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Before and After – Dragon’s Head, Victoria

[twentytwenty]beforeafter

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Dragon’s Head is located at  Number Sixteen beach, Rye, Victoria and has been on my to do list for a while now. A few months ago, I finally got around to shooting it with an early start for a sunrise shoot. Having not been to the location before, walking out the rock ledge, dodging the little rock pools and trying to find a good angle of the ‘Dragon’s Head’ without taking an accidental swim made for a rather different but enjoyable way to start my Saturday morning.

Finding an Angle

Composing my image I clearly wanted to make the ‘Dragon’s Head’ the key part of my image. But with this in mind, I needed some other things in the photo to balance the photo out and give it my own personal touch. That’s not to say someone before me hasn’t taken the exact same photo but I needed something more than just a photo of the object. For this reason I opted to use the water cascading over the small rock ledge as a foreground element and leading line to the Dragon’s Head. Getting this angle required me to get low and a few attempts until the right surge of water came across (and a few yanks of the camera to safety.. Crisis averted luckily ;)).

In person, Dragon’s Head is actually quite small, so much so, it took me a bit of stumbling around in the dark with the head torch to actually notice it. For this reason, I really had to leverage traditional composition techniques by using a leading line, in this case, the water cascading over the rock ledge to lead the viewer to the rock. I think it worked well but I’d be keen to hear otherwise.

Shooting the Image

The photo was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 17-40 and Cokin Z-Pro graduated filter with a 2.5 second exposure at F/16. Using the graduated neutral density filter was useful for holding back the sun rising to the left of the frame which would have otherwise created a partial highlight in the left of the frame. Through using a graduated neutral density filter for this part of the shot, this allowed me to not get any highlights in my sky while maintaining a good exposure of the bottom of the frame. I find this provides you with more of a neutral/flat look to your straight out of camera image but gives you a lot more space to work with when it comes to post processing the image.

Post Processing the Image

Working with a photo of a sunrise which doesn’t have any sharp highlights or shadows saves a lot of time when it comes to post processing. For this reason, post processing for this image of Dragon’s Head was processed in Lightroom and included:

  • Straightening the image
  • Applying a graduated neutral density filter in Lightroom to darken the sky and further bring out the sunrise colours
  • Using the adujstment brush to paint over the Dragon’s Head and the bottom of the frame to make both appear brighter
  • Simple curves adjustment over the whole image adjusting the shadows, midtones and highlights to give it a bit more of a punchy contrast

Without going overboard on an image that could have almost passed straight out of camera, that was the extent of the processing and that was that.

Thanks for reading and if you ever get a chance, be sure to visit Dragon’s Head down at Rye on the Mornington Peninsular on sunrise. A stunning place.

– Alex

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A Quick Weekend in Tasmania

Admiring the lights at Dark Mofo 2014

IMG_3877As you’ve probably come to notice through reading past posts on my blog, I shoot a lot with Jon Sander, mostly because he brings refreshments and carries my gear whenever we go take photos. Haha I kid. He’s a good guy that lives close to me so when we’re both feeling spontaneous and in the mood to take photos it works well and we’re able to organise something very last minute. He’s been nagging me for a while now to go to New Zealand with him for a week. Instead I proposed that we still go overseas but to my home state, Tasmania. Originally the idea of the trip was to walk into Reynold’s Falls which is situated not far from Cradle Mountain. I’ve been wanting to walk it for probably 5 years now but have never got around to it. We decided to book flights in Feb to do the walk around June. It was a great idea at the time until we started doing some research and received some very valuable information from Casey Smith and Laurie Davison (thanks to both for the information provided, extremely grateful and will definitely come in handy when we do eventually walk it in summer). It was later when we sat down and started to really plan the walk that it occurred to us, we were aiming to walk 7-8 hours into the waterfall around the shortest day of the year. Factoring in a 3~ hour drive to the start of the walk, it was going to be a long day without much time for photos and that’s not even taking into account what the weather would potentially be doing. In the end we decided due to the shortage of light around that time of the year and the potential that the waterfalls could be flooded we decided to can the trip and arrange a last minute trip that would be focused on a quick trip around parts of Tasmania.

Dark Mofo 2014

Admiring the lights at Dark Mofo 2014
Admiring the lights at Dark Mofo 2014
Close up of one of the many Dark Mofo 2014 light installations
Close up of one of the many Dark Mofo 2014 light installations

Last year I was disappointed to of missed Dark Mofo’s first light show installation.  This photo by Gavin Wakerall displays last year’s installation in its stunning form. There were so many amazing photos taken of the installation and I was kicking myself for not making a last minute trip home. When I heard that Dark Mofo had a new light installation planned for this year where instead of a fixed light installation, the lights would be spaced around Hobart and operated by the general public, our cancelled Reynold’s Falls trip wasn’t turning out to be as bad as we originally thought.

