Ian Bramham's Photoblog
The Three Graces
Posted by Ian Bramham (Manchester, United Kingdom) on 27 July 2009 in Architecture and Portfolio.
This is a long exposure photo of the 'Three Graces' - the 3 well known buildings which line Liverpools waterfront on the River Mersey.
The photo is an 8 minute exposure using 16 stops of stacked nd filters on a Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens.
From left to right they are: The Liver Building, The Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building.
The water you can see in the foreground is actually the new canal connection from the city centre to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.
For purchasing high quality archival prints of any of these photos you can send me an email by clicking here or by going to MY NEW WEBSITE where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.
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Links to the websites of other photographers whose work I love and who have all helped me enormously over a long period of time. I find the work of all 3 to be inspirational.
@Marzia: Thanks Marzia!
Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal
Perfection is the 1st thought that came to my mind.
27 Jul 2009 8:21am
@Ana Lúcia: Thanks Ana!
Anna.C from LA ROCHELLE, France
perfect long exposure ! this processing emphasize the beautiful buildings !
27 Jul 2009 11:39am
@Anna.C: Thanks Anna!
Cheryl from Texas, United States
the long exposure has done awsome things with the sky!! Bravo, this image is SO perfect is so many ways.
27 Jul 2009 11:50am
@Cheryl: Cheers Cheryl!
MahGol from Paris, Iran
great shot .. with ur email u made me think of aminus3 and the good old times here so here i am :)
27 Jul 2009 12:16pm
@MahGol: Thanks very much MahGol!
Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada
i'm simply not good enough to comment on this lol and I mean this in the nicest possible way...
27 Jul 2009 1:00pm
@Lorraine: If you like it then I'm more than happy Lorraine!
bluechameleon from Vancouver, Canada
Another stunning shot Ian! How do you get your skies to look like this?
27 Jul 2009 1:15pm
@bluechameleon: Thanks Sharon.....I use very strong neutral density filters screwed onto the front of my lens. Because they restrict the amount of light entering the lens this has the effect of allowing me to use a very slow shutter speed. Even though I was photographing this scene in normal daylight I was able to use a shutter speed of 8 minutes so the movement of the clouds across the sky becomes visible. . For this 8 minute shutter time I needed to stack 2 nd filters - a 10 stop and a 6 stop giving a total of 16 stops of shutter speed reduction. . In practice the way you work is to set up the tripod and take a normal photo. You then look at the shutter speed and, counting down on all 10 fingers and thumbs (!) you work out what a 10 stop reduction is. You then screw the first filter on to the lens, switch everything on the camera to fully manual and retake the photo - you then repeat the step to add an extra nd filter if you need it and, here, as I mentioned I used 2 filters. . It sounds complicted and it is at times and it's easy to get the exposure time wrong which can be very frustrating: this is probably my best photo using nd filters. It's of a bridge in France on the Île de Ré where we were staying on holiday last summer but it took me a full week of photographing it at dusk to get this one decent shot. it's only a 9 minute exposure but because it was photographed at dusk when light levels are changing so quickly it proved really difficult to get it right: http://ianbramham.aminus3.com/image/2008-11-03.html I called it "The Dying of the Light" because you can see on the photo the way that dusk has crept across the sky, extinguishing the light.
MadScientist from Düsseldorf, Germany
Super shot! At what time of the day did you do this? I guess it was at daylight and you used the filters in order to get rid of the people, right?
27 Jul 2009 1:25pm
@MadScientist: Yes, it was a normal daylight shot. One of the interesting side effects of using these strong neutral density filters is that it makes the light quite ambiguous. It also makes the skies more interesting if there is moving cloud and it's more for those reasons that I like these filters rather than excluding people from the resulting image.
@Hema Iyer: Thanks Hema!
Dawn from Maryland, United States
Great processing. This is a great landscape shot!!
27 Jul 2009 1:58pm
@Dawn: Thanks Dawn!
@Shahryar: Thanks Shahryar!
@Heather J. Woodland: Thanks Heather!
Pavan Kaul from Mumbai, India
Simply stunning Ian! Most educative reading your account of how you made this great picture...thank you for sharing:)
27 Jul 2009 4:53pm
Ian Smith from London, United Kingdom
Another outstanding long exposure Ian! You really have mastered this technique, and I always look forward to what's coming up next!
27 Jul 2009 8:13pm
john4jack from Corvallis, Oregon, United States
Superb. Bravo to you for your hard work. Very much like a stunning ink drawing.
27 Jul 2009 8:39pm
Didier DE ZAN from somewhere, France
Great BW I like the sky , the reflections and this BW
28 Jul 2009 4:42am
Ted from South Wales, United Kingdom
oh yes...I see that in a frame!
You must've followed me the other day! (but you did the better job by far)
28 Jul 2009 6:57am
Frida from Sweden
This is impressive. A well excecuted work with stunning result.
28 Jul 2009 3:58pm
jelb from France
Bonjour,
great greyscale..Wonderful framing and lightness..Bravo!
28 Jul 2009 5:05pm
Luca Bobbiesi from Milano, Italy
wow it seems a shot from other times, I always like your B&W
29 Jul 2009 12:21pm
Betsy Barron from Chester Springs, PA, United States
another stunner, Ian. YOu never fail to deliver
30 Jul 2009 3:51am
Laurie from New Jersey, United States
This is really beautiful.
I am curious what brand filters you use? I have Conkin with the frames and I do not like them at all. They seem to negatively affect the quality of the image so I just don't use them. I did improvise and use 2 polarizers once when I was in a pinch but obviously that is not exactly the best approach.
31 Jul 2009 2:13pm
@Laurie: Laurie, I had another recent request by email regarding the type of filters I used for this shot so if you don't mind I'll copy the answer I gave here: "The filters I used at the Albert Dock and at the Liver Building are neutral density filters made by a German company called B W. I've got a 10 stop version and a 6 stop one which I stacked one on top of the other to get those 2 long exposure shots. It's best to get them in the biggest diameter that you think you're ever likely to need - that way you can also use them on your smaller lenses by using a step up ring which is what I do. I bought mine in a 77mm diameter so I could use them on my Sigma 10-20 lens then I got a Kood step up ring 77mm to 67mm so that I can use them on my other lenses like the 16-85VR and 70-300VR.
Laurie from New Jersey, United States
Thanks for the info...most of my lenses are 77mm and a couple much smaller so that is great. I have a polarizer from that company. It is a beautiful quality filter.
5 Aug 2009 2:29am
@Laurie: Hi Laurie....yes the quality of those filters is very good and I enjoy using them although I've used the 10 stop filter so much that the black paint coating is just starting to wear thin in the places where I've been gripping it to screw it on and off the lens and I'm starting to see the brass underneath the paint.
John Leech from Grange-over-Sands, United Kingdom
This reminds me of your Notre Dame shot, which is odd as the two images don't share much. Nice emphasis, the clouds are working well.
8 Sep 2009 8:39pm
Nikon D40
2406/5 seconds
F/11.0
ISO 200
15 mm (35mm equiv.)