long exposures in daylight?

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soliberus

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here is another newbie question.

how do people manage to take long-exposure photos op things like waterfalls, fountains, oceans etc during daylight?:thinking:
 
They're either not that long an exposure (with small aperture and low ISO), or they use a 'welding glass' - do a search on here there are several threads about it, or they use ND filters!
 
Thanks for the replies. I've just Google'd "ND filters" and it seems there are different types (ND2, ND4 etc).

How do I know which one I need?
 
i would like to know this too please.
 
soliberus said:
Thanks for the replies. I've just Google'd "ND filters" and it seems there are different types (ND2, ND4 etc).

How do I know which one I need?
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You need the one that slows down the exposure enough to achieve the effect you want, which is also dependant on how much light there is to start with. So same shot at dawn may require stonger filter at noon to get the same result.
 
the higher the nd number is the stronger the filter is. ND2 will allow one extra stop, ND4 will give 2 stops etc. Depends how bright the conditions are and how long you want your exposure to be.
 
right my lens spin when i use the focus will that affect the picture when i use these filters?
 
Good grief, so basically it means buying most of the ND filters and use trial-and-error until you find the right ND filter for the scenario.
 
soliberus said:
Good grief, so basically it means buying most of the ND filters and use trial-and-error until you find the right ND filter for the scenario.
Click to expand...

Not quite - experience tells me that the ND4 is a good place to start, and see how you go from there. The level of ND filter you will need comes from experience, and will completely vary on the lighting conditions and subject you are shooting.
 
lol this is gettin confusing! so if i have a camera where the lens spin to focus i dont buy a ND filter?
 
but photo plod said i dont need a ND filter need a graduated one instead...someone else said on another thread i need a ND but not a grad... so confused!
 
Your spinning lens will NOT stop you using any of the filters mentioned in this thread.
 
jackbauer said:
but photo plod said i dont need a ND filter need a graduated one instead...someone else said on another thread i need a ND but not a grad... so confused!
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He didn't say that. Read your question and his answer carefully.

I have to disagree that an ND4 is a good place to start getting long exposures. It's only two stops, which is nothing really. You need around ten stops to get the kind of effects people have been getting with exposures running into several seconds and even minutes. With the filter in place there is still quite a lot of scope to vary the length of the exposure with f/number and ISO.

ND filters are numbered in different ways, eg ND2, 4, 8 are one, two and three stops, also known as 0.3, 0.6 or 0.9 and so on. A ten stop filter is ND1000, or 3.0.

Edit: there is loads of information in recent threads about how to use ND filters. Some are quite long though!
 
ahh my appologies photo Plod.

I have found this is this any good for an average clear day in the UK? for about say 10second upwards or even less if need be?
 
jackbauer said:
ahh my appologies photo Plod.

I have found this is this any good for an average clear day in the UK? for about say 10second upwards or even less if need be?
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It's 0.9, so only three stops, so no.

Let's say your exposure would be 1/250sec at f/8, ISO400, then three stops takes it down to 1/30sec. Ten stops would get you down to 4secs but by changing the f/number and ISO you should be able to increase that to 32secs easily enough, or reduce it back to 1/2sec or less by going the other way.

This is the only ten stop filter you can buy at the moment, and there is nothing darker (unless you want to play about with one of the stronger welding mask glasses on another thread). B+W ND110 £37 in 58mm:
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-b-w-58mm-nd-110-3-0-sh-filter/p1013506
 
I have 3 NDGrad filters (Light, medium & strong) which I use in combination depending on the light. I also use them with the light & medium one way round and the strong the other (its best to use a filter holder for this, I use Cokin) as this allows quite long exposures for milky water effects etc.

3 filters all aligned the same way.


2 filters one way 1 the other

This was taken at about 21.30 so it was getting dark as well which allowed a 15 sec exposure.

Andy
 
a 1 stop reduction in light means (if your aperture and iso remain constant) double your shutter speed once. 2 stops, double it twice and so on and so forth. Point your camera outside set to it's lowest iso. Put it in aperture priority with a narrow aperture, say f11-f22, see what shutter speed it suggests. Keep doubling this shutter speed up to 10 times to work out what effect all the different filter strengths will have. Bearing in mind the strength of light you want to shoot in, you can use this to work out what filter you need to get the shutter speed you want.
 
