Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

Here's a few from yesterday. First crack with the new variable ND filter (blocks out light so allows longer exsposures giving the silky water look) these shots were between 6-8 seconds duration.
The brown swirls in the water in the log one, are leaves I threw in, just a bit of experimenting.

last one is great, well done mate.

They're really good mate. I like the swirls from the leaves, its an interesting and unusual effect.

Yep, the leaves effects work for me too. Good idea and something different.

Liking the last one very much [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

Very nice

Nice work mate.

Thanks for all the nice comments, still learning a lot and using a bridging camera working around it's limitations. Prolly be another 2 months before I get it out again

Tell me a little more about that filter. I have a canon T3i and would love to take some shots like that

Mac wrote:Tell me a little more about that filter. I have a canon T3i and would love to take some shots like that

Hi Mac

It's just a variable ND filter. Cheapie of ebay. The pro's all use set ND filters as you get better results but you need a bunch of them for different situations.
The basis to how they work is blocking light. By reducing the amount of light hitting the sensor you can increase your shutter opening duration, which in this case gives the water the silky look. Other situations you can get light trails, star movement, clouds etc. also by having a longer shutter speed you get a sharper picture if you keep them camera still. You'll need a good tripod and either remote firing or I cheat and just have shutter delay set ( as just pushing the shutter button can induce enough movement to ruin your shot)

I use a Nikon P520, which is s bridging camera with a 42 x zoom (1000mm equalivent) but the limits on it are the f-stop range and shutter speed of 8" max duration. So all of those pics are taken with 6-8 sec duration. You can get much better results with a full DSLR but for the time and money I'm working around its limitations. I had to buy an adaptor to fit filters.

Here's a waterfall I did a few months back without a filter, it was just a very dark area so I could get about 4 secs without overexposure.

Mac wrote:Tell me a little more about that filter. I have a canon T3i and would love to take some shots like that

Had a quick read on your camera Mac, so much more camera than mine. You can set up to 30 sec
Shutter speed plus 'bulb' which means as long as you hold down the button the shutter stays open. To use that successfully you really need a remote trigger.

Your camera takes 58mm filters. If you don't already get a UV filter and leave it on. Protects the lens and helps with glare. You can stack other filters on top. If you want to try the long exposure I would suggest buying a cheap variable ND getting a feel for it, the look at some fixed stop ND filters of higher quality.

If you haven't already do one day camera course. Before you get to technical it pays to understand aperture, shutter speed and exposure relationships. I only use auto mode as a cheat light sensor. Always shoot in a priority mode or manual.

Wow! Talk about going above and beyond KK! Thanks, brother

And finding a one day camera course at my local community college is on my list of things to do, but so are many other things unfortunately

But thank you again for your advice! Top man, you are

Ha ha no worries Mac, I quite like my photography, it's a good mix of technical and artistic. I've dabbled with it since school, even got to do darkroom developing of my shots back then!

Biggest advice over that waffle is don't be scared to experiment with settings. That's the beauty of digital, you get instant feedback and can delete the crap.

I did try a bit of underwater photography for a few years, but I found it makes you a very anti-social diver and to get even average results the gear is extensive and expensive!