it is always difficult to have what you wish to have in frame (except we make the story to capture ….)
A good example, I was looking at the beautiful reflection on beach
Kemasik Beach with reflection
*** above picture is ~1.5minutes after picture below but it look about same before too
and what I have with the “magic minute” moment
The wave "took" over the reflection role ....
with the wave, I have no choice to capture it as leading line instead what I original plan to have the beautiful reflection … so do not change yours position even something change but we make the change into our final output …..
**** it is always difficult but we still try our best to capture the beauty of the nature … enjoy ……
beside standard tools tripod, release cable, ….I using different filter for different situation and effect … e.g. I use super ND to clear silky effect on sunny day which discuss here.
I also make use of CPL to get better colors contrast, reflection, shot the clearness of the water …. sometime I do use it as ND filters too (2 stops) …
e.g. of the highlight of the coconut tree leaf on sunny day
without CPL with CPL but simply turn with CPL and turn/rotate to make less reflection/highlight
the usage of the CPL just like Photography, it never have right or wrong … it just what you prefer to see … but above e.g. is to show how we use to reduce the highlight of the reflective part of the coconut tree leaf
another e.g. to show the water reflection and the saturation of the overall picture
CPL on with rotation for reflectionCPL on with rotation for clear water capture
both sample above show different effect can be archive by rotating the CPL…..
For me, if you serious in Landscape CPL is a necessary tool that always near you so you can have what effect you would like have which not easy archive by other filters or post processing ….
sample
a sample of using CPL
#######################
good news is the Marumi DHG CPL/DHG Super CPL are in-stock now… and thanks LeePhoto bringing in the such a good filters into market
Marumi DHG Circular PL(D)
contact me for price for COD near Kuala Lumpur/PJ/any place I reach …. or by courier service here
to make my life easier, I always keep this table with me while I use my 10 stops filter
10 stops exposure
1/1000
1 sec
1/800
1 sec
1/640
1 sec
1/500
2 sec
1/400
2 sec
1/320
3 sec
1/250
4 sec
1/200
5 sec
1/160
6 sec
1/125
8 sec
1/100
10 sec
1/80
12 sec
1/60
17 sec
1/50
20 sec
1/40
25 sec
1/30
34 sec
1/25
40 sec
1/20
51 sec
1/15
68 sec
1/13
78 sec
1/10
102 sec
1/8
128 sec
1/6
170 sec
1/5
204 sec
1/4
256 sec
1/3
341 sec
0.4
409 sec
0.5
512 sec
10/16
640 sec
10/13
787 sec
1
1024
for anything before 1/1000, our camera should able to give correct exposure … and for me anything more than 1000sec is almost too long to wait for .. so I will only use the filter
Even on day light ? At bright condition how we can get silky feel on sea/lake/river etc ….so normally we will use a big stop of ND and in the market have few well known
At daylight (Malaysia), even with smallest aperture & lowest ISO … we still will get something 1/400-1/100… e.g. even with 1/100 we will never get the silky effect
slow shutter at Dungun
and this was shoot early morning where already bright enough to fail you to make silky wave…by using the “Lee filter – Big Stopper” I shoot with exif below
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 116/1 second ===> 116 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 11/1 ===> ƒ/11
# ISO Speed Ratings = 200
# Original Date/Time = 2010:12:18 07:26:43
or with sun still on the horizon, I still able to make the shutter to 20s to create the silky as exif below sharing
... difficult to reach ...
5dm2 + 1635@18mm + Lee Big Stopper + Lee .9s GND
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 20/1 second ===> 20 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 9/1 ===> ƒ/9
# ISO Speed Ratings = 100
previous share on this super ND with some compare among Big Stopper vs Schneider
it is not easy to make this without the right tool but I think with handhold + some basic tripod we still able to shoot this … I am using Panaroma head , previously I was using Manfrotto 303SPH but very soon I make decision to change to Nodal Ninja due to the flexibility(dissemble to smaller part) & the weight (it is ~4 times lighter)
Compare the competition and avoid falling into the red.
Below are some full spherical panoramic tripod heads that achieve very similar functions. (below prices may not reflect current pricing)
Model
Approx.
Weight
Approx.
Size Closed
Approx.
Retail Price
Nodal Ninja 3 MKII
1lb 1oz.
