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A Windy Day

Posted by
Ian Bramham (Manchester, United Kingdom) on 23 June 2010 in Business & Industry and Portfolio.

Wind turbines in the hills near Burnley on a very windy day a few weeks ago.

Photographed with my camera on a tripod and with a 6 stop ND filter on the lens to allow a slow enough shutter speed to show some sense of movement in the turbine blades.

I did try photographing these turbines using even slower shutter speeds but at anything less than about 1/8th or 1/4 of a second the blades vanish completely from the resulting photo leaving just a bare post.

NIKON D700 1/15 second F/5.6 ISO 400 15 mm (35mm equiv.)

Like what you see here and are interested in photographic composition?.....the blog section of my website now has a complete set of 5 articles covering my personal approach to the subject: Ian Bramham Photography - Blog

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 website Ian Bramham - Fine Art Photography where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.

Bhavin from Mississauga, Canada

We need more of these. (Pictures and actual windmills!)

23 Jun 2010 5:37am

@Bhavin: Yes, we are getting increasing numbers of these in the UK, especially the off-shore variety. How about Canada?

Marie LC from Dauphiné, France

I like hardly wind turbines but I like very much your composition which integrates them well. Very beautiful landscape

23 Jun 2010 6:08am

@Marie LC: Thanks Marie!

Mike from Lichfield, United Kingdom

I've just noticed your settings. ISO 400, F5.6, 1/15th. I was getting 1/15th second at F11 ISO 100 without an ND filter.

23 Jun 2010 8:11am

@Mike: odd that isn't it as the two lots of settings are still 2 stops apart when you make allowance for the 6 stop nd filter that I was using!

On my old Nikon D40 and I think this new camera the recommendation is to stick to iso 200 as the normal low iso setting. Do you routinely use iso 100 on your Canon camera or was it just that day so you could get the shutter speed you wanted?

Richard from Duns, United Kingdom

I believe the tips go supersonic! Perfect capture

23 Jun 2010 8:21am

@Richard: Thanks Richard....I didn't know that about the speed of the blade tips.

Mike from Lichfield, United Kingdom

I always try and aim for ISO 100, light permitting. I've never researched the results from ISO 100 compared to 200 as I've always assumed the lower the ISO the better the quality. I'll do a bit of research and see what I can find out about my camera.

23 Jun 2010 8:47am

@Mike: Certainly with a lot of the Nikon cameras you don't actually gain anything in terms of image quality by going lower than iso 200. Noise is no better and dynamic range can even be worse at iso 100. Each camera is different though and it may be that peak performance on your Canon is at iso 100.

On the Nikon D700 they discourage you from using anything lower than iso 200 by calling the settings "Low-1" etc. which is the equivalent of iso 100.

The big advantage of using iso 200 as a base iso is that you effectively gain a stop in shutter speed when compared to cameras that operate with iso 100 as their optimum base sensitivity.

MK from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

lovely mood in this compo

23 Jun 2010 9:06am

@MK: Thanks!

Scene by Sharon Photography from Kingston, Ontario, Canada

absolutely beautiful

23 Jun 2010 11:00am

@Scene by Sharon Photography: Thanks Sharon!

Ralph Jones from Detroit, United States

Beautifully caught. I enjoyed reading your conversation with Mike of Lichfield. I am a Canon user and find my best results (tonal range) shooting at ISO 200

23 Jun 2010 1:04pm

Mohsen from Tehran, Iran

Great landscape,nicely captured

23 Jun 2010 1:14pm

hugo poon from hong kong, Hong Kong

Hey Ian, just love your tonality here and the mood it helps bring out is really special!!!

23 Jun 2010 3:12pm

Sonia Nansid from Stockholm, Sweden

The composition is indeed very beautiful. I love the crispy foreground and the feeling of open space and freedom that the shot gives me. It has at the same time a mood of loneliness but thats not bad.

23 Jun 2010 3:29pm

Babzy from Besançon, France

i can feel the wind... cold ;)

23 Jun 2010 3:36pm

DarkElf from Perth, Australia

great work on the shutter speed to achieve the desired outcome! they sure look better when the blades are still visible while there is a great dynamic feel to them as you can seem them move during the capture time! also a great overcast atmosphere that seems to fit the metal giants!

24 Jun 2010 6:15am

NIKON D700
1/15 second
F/5.6
ISO 400
15 mm (35mm equiv.)