Yes you will get 5+ secs with that in UK. Warehouse Express are safe to buy from.

Advice using it; shoot raw as you might want to adjust colour as it is on "warm" side. You will need to set camera up and focus and lock, and then put filter on as your camera will not "see" to focus as filter is dark.
 
Biko said:
Yes you will get 5+ secs with that in UK. Warehouse Express are safe to buy from.

Advice using it; shoot raw as you might want to adjust colour as it is on "warm" side. You will need to set camera up and focus and lock, and then put filter on as your camera will not "see" to focus as filter is dark.
Click to expand...

oookkkaayyy did not know that. problem is my lens spin to focus which i'm guessin means after i've focused when i try to spin the filter on there is a chance i will lose focus.?
 
This shot was taken with same ND filter you are looking at from WE, exposure f16 SS 30sec ISO 100 - and a fairly bright UK day.


nd.jpg
 
jackbauer said:
oookkkaayyy did not know that. problem is my lens spin to focus which i'm guessin means after i've focused when i try to spin the filter on there is a chance i will lose focus.?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be a problem you just need to be careful putting on and check image after shot to see all is focussed ok.
 
just hit me, am i right in thinking these welding glass ain't suppose to be used for photography, yet people use them. so what's the big difference between that and the proper stuff?
 
Cost mainly, and the green cast (if shooting raw you can work around it) due to it being used for welding. Also as you are shooting long shutter speed in daylight then its important that you get a good fit between it and the lens so stray light doesn't "creep" in.

If your not sure about whether you need one, for a couple of quid you can try out long exposures.
 
jackbauer said:
oookkkaayyy did not know that. problem is my lens spin to focus which i'm guessin means after i've focused when i try to spin the filter on there is a chance i will lose focus.?
Click to expand...

Don't fret about this. it's not a big problem. There's two easy ways to ensure good focus.
One. When you screw on this filter after focussing, hold firmly on to the lens with one hand while you screw on the filter with the other. Leave the lens in auto focus while you do this. It gives the mechanism just enough firmness to resist being twisted by your hand as you try to keep it steady. It wouldn't stop it from being twisted with the filter if you didn't have hold of the lens though so be careful. Once the filter is on you can switch to mf.

Two. Forget auto focusing. Manually focus using live view once the filter is on.
 
jackbauer said:
will i be able to see, let alone focus with the filter on?
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You will not be able to see much through it, and live view will struggle to work. With the darker welding mask glasses, it will hardly work at all.

It's maybe worth a try with live view, but the best way is to focus and meter without the filter, then calculate the exposure difference and set that manually. Don't forget to fit the eyepiece cover during the exposure.

With the welding glass, you also need to do a custom white balance to get rid of the green cast, unless you are shooting Raw and going to correct that in post processing.
 
With just your eye you can see barely a thing. I find live view works exceptionally well though. I rarely struggle when using it to focus through a 10 stop, and when I do struggle it's normally just because there's too much light on the screen.
 
The Matt said:
With just your eye you can see barely a thing. I find live view works exceptionally well though. I rarely struggle when using it to focus through a 10 stop, and when I do struggle it's normally just because there's too much light on the screen.
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It's handy to know that live view works with a ten stopper. Thanks for confirming :thumbs:

With the welding glass ND, which is 15 stops on my grade 11 one, live view with a 40D is pretty hopeless. But then it is very dark :eek:
 
Biko said:
This shot was taken with same ND filter you are looking at from WE, exposure f16 SS 30sec ISO 100 - and a fairly bright UK day.

nd.jpg
Click to expand...

:clap:

wuthering heights...did the sheep eat your sandwiches... a real in your face sheep
 
The spinning lens focusing thing - you simply have to focus and compose first, switch to manual focus to lock the focus in place, and THEN attach the filter.

Seeing as you cannot see a thing through a 10-stopper, you won't be able to compose, focus or meter.

Set camera on a tripod
Compose
Auto focus, then flick to manual focus to lock it
Take meter reading in Aperture Priority at desired f-stop
Add 10 stops to this reading
Screw on filter
Switch to Manual mode with the same f-stop, adding the 10 stops to the shutter speed (you'll most likely need Bulb setting)
Click!
 
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