Coming from Hobart airport and not quite sure how bright the lights would be, we visited Bellerive a favourite location of mine and a great spot for a direct view of the city. Fortunately for us the lights were well and truly visible from the Hobart eastern shore and we killed an hour or so taking some photos before making a quick trip into the city for a closer look. I actually found it incredibly difficult to photograph. Imagine school kids wired on sugar operating the lights, fluctuating around the sky randomly and quickly. In the end I opted to stand on the jetty and take a self portrait admiring the lights as they did their thing. All in all, it was a nice way to kick start the weekend and get things going.

[box size=”large” style=”rounded”]Curious how the photograph was captured and post processed? Don’t miss the Dark Mofo 2014 Before and After post[/box]

Clifton Beach

Not keen to waste any time we decided to take the chance and get up early for a sunrise shoot at Clifton Beach. It’s a favourite spot of mine as it’s reasonably close to Hobart (35~ mins drive) and has plenty of opportunities for photos. Unfortunately for us though, the sunrise was clouded over and we didn’t see any light or colour but nevertheless, we pulled out our camera’s and had a bit of fun.  Admittedly it was pretty awful shooting conditions but nice to break things up before heading towards the mountains later in the day.

An overcast sunrise at Clifton Beach
An overcast sunrise at Clifton Beach
Jon shooting the best sunrise of his life...
Jon shooting the best sunrise of his life…

Although for a moment there, the dull (read – terrible) sunrise almost ruined the trip all together with the first shot splashing all over my camera. Freaking out I quickly smothered my camera with my jumper, turned it off and put it aside until we got home. Having photographed Clifton many a times, it was nice just to potter around the rocks and explore for possible future compositions when the tides and swell are different. After a slightly nerve wracking trip home, worried about my camera, we got home and I eventually turned it on to find that it was working fine. Phew. Thanking the camera gods for that. I haven’t had the best luck over the years and managed to drown my previous 5D Mark II at Turpin Falls a couple of years ago. More about that day and tips on what to do if your camera does go for a swim or gets a few splashes can be read in that article. Although a rumoured Canon 5D Mark 4 or experimenting with a new Sony mirrorless like Ricardo De Cunha has recently done would have been slightly tempting if it was to have died 😉 With the worry of a dead camera resolved, we were all ready to go for a colder trip to the Hartz Mountains National Park in the hunt for cold foggy Mountains.

Waves rolling through Clifton Beach
Waves rolling through Clifton Beach

Hartz Mountains National Park

Selfies - I've got them down pat
Selfies – I’ve got them down pat

After finishing up at Clifton Beach and driving home in the rain, we weren’t feeling overly confident about our next trip off to the Hartz Mountains National Park so slightly took our time as we ate breakfast pondering the rest of the day. Tasmania being Tasmania where the weather is all over the show, the weather slightly cleared and we decided to take a chance and continue with our trip with a quick stop at Huonville for a bite to eat. I’d been wanting to walk into the Hartz Mountains National Park for a while now as each time I’d walk in with friends it had been shrouded in a sea of fog so we hoped this time it may be slightly clear allowing us to get some photos of the Hartz Mountains.

Road side reflections near Huonville with the Fujifilm X100
Road side reflections near Huonville with the Fujifilm X100

Once we arrived at the Hartz Mountains National Park the fog was quickly rolling through the area.  Wanting to get a photo of the Hartz Mountains not completely shrouded in fog, we got a wriggle on and quickly powered our way to the Ladies Tarn, the first of the tarn’s along this beautiful day walk.

Hartz Mountains National Park - A great day walk
Hartz Mountains National Park – A great day walk
Jon at Ladies Tarn, Hartz Mountains National Park
Jon at Ladies Tarn, Hartz Mountains National Park

We arrived at Ladies Tarn in perfect timing with the fog just sitting about right and the water not ripply. It wasn’t long and the breeze had picked up bringing in plenty of more fog and the water quite ripply. It was nice spending half an hour here just pottering around taking snaps in the  such a quiet and beautiful place (admittedly that does sound corny but it was beautiful up there). The images below are both captured with my Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 17-40 and B+W 110 10 stop neural density filter. With the fog and breeze starting to pick up we decided to keep walking in the hope it would pass and we could make it to the top of the Hartz Mountains and get a view beneath the cloud/fog.

