as the depth of field with wide angle lenses means that the filter stack itself can become in-focus and any dust, dirt, or water splashes become evident on the finished capture, so ensure your filters and lens are spotlessly clean before starting, and wipe any splashes away after each shot. Another reason to keep apertures at around f/16 is that the onset of diffraction will start to soften your images.

With the ND filter in place it can be nigh on impossible to focus and compose your shot, so ensure you've set the camera up before attaching the filters. The extreme depth of field at low apertures will be your friend here, and with even a moderately wide lens you'll be able to focus at the hyperfocal distance (approximately 1/3 into the scene) and everything will be in focus. With some cameras the live-view screen can still pick out an image even with the filters in place so long as Exposure Simulation is turned off, it may be worth experimenting with Live View on your camera.

Bulb is probably the only way you'll be able to get the exposure times you're after, and for this a remote-release is probably the only practical method. I use an inexpensive Shoot! remote which has a locking shutter button and counts-up the exposure in seconds. Start at 20 seconds, assess the image/histogram, and then increase (or decrease) the exposure time to suit. Some folks suggest setting mirror lock-up to eliminate shake on long exposures, but I'm forever being caught out by having to click twice to lock the mirror and then take the shot so if you're at all worried by mirror-slap, set the 2-second remote timer option but remember that exposure will be 2 seconds less than shown on the remote release screen (the camera LCD will show the correct time though).

So, to sum-up, sturdy tripod, compose, focus 1/3 way into the scene, ND filter, f/16, Bulb-mode with remote release, shoot-away!

A last couple of comments : Be aware of composition, long exposure doesn't make the mundane become great, you still need to consider the rules of composition. Sometimes exposures can be too long, a couple of seconds can be long enough to retain a little texture in water rather than turning it into smooth milk.

[DeeGee]

Re: A roaring sea...

Thank you everyone for taking time to have a look and leaving your comments.

#1 went and put a jumper on Dee!
Where is it?

Wouldn't have helped, the rain would have gone straight through. Whitby - Just down from the Whalebones.

Well done Di, Whitby still has it's charm when the weather's not so good.

Bill.

Thanks Bill - and definitely. I was with a group of none photographer friends so I was always aware of making them wait. But I would like to return and just spend a few days with my camera and even if the occasion applied my tripod which doesn't get used it anger alot.

Hi Di,

Like the idea of the second one. Hope you don't mind me wondering, is it possible to get a view looking along that breakwater, from a low perspective ? I'm thinking, stormy sea left of image then the breakwater leading into the image and then the smoother waters of the harbour area on the right of image.

Scott

I was on the grass near the Whalebones and statue. There is a viewing area further down which would be worth a try. You could try further onto the sea front, but there are some buildings and I'm not sure how much they would encroach into the scene. You could however try the other side for a similar view - I inspected Google maps and went on the satellite view there is a road from the cottages by the cliff face. Worth a look.