7″x2″x2″
$209.95
Nodal Ninja 5Lx
1lb 14oz.
8″x3″x2″
$294.95
Manfrotto 303SPH
4lbs 4oz
11x7x6
$517.95
MK Panohead-II
2lbs 4oz
10″x4″
$780.00
Really Right Stuff (no click stops)
2lbs 9oz
12″x6″x4″
$800.00
Kaidan QuickPan Pro
(OUT OF BUSINESS)
4lbs 12oz
12″x5.5″x3″
$849.95
360Precision Adjuste
2lbs 4oz
8.2″x4″x2.2″
$1,175.00
source from http://www.nodalninja.com/
My original plan for this head is to shoot Panorama shot using UWA wide so I can get higher resolution and wider view of my Landscape shots e.g.
1. we need the tool , and for me Nodal Ninja, DSLR and lenses
2. then the only difficult part is to find the entrance pupil/nodal point, a point where it should maintain the center no matter how we rotate our camera
2iv. no matter how we rotate, the 2 stick should maintain at same position
at center
left from center
left from center
right from center
right from center
try to adjust as much as possible to get better result so we can can accurate entrance pupil so all the frame of the picture can stack without any distortion
3. with the correct reading and shoot the series (make sure every pictures have overlap area)
3i. with the software Photoshop or PTGui (pano software) all pictures can be stack together as below
with the reading above then we have the specify len Entrance Pupil which can use to create panorama or 360×180 pano with the setting just shoot with both A & B reading set on the pano head ….
I will keep this update, which mean I will do more pano using this head in near further .. so stay tune ………
and if you use Canon 5dm2
i. SIGMA24mmF1.8
ii. Canon 24105F4L
iii. Canon 1635L m2
iv. Canon 15mm F2.8
and need the entrance pupils … then drop me a message so I can share my reading to you
it is not difficult to shoot stars as long as we have the luck and right setting, and let me share some of my experience… but it is fun and tiring for sure ……
as Earth is rotating itself, so all the stars are moving (except for the Poles star, North star, or call Polaris)… so while we shoot the sky for more than certain time the stars will become either lines or circle (depend which direction, how long you shoot usually >30s small line will be appear). to avoid this, extra telescope equipment (e.g.Losmandy G11 with Celestron C8), we can either shoot a star trail or max ~30-50s else the star will be look like a small lines instead of blinking stars….
e.g. of 727s single exposure
and sample of 30s
– I do not own one those equipment so I do not know in depth .. but basic is those equipment will auto trace the stars so we can have longer exposure (which really need it while in real dark environment and do not want to shoot super high ISO
so … I shoot as below
1. star trail
a. in real dark environment, make a rough estimation of exposure with setting below
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. for the exposure depend on the light pollution … may need few try to get right exposure
vii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
– refer picture above expose 700s in single shutter
b. not so dark environment
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. shoot 10-30s depend how bad is the light pollution
vii. set shooting mode to continuous shooting, and use remote to continue shooting for >20mintues (you should see some line or curve depend which direction you face)
viii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
viiii. use a software call startrail.exe (google it) or StarStax (MAC) and it can auto stack the all shots into single frame which combine the star as line/curve
or check out here
x. shoot north and south 😀 , if possible… if you prefer circle/curve compare to lines
xi. I use a software load into my android call skymap .. real coold application, you should have it , if you love night photography
so here is few sample for option b
~40minutes exposure
exposure of ~30minutes of F2.8 @ISO800
to capture Milky Way, it is almost same like a star but it is more sensitive to light pollution and rotation.. (mean star trail , and we try to avoid that for Milky way as it crease blur cloud object instead the beautiful milky way)
we may need to take note of rule 600 where
600 rule simply basic rule to avoid “star trail” effect while we have too long exposure on our effective focal length.. e.g.
16mm on FULL frame, we should have max exposure of 600/16=37.5s
16mm on canon APS-c , we should have max exposure of 600/16*1.6=23.4
so if we have anything more than the exposure time the the rotation of earth will create “star trail” effect create blur effect on to our frame.
with minimum light pollution .. the color of the milky will look so beautiful
.. Milky from Bake’lalan …
from Bali …
… Milky way from Bali …
e.g. of light pollution
… city light pollution …
and Milky way near city (Kuala Lumpur) .. not viewable by nake eye .. but make use of big aperture len .. it can be capture