Ladies Tarn, Hartz National Park
Ladies Tarn, Hartz National Park
Playing around with minimalist long exposures at the Hartz Mountains National Park
Playing around with minimalist long exposures at the Hartz Mountains National Park

After spending some time at the Ladies Tarn we decided to walk a bit further in the hope of getting a nice view from the top of the Hartz Mountains but unfortunately the weather had other ideas and the fog was very much setting in for the rest of the day so we set off home.

Arve Falls

As we were leaving, we were around 45 minutes away from sunset and quite close to a waterfall we spotted signposted as we drove into the national park.  Rather than drive and hope to find a good location in time for the sunset, we decided to take a quick walk in to Arve Falls for some photos as the sun slowly went down. It was a nice way to spend the day, starting by taking photos in the dark as the sun rose and taking photos in light as the sun went down and it became dark. Here are some of my favourites from Arve Falls.

Arve Waterfall
Arve Waterfall
Arve Falls
Arve Falls
Standing on top of Arve Falls looking down the huge drop
Standing on top of Arve Falls looking down the huge drop
Arve Falls, Hartz Mountains National Park
Arve Falls, Hartz Mountains National Park

Bicheno

After checking the forecast and it expected to be patchy rain for the following morning, we decided to give the sunrise a miss and slowly make our way up the Tasmanian east coast to Bicheno. After making many a trips to St Helen’s to explore the Bay of Fires I’ve never really stopped and properly spent some time in Bicheno other than to enjoy a quick chicken and camembert pie (amazing I might add).

En-route to Bicheno with a quick stop at one of my favourite parts of the drive
En-route to Bicheno with a quick stop at one of my favourite parts of the drive

I’d been meaning to spend some time in Bicheno for a while so we decided to call it home for a night with the intention of taking photos along Harvey Farm Road and Redbill Beach with the hope of getting a clear sky to capture the milky way. Unfortunately for us, the plan for milky way photos wasn’t meant to be with the sky clouding over and then later dispersing to bring out the full moon. But we made the most of it and had some fun shooting until late into the early morning and then getting up early to shoot the sunrise.

Sunset and a full moon

Waves crashing on sunset at Bicheno, Tasmania
Waves crashing on sunset at Bicheno, Tasmania
Jon taking a photo as the light quickly disappeared. May have resulted in very wet feet after this photo...
Jon taking a photo as the light quickly disappeared. May have resulted in very wet feet after this photo…
Sunset at Harvey Farm Road, Bicheno
Sunset at Harvey Farm Road, Bicheno
My dream house - Such a beautiful location.
My dream house – Such a beautiful location.
Staring at the sky wondering where my milky way is?
Staring at the sky wondering where my milky way is?

Amazing the difference a few hours can make. We decided to head back to our accomodation and watch the World Cup for a couple of hours. Having pretty much resigned ourselves that the cloud had set in for the night, I stuck my head out the door and joked to Jon would we go out if the cloud magically disappeared? What do you know? They disappeared so we put on our wet shoes and went for another stroll down the beach, shooting photos until around 3am or so and then getting back up a few hours later for sunrise. Good times.

The cloud quickly dispersed so we couldn't resist a team moon lit photo
The cloud quickly dispersed so we couldn’t resist a team moon lit photo

Up early for the sunrise at Redbill Beach, Bicheno

Up and early for sunrise at Redbill Beach, Bicheno
Up and early for sunrise at Redbill Beach, Bicheno
Light hitting the dunes at Red Bill Beach, Bicheno
Light hitting the dunes at Red Bill Beach, Bicheno
Getting my feet wet. I'm not sure if my shoes remained dry all trip...
Getting my feet wet. I’m not sure if my shoes remained dry all trip…

Thanks

We had a great time and I’d highly recommend a trip to Tassie that gives you a bit of everything. It was nice to be enjoying a hike through beautiful foggy landscape one day and then be knee deep in water the next. I’m also excited to announce that Jon has finally launched a website/portfolio under the name of Drift and Wander. Check it out. He will be using it to release photo series from Patagonia adventures and upcoming trips. Drift and Wander Just in case you’re curious – Definitely going to give Reynold’s Falls a go in summer when there’s more light. Can’t wait. Thanks for reading! – Alex PS – If you enjoyed this post and want to receive an email of future posts, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter or jump on an follow me on Facebook.

