Long exposure at Eaglehawk Neck

[Pete Dee]

Jenne has just got a new toy, a ND400. We had a play with it yesterday arvo. I haven't tried one before, lots of fun resulted.

[P Plates]

Love the colours in the ocean in this and the blurred water. Not too fussed on the effect in the sky though. I think the long exposure has just made the fluffy clouds look messy but it can look awesome with different types of clouds. Guess it depends on how much they are moving also.

[Pete Dee]

Thanks P Plates on your comments. It looks to me like a selection of different shutter speeds could be the answer, depending on cloud type, movement speed and direction relative to the camera.

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Unusual composition. I echo the above sentiment - great effect on the water, I don't think that effect on the clouds works on this shot. It doesn't ruin the shot IMO, but it would perhaps be better with still clouds.

Maybe to get that effect you could take a few different exposures and blend them in post.

[jenne]

It's definitely something you need to plan carefully while using it, I took several shots of beautifully clear water with a small wave splashing over some kelp basically right under my feet and they turned out awful, mainly because I was using 20, 25 and 30 second exposures and in all of them, to a viewer of the images they would only have seen a boring photo of some blurry kelp, the water was too clear and not enough wave action to get that lovely blurred effect. Also the clouds, although beautiful to look at, did not suit the long exposures either. Definitely we learned a lot that day. The best thing for me was actually being able to take a 30 second exposure during the bright midday sunshine with no blown out images, I was very excited about that.

[Pete Dee]

Heres another one taken at the same shoot, with the moving clouds cropped off.