articles/Landscape/timepass-page3

Time Passes By - part 3 of 1 2 3 4

by Paul Gallagher Published 01/08/2012

Gairloch Bay

The next two pictures where taken on the Kintyre peninsular not far from Westport Bay. The first of the two was a considered exposure and composition. I wanted the retreating sea water to rush round the series of boulders as the next wave approached the back of the boulder. I placed the sequence of rocky outcrops that where in the sea in the correct place on my frame and fitted a 2-stop neutral density filter to curtail the exposure a little and capture the movement of the water. After a little waiting around nd consideration to the timing of the waves I pressed the shutter at the right time and the picture came together just as I had intended. I was a happy man. This brings me to the next image at virtually the same location at the same time. After this exposure I fitted the Big Stopper to the camera and calculated the exposure. Many people who have seen this image have made a guess on the exposure time and many have said it was between 5 and 10 minutes as they were fooled by the streaking of the waves and the almost dream-like appearance of the smooth sea water. In fact because the sea was raging and there was a strong wind blowing the clouds I only needed a 79-second exposure! This example shows that you do not need extremely long exposures to create this effect and the movement of the water and clouds can help you out a lot! For both images the underlying structure was there in the form of rock outcrops in the sea. It was these that first caught my eye and the very reason I got my camera out of the bag. The choice of filters used simply changed the effect of the elements surrounding the underlying structure.

Sunset and Storm, Wester Ross

A few things must be considered when using these filters. Always use your camera on the lowest, native ISO setting to avoid the noise that will certainly appear in the shadows. Also using this ISO will help lengthen the exposure and where you have detail in the image, it will be at its best. Secondly, if you have a Long Exposure Noise Reduction setting in the menus of your camera switch it on! If it is switched off it can be to the detriment of the final image as you will see plenty of little artefacts in the form of rogue coloured pixels in your final file. I once made this mistake and spent a long time cloning out red and blue pixels from the mid-tones of my image.

Incidentally, for the impatient ones amongst you, this seriously lengthens the time it takes to see the finished results of your long exposure on the back of your camera as the Long Exposure Noise Reduction processing takes as long as the exposure itself. Yes that's right! So, after making my eight-minute exposure, I had to wait a whole eight minutes longer to see if it worked!! This is something to bear in mind if you are working in failing light. If you get it wrong at the very end of the day, you may have to wait until tomorrow to get the same level of light.

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