 Related Articles

  • Guide to daytime long exposures – A guide i put together a while now that looks together at what equipment you will need for capturing long exposures during the day like I have in this post.
  • After a fun weekend project? Use welding glass as a neutral density filter –  Not ready to drop $100+ on a 10 stop neutral density filter? Use a piece of welding glass to imitate the effect. I show you how I’ve used welding glass in the past and walk you through how to remove the colour cast that the glass creates.
  • Little stuck on idea’s for your long exposures? A while ago I did a brain dump on all things long exposures with some of my favourite concepts for long exposure photographs. The possibilities with long exposures are endless and plenty of fun.
  • With winter not too far away, why not get out and photograph some waterfalls. This guide on how to photograph waterfalls will get you started.
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Weekend Trip down the Great Ocean Road

the great ocean road

Enroute to Wye River
Enroute to Wye River

Exploring the Great Ocean Road

After living in Melbourne for almost 3 years it didn’t feel right that I hadn’t been down to the Great Ocean Road since moving over. Hyped for its stunning coast line and beautiful waterfalls I had been itching to get down there and take some photos. After planning it for a while now, I finally made my way down to the Great Ocean Road and the Great Otways National Park headed towards Wye River with some friends and it did not disappoint.

As much as I love living in inner city Melbourne, I do miss being able to jump in the car and get to great coastline within 30-45 minutes like I would previously when living in Hobart and fire off some photos. So whenever an opportunity arises to get out and photograph some of Victoria’s coastline I’m always eager to go. A while ago now two friends and I decided to plan for a weekend trip down to the area for a lazy weekend and photography.

Jan Juc

Our photography route down the Great Ocean Road with a detour via Jan Juc and the Great Otways National Park
Our photography route down the Great Ocean Road with a detour via Jan Juc and the Great Otways National Park

We decided to leave after work on Friday night and Melbourne being Melbourne quickly got caught in peak hour traffic. Rather than let the night go to waste we took a little detour to get some photos of the sunset as we made our way down. A quick look on Google Maps and we settled on Jan Juc. I’m pretty sure the decision was made on name alone. But luckily for us, the beach didn’t disappoint and was topped off with a stunning sunset.

The first photo was captured with a set up of the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 17-40, tripod, B+W 110 10 stop filter and a .9 Cokin Z-Pro neutral density filter to darken the sky. One downside to using the Cokin graduated filters (other than the slight colour cast) is that you have to be careful where you position the filter. For this shot I positioned the filter on an angle (think 10pm on a clock) to have the filter coming down from the corner. This avoided the cliffs being gradually darkened which would of occured if placed at the 12 oclock position and going directly from top to bottom. For this reason graduated neutral density filters while great, definitely have their short comings and something you may want to consider if looking to purchase some.

Jan Juc Sunset
Sunset at Jan Juc (5 minute long exposure)
Ronnie Ling
Ronnie shooting at Jan Juc (Taken with my Fujifilm X100)
You have to kill time waiting for the sunset somehow right?
You have to kill time waiting for the sunset somehow right?

Wye River

As we continued down further we eventually made our way to Wye River a little later than originally planned. Wye River is a quiet little town situated along the Great Ocean Road that’s less touristy and more relaxed. I much prefer it over Apollo Bay which is often swamped with tourists.

Wye River has a stunning beach, pub, cafe and makes a great spot to situate yourself for exploring the rest of the Great Ocean Road. Our plan for the weekend was to shoot some seascapes around the area and explore inland with a trip to the Great Otway National Park which is home to Beauchamp Falls and Hopetoun Falls. Both waterfalls I had been wanting to get to for sometime now but being around 3 hours from Melbourne are a little too far for a day trip.

Wye River Sunset
Dusk at Wye River
DSCF0171
Jon capturing the sunset at Wye River
Wye River
Sunrise reflections at Wye River (3 minute long exposure)
Cold feet at Hopetoun Falls
Cold feet at Hopetoun Falls

The Great Otways National Park

After waking up early to shoot the sunrise at Wye River, we decided to grab a coffee and make our way more inland towards Hopetoun Falls and Beauchamp Falls. I had seen the two locations photographed many times before so I was keen to get down there and photograph them myself.

It was a cloudy morning as wet set off from Wye River but unfortunately on arrival to the Great Otway National Park, the sun began to slowly rise through the clouds and create patchy light over the waterfalls. While not ideal, I find if you are shooting with patchy sunlight that shooting slightly under exposed is a great way to avoid over exposure and provide you with a more even exposure. For some photos where there was patchy sun light in the photograph, I used the adjustment brush within Lightroom with the highlights and exposure decreased slightly and painted over the sun lit areas. It works well to create a more evenly lit scene. Once again, not ideal and I’d much prefer to be shooting in overlight conditions where the light is even but you have to make the most of what you’re given on the day right?

A while ago now I put together an article on waterfall photography. If you haven’t shot waterfalls before and looking to get started you may want to give it a read to get started.  It’s nothing fancy but just goes through the basics on how I photograph waterfalls with some examples of shutter speed and some basic tips.

