Long Exposures of the Sea

[MarkBarbieri]

Back in the April meeting, I intended to show some shots I took over Spring Break, but we ran short on time. For the shots, I used long exposures while shooting water, just like you see in almost every waterfall picture. The difference is that I did it while shooting waves in the ocean.

I wrote more about the technique on my blog here.

Here are some of the pictures:










The pictures were taken in Monterey Bay, California from the town of Pacific Grove. We were there on vacation over Spring Break. These were shots I took while wandering the shoreline around sunrise. If you want to see other shots from the trip (warning, most are just family vacation snapshots), you can see a slideshow or a link to the pictures at the top of my Vacation Slideshows page on my photo site.

I might use these shots for the Portfolio Contest coming up in the fall. They meet the criteria in that they are all of a similar theme - "shots of the Ocean" as well as "long exposure shots of moving water."

[rockpics]

I find these beautiful! So the look of fog between the rocks in the second one is really waves crashing, and not fog at all?

[PIC]

Kool - what were your exposures ?

EL

[kenw]

excellent work, Mark. yes, the technique for smoothing waterfalls works for ocean/lake waves as well. Galveston's seawall is a great local place to practice, altho finding a scenic spot is tough!

fwiw, here's what I've learned by just practicing:
Depending on the light, the exposures I've used run 1/4 to a full second, normally using Tv. A longer exposure will make the water more "milky" and remove more definition from the water, and increase the "mist", if there is any. A tripod is a must.

With such long exposures, it is often best to have very little light, or some serious ND filters (or a polarizer in a pinch). Graduated filters can be very helpful if there is any sky in the shot to darken just the sky which may tend to blow out with long exposures and daylight.

[fstop]

Beautiful shots. Must have been a great trip.

[arcproducts]

Mark, all the photos are stunning, I especially like #2 ....... i too would like to know if it was fog or waves ...... looks like fog to me...

susan

[ekohl]

ND filters, or just long exposures?

[110240]

astounding images

[cecygarcia]

Mark:
This is my favorite topic and kind of photography. And, as I expressed before, these pictures are worked to perfection. I enjoyed them. Cecilia

[tab]

Those are really great! 3 & 4 are my favorites!

[MarkBarbieri]

The exposures, in order, are 25 seconds, 15 seconds, 1/5 second, 4/10 seconds, and 1 second.

The second photo shows no real fog at all. The effect is because you are seeing 15 seconds worth of white capped waves rolling through the rocks. To someone standing on the shore that morning, they saw clear air with lots of waves. With the long exposure photograph, the effect is more of an ethereal mist. Here is a photograph taken about 30 minutes later with a shutter speed of 1/400 seconds.



I didn't use any ND filters for these shots. They were taken early enough in the morning to give me long shutter speeds without the need of filters. I did use an ND filter during the day for some shots, including this attempt at panning with a surfer.



For grins, I also tried this non-panning 1/2 exposure of a surfer riding a wave. It didn't come out very well, but I think the idea might work if I played with it enough. We never had another daay with big waves and colorful surfers, so I didn't get to do any further experiments.


For those of you interested in more EXIF information, I have made each of the photos in this thread into hyperlinks. If you click on the photo, it will take you to my photo website where you can find EXIF information by moving your mouse over the picture and selecting the Photo Info button.

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by kenw

excellent work, Mark. yes, the technique for smoothing waterfalls works for ocean/lake waves as well. Galveston's seawall is a great local place to practice, altho finding a scenic spot is tough!

fwiw, here's what I've learned by just practicing:
Depending on the light, the exposures I've used run 1/4 to a full second, normally using Tv. A longer exposure will make the water more "milky" and remove more definition from the water, and increase the "mist", if there is any. A tripod is a must.

With such long exposures, it is often best to have very little light, or some serious ND filters (or a polarizer in a pinch). Graduated filters can be very helpful if there is any sky in the shot to darken just the sky which may tend to blow out with long exposures and daylight.

I am headed down to Galveston for a week on the 15th.. I am going to have to play around with some long exposures.

[erisian pope]

Mark,

These are beautiful photos! I am nowhere near any coasts (Austin) and seldom travel so I have never tried my hand at long exposures of coastlines. But I am a huge fan of this style of photography, and I think your examples are terrific.

I have a couple questions, if you don't mind. There is a colorful cast to the first picture, a sort of pink/magenta tone to the photo. I have seen some coast shots that even went towards a rich purple. I am enamored with these colors, and have never been able to determine how they are produced.
* Is this the result of the pre-sunrise (or post-sunset) light?
* Do you make alterations to the WB in post?

Also, you used the wrong link for the first pic. It takes us to a picture of a boy running on the shore. On your blog's main page you also use the same wrong link. :-)

[MarkBarbieri]

I fixed the link. Thanks for pointing that out.

While I'd love to say that I carefully adjusted the white balance based on some masterful formula, the truth is that I just left the camera in AWB. I usually do that and then fix any issues in post production. In this case, I left it as is.

I'm not really sure how you go about "white balancing" a sunrise/sunset. White balancing means, to me, adjusting your color balance so that neutral colors are neutral. That would neutralize the warm light of the sunrise. I usually just shoot in AWB and then adjust it to taste.

In the case of these photos, they were all taken around sunrise. I prefer sunrises to sunsets. Fewer people to get in the way.

[xc0oki3m0n5terx]

Really like #5. =)