Jacob Surland

Fine Art Photography

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Blue Hour Water
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Blue Hour Water

Blue Hour Water - using a ND filter
This could look like ice, but it isn't, it is a long exposure of water on a fairly windy day. It's in a narrow bay, the waves don't get big, but they had a little white foam on top. I took this photo using a tripod and because it was very windy, I dug the leggs into the sand on the beach. Otherwise the camera wasn't steady enough for a long exposure.

But how to get a long exposure of 20 seconds around sunset? I did three things:

1) First of all I turned the ISO down to 100. If I had shot it at ISO 200, the exposure time would have been cut in half to 10 seconds, and at ISO 400 only 5 seconds. So to maximize the exposure time I set it to the lowest ISO I could, which was ISO 100.

2) Then I also set the f-stop low (remember that low f-stops are high values) - I had it at f/16. Had I shot it at f/4, which is the highest f-stop the lens will go to, I would also have cut the shutter speed in half a few times. That's why you call a lens that has a very high f-stop like f/2.8 or maybe even f/1.4 a fast lens, because it gives shorter shutter times.

3) The last and equally important step was that I attached a Neutral Density Filter (ND filter) to the lens. A ND-filter is like a pair of sunglasses that blocks the light. ND-filters comes in different flavors that are more or less dark. In this case I attached a ND density filter that stopped down the light two full Exposure Value Steps. Or in plain english it doubled the shutter speed twice, which brought the shutter speed from 5 seconds to 20 seconds.

And that is how I made the water look this way. It came as surprise to myself, that it looked like ice, I had anticipated a smokey look on the water. But I guess it comes from the fact, that it is shot in the blue hour, which adds a blue color to the water.

BWBuildingCloudsDenmarkFiordHolbækLong time exposurePierPublic Swimming PoolWater

  • Untitled photo
  • Basilica Cistern
  • Untitled photo
  • The Millinium Wheel In Fiery Sky in London. On great warm summer night I went down to the Millinium Wheel to get some close ups.  Photo by Jacob Surland. See  <a href="http://www.caughtinpixels.com">http://www.caughtinpixels.com</a>
  • Sunset over field
  • The Frozen Setting Sun
  • Bean At Night
  • Not so hidden passage
  • Library in an old Kings Castle
  • Morning Glow in Milford Sound
  • Sydney Grand Harbour View seen from Hotel Shangri La.
  • Lighthouse on the edge
  • Amsterdam Maritime History Museum
  • Viking ship lit in the Winter
  • Central Station in the morning
  • Fountain in Kings Summer Castle
  • Kings Square Metro
  • Gods light strikes building
  • Pantheon Reflecting the Sun Setting
  • Blue Hour Water
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