Hopetoun Falls - Alex Wise
Hopetoun Falls (2.5 sec long exposure)
IMG_9100
Jon and Ronnie photographing Hopetoun Falls

 

Conditions were patchy at Hopetoun Falls with some harsh sunlight at times. It wasn't ideal but lucky for us the sun made way at times allowing for some photos
Conditions were patchy at Hopetoun Falls with some harsh sunlight at times. It wasn’t ideal but lucky for us the sun made way at times allowing for some photos
Hopetoun Falls (2 sec long exposure)
Hopetoun Falls (2 sec long exposure)
Beauchamp Falls
Beauchamp Falls (3.2 sec long exposure)
Fauna of Hopetoun Falls
Fauna of Hopetoun Falls

 

Beauchamp Falls from the look out
Beauchamp Falls from the look out

Three ugly mugs

Doing my best to avoid the sun with this stream photo of Hopetoun Falls
Doing my best to avoid the sun with this stream photo of Hopetoun Falls

Star Trails at Wye River

As part of getting down to Wye River we were also keen to shoot some star trails (a plan that was always pending what the weather had in store for us). Lucky for us, the weather and conditions were perfect for star trail photography. Generally star trails are best photographed around the new moon of every month. While not exactly the day of the new moon, our time at Wye River was a few days after the new moon (this sounds like a Twilight novel or something…) and the sky was clear which created great conditions for star trail photography.

I must admit, star trail photography is something I struggle with. I’m not sure whether it’s the impatience of waiting around for the exposure to complete (in this case 90 minutes) or just the bashing around in the pitch black dark but this time I didn’t want to let past experiences deter me so I set up on blue hour near ruins of an old jetty at Wye River. The plan was to take 10 minute exposures at F5 at ISO 100. Through taking 9 exposures at 10 minutes I then opened them as layers in Photoshop and set the layer modes to ‘Lighten’ which combines all the images and only keeps the lightest part of the images.

In hindsight I wish I shot for another 90 minutes to capture more of the star trails but with episodes of The Newsroom running low on my Nexus 7 (great show by the way!) and sitting alone in the dark I decided to call it a night with this being the final result. The beach is situated below the Great Ocean Road which created ambient light over the rocks and pylons which worked quite well.

Wye River Star Trails
Star trails at Wye River (90 minute long exposure)

Thanks

Apologies for the Great Ocean Road and Great Otways National Park image overload!

If you’re ever down this way I’d recommend you make the trip down. Most flock down this way to see the 12 Apostles but I’d take your time driving down as there’s a lot more to see along the Great Ocean Road beyond the 12 Apostles. I do hope to photograph the 12 Apostles one day but for the moment other parts of the Great Ocean Road have me tempted to further explore.  Time to get another weekend organised I think…!

Hope you had a good weekend and thanks for reading.

– Alex

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Long Exposure Photography Ideas

long exposure night photography ideas

For a while now I’ve been putting together small articles about long exposure photography with a how to on waterfall photography and another on daytime long exposures. It’s one thing to learn technique but what good is it if you’re struggling for ideas on what to take photos of? This guide should help you with some ideas for long exposure photography. Some styles touched on include:

  • Traffic and night long exposure photography – Using traffic to your advantage with the best angles and time to take this style of photography
  • Waterfall long exposure photography – What to look out for when taking waterfall photographs. Little secrets to make yours stand out from the  rest
  • Star trail long exposure photography – Capture spirals of stars in the sky with these tips that will help your star trail photography
  • Sea long exposure photography – Takes a look at what things I look out for when taking seascape photographs and how to combine these various elements to create a great photograph
  • Bonus ideas that don’t fall into the above  – Did you know you can use a long exposure to make a busy location like a busy pedestrian crossing appear a ghost town?  This and other neat ideas are included in this section

This list of photo ideas isn’t a definitive list and only touches the surface of what’s possible through long exposures. I love that long exposures offer photographers the ability to transform a scene to how we normally view it.  People are always pushing the envelope and finding ways to use long exposures like this beautiful series from Jakob Wagner entitled Urban Zoom that captures long exposures of cities. During the exposure he zooms the camera to create beautiful streaks. Although not necessarily new, it’s been executed perfectly and a neat little trick that shows the possibilities of long exposure photography. Don’t forget to check out another post that includes a free neutral density chart that’s a must for any photographers bag.

