Night86mare, I like this shot very much. You have a unique technique for your landscape, I have noticed.
I have been trying to capture my seascapes like yours with ND4 stacked upon ND4 upon ND4 + GND. Sure, my exposure becomes longer and the sea becomes smoother.
But somehow I still have two problems: 1. colour wise I can't get it good. 2. Sea I can't get it as smooth as yours.
I am getting the ND400 in the hope to slow down even further.
What have I missed out, if I may ask for your advice? Or if you may share with me a few tips on getting these shots?
Thanks!
hi limwhow, thanks for dropping by and your kind comments.
i'm not sure if i'm unique, but i do like long exposures and milky, misty water, so that's what i do most of the time. a while back i was obsessed about "being unique", then i realised it wasn't that important, and it was affecting how i photographed, i.e. i was just taking shots with the primary purpose of being different, which is a bit silly if you think about it. especially since it's all be done before. sometimes when we think we have gotten something unique, it isn't that unique at all. so i stopped caring.
for nd4 + nd4 + gnd, that should give you 2 stops + 2 stops + maybe 1 or 2 stops, that's at best 6 stops. an nd400 gives you 8 stops, nd110 (b+w) gives 10 or 11 stops (more like 11 from experience).
i'm afraid i can't really help you with color manipulation, that is something that can be helped with looking at more photos. here are some absolutely fabulous landscape photographers with online galleries that i enjoy looking at now and then.. perhaps looking might help you get an idea of "what palette to use". for my color adjustments i generally use color balance and/or channel mixer. once again, there isn't any "set workflow", i go through general steps but what i had in mind when i shot is what i seek to achieve and i follow that, so the values change fluidly.
anyways, the galleries:
adam burton
ian cameron
lee frost (needs no introduction, i hope)
marc adamus
patrick di fruscia
david clapp
some others that you can google - kah kit yoong and ej peiker (naturescapes).
for the sea, a certain amount of time is needed, that is also fluid, it depends on the waves, how tumultous they are, and how far you are from the water. getting closer means you need a shorter shutter speed to smooth it out. how the appearance would be like would be affected by the amount of motion. sometimes as short as 15 secs is enough, sometimes as long as a minute. it all depends.
for the above shot, i waited until after the sun went down, there was a slight afterglow that you see on the right. the sun location is actually further to the right of the photograph. no nd filters were used here, just a gnd to retain sky detail, and then stop down at lowest possible iso. here the settings are iso100, f/22, 180 seconds in bulb mode.
i hope this helped.