Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

[Josh Bear]

Dear All,

Had a day in London yesterday with my other half and son. Decided to take both ep2 and 5d mark 2. Given the amazing weather the family were happier than usual to sit a wait whilst I set up my "Stuff". Note I did not say happy just happier

Anyway, here is a long exposure of 30 seconds to smooth out the waves on the Thames and show movement in the London eye.

As always critique is welcomed.

Best regards

Josh

[Stephen]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Got to get me one of those filters Josh, I already have the Lee ND Grads but this Big Stopper is very tempting and an alternative to the dark red filter Andrew thatcher uses

[Barr1e]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Just imagine the wheel cruising at that speed.

Pleased you had the opportunity to spend time taking it.

Regards. Barr1e

[Horacio]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

I like it. Regards, Horacio

[Tom]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Hell0o Josh
To be honest I dislike what has happened to the wheel and the effect of the Big Stopper has not contributed to what I imagine would have been a good, if not very interesting, straight picture. I do find this effect all a bit gimmicky but I am sure it is good fun. On a positive note though, it has produced a nice calming effect on the water.

[Stephen]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Hell0o Josh
To be honest I dislike what has happened to the wheel and the effect of the Big Stopper has not contributed to what I imagine would have been a good, if not very interesting, straight picture. I do find this effect all a bit gimmicky but I am sure it is good fun. On a positive note though, it has produced a nice calming effect on the water.

Hi Tom, I suspect Josh was using the river and Wheel just to test out and see what could be achieved with this 10 stop ND filter. Now I can understand you may not be keen on this particular picture, but there is certainly no doubt that it can be used to achieve some beautiful imagery. Here are a couple a shots which show what can be done. Firstly a shot from Andrew Thatchers blog, he has several others. Secondly from Doug Chinnerys blog

[Patrick]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Hi Tom, I suspect Josh was using the river and Wheel just to test out and see what could be achieved with this 10 stop ND filter. Now I can understand you may not be keen on this particular picture, but there is certainly no doubt that it can be used to achieve some beautiful imagery. Here are a couple a shots which show what can be done. Firstly a shot from Andrew Thatchers blog, he has several others. Secondly from Doug Chinnerys blog

Hi Stephen
I must say I have wanted to do something like the shots on the two Blogs you pointed too.
Think I must get me one as well.

Patrick

[Tom]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Hi Tom, I suspect Josh was using the river and Wheel just to test out and see what could be achieved with this 10 stop ND filter. Now I can understand you may not be keen on this particular picture, but there is certainly no doubt that it can be used to achieve some beautiful imagery. Here are a couple a shots which show what can be done. Firstly a shot from Andrew Thatchers blog, he has several others. Secondly from Doug Chinnerys blog

I agree Stephen, that Josh may well have been testing the filter. Like HDR, I am not convinced when I see the results. I have also visited the two blogs (thank you for pointing these to me) and no doubt there are dramatic results there but for me, Andrews especially, is over dramatic and not to my liking. But these type of alterations/effects, irrespective of how they are achieved, are now the order of the day and if evidence is required, one only needs to look at the Gallery pages inside the plethora of photography magazines lining the shelves.
The danger now is that so many of these images, beautiful to many eyes, are beginning to look the same, at least to my eyes, with all the similar style of treatments. I often think of this as the tyranny of technology that may well be straightjacketing individual creativity and a progressive step backwards may well be needed at some stage. These are just my thoughts.
But it is all down to personal taste and it is still hard to please everybody.

[Patrick]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

I agree Stephen, that Josh may well have been testing the filter. Like HDR, I am not convinced when I see the results. I have also visited the two blogs (thank you for pointing these to me) and no doubt there are dramatic results there but for me, Andrews especially, is over dramatic and not to my liking. But these type of alterations/effects, irrespective of how they are achieved, are now the order of the day and if evidence is required, one only needs to look at the Gallery pages inside the plethora of photography magazines lining the shelves.
The danger now is that so many of these images, beautiful to many eyes, are beginning to look the same, at least to my eyes, with all the similar style of treatments. I often think of this as the tyranny of technology that may well be straightjacketing individual creativity and a progressive step backwards may well be needed at some stage. These are just my thoughts.
But it is all down to personal taste and it is still hard to please everybody.

In truth there is nothing new in this type of treatment, if you look at some of the older work of John Bakemore and others you will find this type of shot.
He used an ancient 4x5 view camera, so modern technology has little to do with his shots. He stopped down to f64 or more, you could or can with the large format cameras, and used 25 ISO film then worked his own particular printing magic in the darkroom, no Photoshop, it was still someones dream.

Patrick

[Bear]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

I quite like the effect. I especially like the smoothing effect the long exposure has on the water. It looks a little bit over-exposed to me though. Not much just a bit washed out.

[Tom]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

In truth there is nothing new in this type of treatment, if you look at some of the older work of John Bakemore and others you will find this type of shot.
He used an ancient 4x5 view camera, so modern technology has little to do with his shots. He stopped down to f64 or more, you could or can with the large format cameras, and used 25 ISO film then worked his own particular printing magic in the darkroom, no Photoshop, it was still someones dream.

Patrick

Exactly Patrick; developed his own unique methods but the world of creative photography has "progressed" since then.

[Josh Bear]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

thanks for the comments all.

Bear I agree. On the web the image crosses the line into over exposed. looked ok when processing but thanks for the comment.

Tom, that's the great thing about photography, personal style and preference make it very interesting. Re the filter, in this day of digital manipulation I just love that the "Big stopper" helps me achieve the effect I want in camera without photoshop being anywhere near it.

At the moment I am in the testing phase and the opportunity to use the movement of both Thames and the eye was too good to miss.

The picture I really want to get is my car with moving clouds. I really love Andrew's work and it is this standard I am aspiring for.

Thanks for the interest all.

Best Regards

Josh

[Mike Parr]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Hi can someone explain the process used to acive this effect as I am slightly confused, Although i think the result is very good and can think of various uses for this technique. I might be missing the technical bit as usual
regards Mike

[Patrick]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Exactly Patrick; developed his own unique methods but the world of creative photography has "progressed" since then.

Indeed Old and new technology getting the same result. We have progressed to the same results.

Patrick

[Josh Bear]

Re: Long daytime exposure or second attempt with the Lee big stopper

Hi can someone explain the process used to acive this effect as I am slightly confused, Although i think the result is very good and can think of various uses for this technique. I might be missing the technical bit as usual
regards Mike

Hi, I am sure there are others who could explain better than me, but I will give it a go.

The big stopper is a 10 stop ND filter that fits to the front of your lens. So You set the camera on a tripod, focus manually, then insert the filter into the holder. Then you use manual mode to set the shutter speed and aperture to achieve the results you are looking for.

That's it really.

Best Regards

josh