What You Will Need

Rather than go into great detail of the various equipment you will need for long exposures, I’ll try keep this short and a rough guide on what equipment I recommend. It is by no means the only equipment you can use (other brands are more than fine) it’s just based on the brands I personally use. A few things that I would personally recommend include:

  • A good neutral density filter like the B+W 110 helps a lot for long exposure photography
    A good neutral density filter like the B+W 110 neutral density filter helps a lot for long exposure photography

    Canon 5D Mark III – This thing is a work horse, handling noise perfectly and compliments the 17-40 nicely with its weather sealing

  • Canon 17-40 – An ultra wide angle lens suits long exposure photography perfectly especially with its weather sealing
  • Manfrotto tripod – Essential to having your camera remain still and avoid any shake during the long exposure
  • B+W 110 neutral density filter – A strong neutral density filter is great to have in your kit as this will allow you to take long exposures (2-5 minutes) during the day
  • Intervalometer – These remote controls are great as they allow you to manually dial in the exposure time you want, program it to take an exposure every X seconds (great for timelapse) and are generally just great for long exposure photography. There’s cheaper Asian brands on the market which I’d also recommend searching for if you’re on a budget

As I mentioned this is by no means the essential equipment for long exposure. Use whatever is available to you financially. I’ve seen people take some great stuff even with an iPhone so it goes to show that you don’t necessarily always need great gear but it does help 😉

Traffic and Night Long Exposures

Tasman Bridge Long Exposure Night Photograph
One of my first long exposure night photos

Long exposure night photography is where my photography all started with this photo taken looking towards the Tasman Bridge in Tasmania. It’s what started it all for me and gave me the long exposure bug.

Some ideas and tips  for capturing long exposures of traffic:

  • Look for a high vantage point that will allow you to look down on the passing traffic (see the first photo below as an example)
  • Timing is key. Try to base your timing around peak hour traffic to get a consistent flow of traffic at all times. There’s nothing worse than standing around in the dark waiting for cars to come by. Instead if you’re shooting at peak hour you’ll never have any issues with waiting for cars to come through
  • If you can’t get a high vantage point, try get close to the action. Sometimes I find setting the tripod on the corner of a busy intersection and zooming in a little will create a sense that your camera is only centimeters away from the action

  • Experiment with varying exposures from long exposures so the traffic creates red and white lines to shorter exposures where you can almost make out the detail of the passing cars. Melbourne is quite iconic for its yellow taxi’s and trams. In the two images in the bottom left hand corner below I wanted to capture the movement of these in a long exposure but to avoid blurring them out completely I opted for a shorter long exposure
  • Aim to take your traffic long exposure photographs around sunset, sunrise or blue hour. Your aim is to photograph the tail or front lights of passing cars and it’s only obvious that this will be more around time when light is limited and cars will need their lights on. The bonus of this is that your camera will be able to obtain a long exposure without the need for neutral density filters and you will get some beautiful colour in the sky. My first traffic long exposure photo taken above was taken late at night so the sky is lost and a dull black. If i was to of shot this on sunset or blue hour I would of had a lovely sky against the traffic streaks. It’s little things like this that can make a photo
  • When scouting locations suitable for long exposures of passing traffic I’ll try to base it around major entry/exit points of a city. For the top two photographs below, both are major entry and exit points to Melbourne. It was important that I timed the photos for peak hour to ensure there was a steady flow of traffic to capture
Traffic Long Exposures
Traffic Long Exposures

Waterfall Long Exposures

A while ago I put together an article that touches on what settings to use for waterfall photography. The article looks at how to shoot long exposures in daylight for waterfalls, demonstrates the effect shutter speed can have for waterfall photography and other little tips. That aside let’s look at some ideas for waterfall long exposure photography:

  • It doesn’t have to be just about big waterfalls. Sometimes streams that come further down from the main waterfall can create great composition points for you photo. Take the second photo on the top row for example, the main waterfall is a lot further up stream but the two rocks created a nice composition point for my photo
  • Look for little swirls of foam or water coming off the waterfall or further down stream. When shooting waterfalls I’ll try to keep an eye out for little pockets of water doing interesting things. Try to study them for a few seconds and imagine how they will look if you were to use a 3-5 second long exposure. To give you an idea what I mean, check out the bottom two photos on the third row where little lines of spray were flowing down off the waterfall and created an interesting effect in the long exposure. This adds a nice touch to your composition and makes it stand out a bit more from the rest
  • Get side on to the waterfall. Most people will generally shoot a waterfall looking directly front on. Why not try something different and go to the side? Just be warned though your lens will quickly accumulate spray from the waterfall if you’re not careful. It’s a matter of quickly planting the tripod, looking through and lining things up, firing the shot and moving the camera out of the spray. Rinse and repeat until you get a shot you’re happy with
  • Long exposures are great but make sure it’s not too long. Photographing long exposures of waterfalls looks great with its blurred water but be mindful that over-doing the exposure time can introduce blur to other parts of the image where you may not want it. One example of this is the blur a long exposure can introduce to the foliage area of a photo. Instead of the foliage appearing sharp and crisp, it instead looks blurry and dull. Try to be mindful that 5 second and onward exposures is where this starts to become an issue
Waterfall Long Exposure Ideas
Waterfall Long Exposure Ideas

Star Trail Long Exposures

Admittedly star trail photography is something I’m still very much learning about but here’s some things that I’ve learnt from my experience of standing out in the cold for hours on end.

