long exposure v trees

Brendan Mulachy

Brendan Mulachy

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went past the lone tree at LLanberis yesterday, i had my tripod and a 10 stop with me so thought id give a long exposure a go

44 seconds @ f11 gave me a nice smooth water and the base of the tree is ok, but the smaller branches are just blurry and soft

is it just a case of waiting for days that are still or is there another technique either in camera or im thinking it needs some post production to copy another shot of the tree taken at a faster speed to freeze it and blend them together


lone tree.jpg
 
lesson learnt for next time,as they say every day is a school day, ive a set up shot that i used to work out long exposure timing so il see if i can do just that
 
ok a quick look on photoshop, cut round it loosely to see what it looked like , managed to line up the tree and the background so now the tree's smaller branches etc are sharper, but obviously now the background is out, my reasoning is its far far too complicated to cut round the tree so tight, im thinking i need to go back to the start and blend the 2 shots, in PS, then adjust it in lightroom for exposure etc, am i right or is it a case of different blending modes.

i only really use PS to get rid of things with fill so not very experienced with it

lone tree blend 1.jpg
 
Brendan Mulachy said:
ok a quick look on photoshop, cut round it loosely to see what it looked like , managed to line up the tree and the background so now the tree's smaller branches etc are sharper, but obviously now the background is out, my reasoning is its far far too complicated to cut round the tree so tight, im thinking i need to go back to the start and blend the 2 shots, in PS, then adjust it in lightroom for exposure etc, am i right or is it a case of different blending modes.

i only really use PS to get rid of things with fill so not very experienced with it

View attachment 405462
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In your case simplest thing is clean cut at water line. Non nd file will be cleaner anyway


You do ideally need to match all settings and exposures in lr pretty perfectly.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
much better.

Do try and get the whole tree top in. Even if it takes generative fill.
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i only had a couple of lenses with me yesterday, i was on the bike so travelled light, the 50mm was the widest lens i had, in hindsight i should have taken the time to move the tripod back a bit to give me some space but i was rushing, the rain was coming and i wanted to get a couple of quick shots before it came, not so much as to stop me getting wet but the camera even with the lens hood on and me holding a lens cloth above it to keep the rain from causing spots on the lens, well between that and dracula and a skeleton going past on paddle boards i kid you not, anyway a bit of practice is never a bad thing
 
Brendan Mulachy said:
i only had a couple of lenses with me yesterday, i was on the bike so travelled light, the 50mm was the widest lens i had, in hindsight i should have taken the time to move the tripod back a bit to give me some space but i was rushing, the rain was coming and i wanted to get a couple of quick shots before it came, not so much as to stop me getting wet but the camera even with the lens hood on and me holding a lens cloth above it to keep the rain from causing spots on the lens, well between that and dracula and a skeleton going past on paddle boards i kid you not, anyway a bit of practice is never a bad thing
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Just tilt the tripod up and you will get that little bit extra height. Make sure to lock your main layer when you do auto align. It is pretty straightforward.

In this case I'm pretty sure if you extend the canvas with generative option just a tiny bit like 5% it will do a very decent job. they work best in small areas so you may need to refenerate again with smaller selection.
 
I figured out some years ago that to get a picture of any somewhat fragile thing's with any air movemeent I either needed to block off the air or shoot very fast with a flash. Of course it wasn't trees but rather wild flower's. Seem's the wind always blows around here so I pretty much gave up on doing wild flowers.
 
Brendan Mulachy said:
went past the lone tree at LLanberis yesterday, i had my tripod and a 10 stop with me so thought id give a long exposure a go

44 seconds @ f11 gave me a nice smooth water and the base of the tree is ok, but the smaller branches are just blurry and soft

is it just a case of waiting for days that are still or is there another technique either in camera or im thinking it needs some post production to copy another shot of the tree taken at a faster speed to freeze it and blend them together


View attachment 405440
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I know this location well Brendan, took me three visits at different times of the year to get a shot I was happy with. The water was fairly calm, there was little wind and it just took a 2.5 second exposure.
 
Brendan Mulachy said:
went past the lone tree at LLanberis yesterday, i had my tripod and a 10 stop with me so thought id give a long exposure a go

44 seconds @ f11 gave me a nice smooth water and the base of the tree is ok, but the smaller branches are just blurry and soft

is it just a case of waiting for days that are still or is there another technique either in camera or im thinking it needs some post production to copy another shot of the tree taken at a faster speed to freeze it and blend them together


View attachment 405440
Click to expand...

Sometimes I think a little bit of movement on a Long Exposure is not a bad thing. It tells a story. There was wind. Photography isn't always about freezing the frame, even though LE will smooth out a water surface in a lake or river, a little bit of tree movement can add interest.

I don't think that is such a big deal. compare your tree versus a shot of a harbour with some boats and even a short Long Exposure creates motion blur on the boats, then I'd think the exposure is ruined even if the water is silky smooth.

Everything is subjective: The misty background isn't moving which is a good thing, and confirms the tree movement is due to weather conditions. The biggest faux pas is turning a photo into mono because the light is crap. B&W imagery requires good light, more so than colour.
 
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