Long Exposures with no Filters

[Zaf]

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything specifically about this, so sorry if it has already been posted!

I came across this article Long Exposures with no Filters and got me thinking...

The results look a lot better as the image averaging helps with reducing noise and no hot pixels from long exposures, plus will save me £100's on Lee filters!

So is anyone actively using this method instead or have tried it?

I realise it is used a lot in astrophotography but I am thinking more about land/seascapes etc

 

[Spleen Sauce]

I haven't but I've been meaning to give it a go, the site you've linked to seems to have great instructions and even provides the photoshop script for the opacities, should be easy enough!

 

[D.P.]

I don't do long exposure shots in general, especially not of the sea, far too cliched. But this is a far superior technique to filters, much easier and cheaper, resulting in a much better final image.

its also a good technique to capture photographs of famous landmarks for example and get rid of the people.

 

[Zaf]

I never even thought of the latter D.P. good point!

I will be going on Safari in July camping and finishing at Victoria falls, so I was hoping to use this method for astro and vic falls... cliched or not

 

[redline]

....especially not of the sea, far too cliched.

Sorry for going OT... but I agree!. Why turn the sea (or rivers, streams etc...) in to mist apart from an exercise in shutter speeds ... however I did come across this photographer who uses 'shorter' long exposures to capture the motion and atmosphere of the sea, without losing all the detail. It seems obvious really, and I'm sure he's not the first to do it (I've done similar myself) but his results I find quite stunning.... for me this is the sea.

Anyway, back on topic

 

[Phal]

There's a reason there's types of shots that are a little clichéd and that's because the technique can produce shots that look really good. The trouble is that everyone then wants to try their hand at it and before you know it galleries are saturated with those.

Long exposures, HDR shots and those retro style filters that made Instagram what it is can make good shots but the trouble seems to be using those techniques at the right time.

 

[D.P.]

Sorry for going OT... but I agree!. Why turn the sea (or rivers, streams etc...) in to mist apart from an exercise in shutter speeds ... however I did come across this photographer who uses 'shorter' long exposures to capture the motion and atmosphere of the sea, without losing all the detail. It seems obvious really, and I'm sure he's not the first to do it (I've done similar myself) but his results I find quite stunning.... for me this is the sea.

Anyway, back on topic

That is a nice example that works as the exposure is helping to show the movement and dynamic nature of water. As you say, you need to keep the detail and show the viewer what is actually happening. Landscape photos tell a story and you need to give the viewers clues how to interpret the scene and the story, motion tails are a clue, completely washed out sea just removes information.



its normally begginers that do such things, they fin out its really cool to do massively oer the top HDr or selective coloring, or just convert everything to balck and white "because its more artsy". B&W imagery remove information form the viewer,s o you really need a reason to do it, and there are some great reasons such as emphasizing texture, contrast, form or removing distracting features to make a scene easier to process. Ideally you should have looked ata scene and then decided black and white will be a better option, before you ever press the shutter button, not sitting at home with a dull image in LR and thinking, hey I'll make it B&W coz it looks better.

With the excessive use of long exposures it is the same shortcoming. They go to the seaside with the intention of doing a long exposure, rather than going to the sea side to capture a scene and thinking a long exposure would better portray the sights, movement and emotions of the scene. That is fine to get some practice but it leads to dull lifeless photos 9/10.

 

[GS70]

This is really interesting - I am someone that makes a lot of long exposures (mostly coastal and some architectural) and use filters - I wasn't aware of this technique and would be keen to try it but don't have Lightroom or Photoshop.

Must say, I don't usually have many issues with hot pixels or noise with LE's - that said, I tried an experiment using my LX100 for an LE and that suffered both - my DSLR is usually fine though.

I can see how coastal LE's are cliched - as that is where my interest lies, I follow a number of people that excel in that genre so I do see a lot of them - there are a number of familiar scenes that crop up, much like many genres of photography I guess.

I think they can convey a story - my particular view on them is they can show how structures are eroded or battered by the elements over time, or conversely, stand up to them. It's that passage of time that is portrayed by a long exposure, or something !

Anyway, I keep telling myself that I should move away from LE's and try something else - maybe I should !

 

[a1ex2001]

This is really interesting - I am someone that makes a lot of long exposures (mostly coastal and some architectural) and use filters - I wasn't aware of this technique and would be keen to try it but don't have Lightroom or Photoshop.

Must say, I don't usually have many issues with hot pixels or noise with LE's - that said, I tried an experiment using my LX100 for an LE and that suffered both - my DSLR is usually fine though.

I can see how coastal LE's are cliched - as that is where my interest lies, I follow a number of people that excel in that genre so I do see a lot of them - there are a number of familiar scenes that crop up, much like many genres of photography I guess.

I think they can convey a story - my particular view on them is they can show how structures are eroded or battered by the elements over time, or conversely, stand up to them. It's that passage of time that is portrayed by a long exposure, or something !

Anyway, I keep telling myself that I should move away from LE's and try something else - maybe I should !

Pretty much all photography is clichéd shoot what you enjoy and enjoy shooting it life is to short to worry.