  • Get out of the city and head out for a drive somewhere that’s not near surrounding housing or industry. This will allow you to get a better view of the stars due to less ambient light from houses and industry. 
  • Star trails are best photographed on a moonless evening or when the moon is not above the horizon. When the moon is at it’s peak, it creates too much light in the sky and lightens the stars.
  • Use a torch to focus on your composition element. For the shot below I shined a torch on the tree below, focused and then turned the camera into manual focus. Don’t fall victim to my common mistake of leaving the camera in auto focus and have the camera try to find focus again after I’ve preset the exposure. Alternatively you can set the camera into manual focus and set the focus to infinity. This technique works best with an ultra wide angle lens
  • Capture the stars spiraling in the sky as the earth naturally rotates. An example of this is the shot below which is achieved by using a long exposure (30 minutes) facing the northern direction (assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere) that captured the stars moving and appearing as concentric rings. What’s that you ask? To break it down a little… As you set up the camera on the tripod facing northerly (pretending you’re in the northern hemisphere here for a moment) and you fire your long exposure, the camera captures the stars spiraling in a circle due to the earth rotating on a north-south axis. It’s a little confusing and I must confess something I’m still very much learning but don’t be put off. It’s not as daunting as it sounds
  • Bring a long a torch or head light for some light painting. Being out of the city and in a dark environment it might be hard to see composition so why not use your head torch to light up your composition midway through the exposure. I used this technique on the trees in the shot below to brighten them during the exposure

Seascape Long Exposures

Star Trails
Star Trails

Seascapes offer so much potential for photographers looking to capture long exposures as there’s so many changing elements which come alive with a long exposure. One of my first articles when starting this blog was about daytime long exposures. I love being by the sea and one of my favourite long exposure photos I’ve taken is this photo at Howden where the long exposure created a lovely blur on the clouds and captured the reflections perfectly. Some of my favourite ideas and tips for seascape long exposure photography include:

  • Depending on the location, clifftops make a great vantage point for long exposure photographs especially if there’s a wild sea with waves constantly crashing.
  • Not much water movement? Look up and take in the sky. Sometimes I’ll arrive at a scene and there won’t be much water movement but the clouds are a mix of overcast and fine which create a nice patchy cloud coverage. I find this type of coverage great as when there’s a bit of breeze about (which there normally is if shooting by the sea) they create a blur to add an extra element to your composition.  Check out the two photos on the second row to give you an idea of what I mean. Both scenes had limited water movement but lots of patchy cloud to balance out the shot in the long exposure
  • Keep an eye out for things with that have aged over time. Some of my favourites include old jetties that are still in use and even better, ruins from jetties and other things that poke out of the water. They create a great composition element through the rough textures and leading lines they can sometimes create. Generally I’ll scout around coastal towns or areas popular for fishing as there’s bound to be some old jetties or boat launch ramps that were once used for fishing. Unfortunately these seem to be slowly getting pulled down over time so get in while you can
  • Lookouts make a great vantage point for your composition. Tourist lookouts offer a great view of a location making them a great spot to setup your camera for a long exposure.  Try to be courteous of tourists and others coming to admire the view by not getting in other people’s way too much or setup elevated out of the way
Seascape photography ideas
Seascape photography ideas

 

Finding Beauty in the Unexpected

One thing I love about long exposure photography is that the possibilities are endless. We could go on all day about long exposure photography ideas but here’s a couple more of my favourite ideas not listed above:

