Another long exposure photo of Llandudno Pier from my recent photoshoot in north Wales with John Leech and Mike Spriggs.
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@Marie LC: Thanks Marie!
@Richard: Thanks Richard!
@Punit: Thanks Punit and I'm pleased you found the article on my website useful!
Since getting the new camera I've changed things very slightly. The D700 uses a much more complex Nikon MC-36 wired controller than the infra red wireless Ml-L3 that I used with the D40. The disadvantage is that that it's more complicated and it needs plugging into the camera body. The advantage is that I don't need a separate stop watch any more as the MC-36 is programmeable.
The other main change with the D700 is that it's imperative that the viewfinder eyepiece is closed off (there's a dedicated metal shutter for this) during long exposures otherwise light will enter resulting in ugly streaking across the resulting photo. On my D40 which has a much smaller and dimmer viewfinder it didn't seem to matter.
The rest is basically the same on the technical side of things, although these days I try and use the shortest possible exposure that will give the effect that I'm after. An example would be that a couple of years ago I would often go for exposures of, say, 8 minutes whereas now I'll use 2 minutes if it gives me the effect I'm after and there's less chance of something going wrong. Also it allows me to take a few more long exposure photos in the time available :-)
@Curly: Hi Curly, it's 2 weeks since I processed this one but I do remember some of the processing steps that I took: I did darken the top of the sky a little and there's an edge vignette; I also added contrast to the water to bring out the reflections of the pier which will have lightened the water. The most difficult part however was the foreground rocks and deciding just how dark or light to leave them. I didn't want them to dominate and distract from the pier but I didn't want lose all the detail by making them too dark and flat.
For me, the main issue in B&W processing of photos like this one is the difficulty of trying to strike a happy balance between getting a photo that has impact yet which also retains some subtelty.
Another of the things I really enjoy in B&W photos of this type is the balance between the light and dark areas of the photo. The light areas usually hold the key to the photo as that's where the eye naturally gravitates but they depend on the darker areas to achieve their impact. Both are just as important as each other unless your photo is deliberately high or low key.
@pixie: Hi pixie, the photo was taken at around the time of sunset about a month ago. (it was taken just after this photo: http://ianbramham.aminus3.com/image/2011-03-25.html )
NIKON D700
15 second
F/16.0
ISO 200
16 mm (35mm equiv.)