  • Patchy skies create a great composition element. Wandering around Hobart a few years ago I snapped the second photo on the top row below.  It’s not a great shot by any means but the clouds blurred from a long exposure against the old architecture of Hobart add a diffferent touch to your average photo
  • Dial your camera into a long exposure and stick your camera out the window to capture a sense of speed
  • Grab some sparklers or a torch and run around in front of the camera for some long exposure night photography. This style of light painting works best by grabbing a torch and placing some coloured cellophane or even coloured cd cases over the front of the torch. It’s a neat little trick but has nothing on the beautiful work of Denis Smith with his Ball of Light project. A must for anyone looking for light painting inspiration
  • Use a long exposure to exaggerate fog of a scene. I hate to admit this but the forth row photo beneath a bridge on a foggy morning there actually wasn’t that much fog as the photo leads you to believe. By using a long exposure I was able to capture the fog as it moved down the river which exaggerated the fog in the photo. Although be mindful that using a long exposure during foggy conditions can fog up your camera lens if you’re not careful. Try to check your  lens often throughout the shoot to ensure you don’t get home with a card full of unusable images
  • Remove people from a busy scene with a long exposure. Living in a busy city (Melbourne, Australia) I’ll arrive at a scene to take sunset photos (like this one at St Kilda Pier) and it will be crowded with tourists.  Rather than take a photo with people cluttered all through my photo I’ll set the camera up for a long exposure. It works perfectly and I’m able to take a photo of a scene with no people getting in my shot. Just be mindful that you need quite a long exposure for this effect to work well and also for people not to stand and stop too long in your frame. This post-apocalyptic photo series by Lucie & Simon captures major cities appear as ghost towns by using this effect
Playing around with other long exposure ideas
Playing around with other long exposure ideas

What’s your Favourite Long Exposure Subject?

As I said in the introduction to this post that the possibilities of taking long exposure photographs are endless. What do you enjoy taking photos of using long exposure that I’ve missed?

long exposure chart
Don’t forget to get your free long exposure chart. A must for any photographer’s bag

If you found this article useful I’d be super grateful if you shared it via your favourite social networks to others who might be also interested in the topic. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for future posts like this. You might also be interested in a previous post called the magic cloth technique that is a very effective and easy DIY neutral density filter trick.

Have any questions or comments about the article? Feel free to drop an email as I’m always happy to help 🙂

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to give my recent article on what equipment is recommended for landscape photography a read.

Thanks for reading and i hope these long exposure photography ideas have been of help!

– Alex

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The Magic Cloth Technique – DIY Graduated Neutral Density Filter

I came across the magic cloth technique a few years ago when researching graduated neutral density filters but never actually got around to trying it. Recently a friend linked me to the stunning work that Tony Brackley-Prower had achieved by using this technique and was itching to try. The technique is a DIY neutral density filter that costs you nothing to try.

What are Neutral Density Filters?

Most photographers (myself included) use neutral density filters when shooting seascapes. These filters normally come in a rectangle size with black/dark at the top and clear at the bottom. Photographers use these filters when there is different levels of brightness in a scene. This is common when photographing seascapes on sunset where the sky can appear slightly brighter than the surrounding foreground. If photographed without filters this can result in the sky being over exposed as the camera attempts to compensate the darker foreground. We use neutral density filters to avoid this problem by placing the darker part of the filter at the top of the frame to capture a more even and natural exposure. Most neutral density filters are expensive with a Cokin set and a Lee kit . I was curious to how the magic cloth technique would compare to these more expensive neutral density filters.

Fast forward to December this year when I was visiting family and friends in my home town of Hobart, I gave the technique a try at Park Beach with some long exposures.

Magic Cloth Technique

The technique is appealing as it’s so simple and costs nothing. No surprises that the technique is based on using a cloth or even as Tony suggests, you can also use a sock, wallet, or cap. Really the possibilities are endless but the most important thing is finding an object which you can easily hold over the front over the camera to cover a certain part of the image. Once you’ve found a suitable object to use for the magic cloth technique, you’re now ready. The technique is best used for long exposures as this gives you greater control and flexibility over the image.

It is suggested to meter the image in your camera around 2 stops over exposed when using the technique to get the best possible exposure. Begin by starting the exposure and covering the lens with the object. Over time, gradually move the object up (towards the sky or the top of the frame). The slower you raise the cloth results in a darker grad. In simple terms this means your sky will receive less exposure and be considerably darker. If instead you raise the magic cloth faster, this will result in a less darker grad and brighter sky.

And really that’s all there is to the magic cloth technique. Experiment with the technique and you will slowly get a feel for how it works and how it might be beneficial for certain scenes. Now that I’ve tried the technique with seascapes I’d love to try with photographing waterfalls up close to avoid sea spray going all over my lens and to capture greater detail of the surrounding foliage areas.

You might also be interested in my waterfall photography guide. A thorough guide that covers waterfall photography, the ideal weather, equipment you’ll need, visual examples of how shutter speed works and other bits.

If you’re new to long exposures, my guide on daytime long exposures might also be of interest.

Hopefully this was helpful! 🙂