Long Exposure Photos

[Mickey92]

WDWFigment and janoimagine,

Great Photos, absolutely superb!!! I have a Nikon D300s What Cameras do you guys use?

Stunning photos guys!

Regards,

Tristan

 

[WDWFigment]

Id have thought that it was very relevant in a post that says you can take similar shots with a compact. Purely from an expectations level. :shrug:

I just assumed that most of the images the hue and saturation had been influenced by more than a change of white balance and for that you need basic editing software. I agree its nothing to be frightened of but you need to capture the image to edit it and I think you were a little blasé about the ease of doing that with a compact. But composition is not down to make and model of camera on that I agree.

My bad, I guess I misinterpreted what you were saying. I probably did overstate the ease of accomplishing quality shots with "any camera." I definitely agree with all of what you're saying.

 

[elfshadowreaper]

WDWFigment, do you use any type of filter on your lenses? I'm a newspaper photographer but I really only know the basics of operating my Nikon D2H: aperture, shutter, iso, basic flash. I never use any lens filters because my photos would rarely qualify for surreal colors, but I'd like to achieve more vibrancy in the colors. As of now I use selective color for this, but I don't go crazy with it or anything. I assumed your pictures were heavily HDR'd but now that I hear some were straight out of the camera, I'm intrigued. I'm assuming you don't use much flash, being the shots are at night(unless you wanted to brighten objects in the foreground). I'm trying to improve my skills, which is why I'm asking.

 

[Timekeeper]

WDWFigment, do you use any type of filter on your lenses?

I'm not WDWFigment, but I'll throw in a response. Photographers, for the most part, discourage the use of filters. Neutral density (ND) and polarizing filters are of course the exception because they do not change the image captured. A polarizer will give the appearance of change with things like reflections on water and glass, and photos of the sky, but do not substantively affect the scene.

The problem with filters is that (1) you are committed to the image captured with the filter as your original, and so any "effects" accomplished via the filter cannot be undone, and, (2) filters will technically degrade the quality of your image, which completely frustrates the purpose of the $2,000 investment that you made on your Canon L-series glass, and because filters are seen as unnecessary accessories, they are often bought on the cheap instead of their much higher quality counterparts.

The "better" option is to apply whatever effect that you were seeking to accomplish with your filter using editing software. That way you retain a sharp untouched original and can tweak the "digital filter" to get the best results. Photographers nowadays carry filters even less frequently than they carry rolls of film. Editing software is much more accessible today than it was 10 years ago, and as photography has become almost entirely digital, so too has the processing of those photographic images (via editing software). :sohappy:

Also, remember that photography - like all art - is highly subjective. You will receive opinions from many different schools of thought. At the end of the day, do whatever works best for you. There are no rules. Period.

 

[janoimagine]

WDWFigment and janoimagine,

Great Photos, absolutely superb!!! I have a Nikon D300s What Cameras do you guys use?

Stunning photos guys!

Regards,

Tristan

I shoot with a Canon 50D, but recently invested in a 7D ... I know Tom is a Nikon guy. Thanks for the kind words. I have about 600GB of raw files to process from our trip last October that I haven't even started on yet, I work with professional shooters for a living and a lot of time double as there Digital Tech's and Producer so the last thing I want to do after 12 hours looking at photos is look at more photos. :lol:

 

[janoimagine]

The problem with filters is that (1) you are committed to the image captured with the filter as your original, and so any "effects" accomplished via the filter cannot be undone, and, (2) filters will technically degrade the quality of your image, which completely frustrates the purpose of the $2,000 investment that you made on your Canon L-series glass, and because filters are seen as unnecessary accessories, they are often bought on the cheap instead of their much higher quality counterparts.

Agreed, the only things I carry in my bag are ND filters / ND Grads and a couple circular polarizers if I am shooting a building that has a lot of glass. Most everything effect a filter like a sky grad or tobacco grad can do you can achieve in post. Add-on's to photoshop like Lucis or anything from NIK Software have become the new version of photographic filters.

 

[Timekeeper]

Agreed, the only things I carry in my bag are ND filters / ND Grads and a couple circular polarizers if I am shooting a building that has a lot of glass. Most everything effect a filter like a sky grad or tobacco grad can do you can achieve in post. Add-on's to photoshop like Lucis or anything from NIK Software have become the new version of photographic filters.

Exactly. And in my experience, HDR (or similar multiple-exposure processing) has reduced the need for even ND Grads. If shooting in raw, I have found that even a single shot can be exported at more than one exposure level (and then re-combined in editing) to accomplish virtually the same result as a multiple-exposure technique. The quality won't be as good, but it's still pretty darn good for the average hobbyist.

 

[janoimagine]

Exactly. And in my experience, HDR (or similar multiple-exposure processing) has reduced the need for even ND Grads. If shooting in raw, I have found that even a single shot can be exported at more than one exposure level (and then re-combined in editing) to accomplish virtually the same result as a multiple-exposure technique. The quality won't be as good, but it's still pretty darn good for the average hobbyist.

Well said. RAW captures are getting better and better at giving you more dynamic range and processing software like capture one 6 furthers the cause. I have used one camera that is capable of capturing a 32 stop range in a single shot, pretty incredible when you think about it.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Let me assure you, it does exist.

Joking aside, I don't understand comments like these. I think they are based more on fear of the unknown (Photoshop is a complex and often difficult to use program for the beginner) than anything else. Photoshop is another tool at the photographer's disposal. Why not use it? Back in the film era, photographers edited their photos in the dark room. Photoshop is the digital equivalent of the dark room. To not believe in its use is to handicap yourself, in my opinion.

Now, it's another story entirely if you just don't want to mess with using it. That I can understand, as PS can take a lot of time to use.

Well, maybe I believe in Photoshop, but I very consciously limit the amount of editing on my photos. It's not like I hesitate to take out red eye, though. I think my problem with PS is that it's too good... you can do almost anything to an image in no time compared to what it would have taken in the film era.

My photography "career" began in high school on a film SLR with a lightmeter, manual advance, black and white, rolling my own film, developing it and making my own prints with an enlarger. Certainly you can dodge and burn easy enough on an enlarger, but some of the things that you can do so easily in PS would have taken so long or would have even been impossible before digital. Just my own peculiar brand of photography philosophy. I like that when I see the brilliant blue sky behind Cinderella Castle hanging on my wall, that that's what it really looked like that day. I rarely crop because I feel it's more sporting to frame your shot in the camera "in situ" and in the moment. That's not anti-digital-editing since cropping is almost as easy on an enlarger... just me being weird. Exception proves the rule, though: I had a perfect shot with my wife and son walking up to the castle and all alone in the frame until some guy showed up in the bottom right of the picture at the last second. That guy is now on the digital scrap heap.

But anyway... Photoshop is amazing, but it's usually just not for me.

P.S. Love your photos and trip reports!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

You guys have me so intrigued. DH bought me a newer camera, a Nikon CoolPix, for Christmas. My old one is pretty beat up. This one isn't a DSLR, but it is definitely a higher quality P&S. However, I understand the facination...I just spent 45 minutes photographing cars driving by my house at night...and I got some cool shots! I just wish this camera had adjustable settings...seems everything is automatic. The settings are pretty great though.

 

[jmani56]

Tom you're a great photographer, I follow you on Flickr (along with Jeff B and all the other "masters"). I'd like to learn more about photography when I have the time, I mess around with my point & shoot, but I really need to buy a book or something. But even being an amateur, I've spent hours in WDW at night trying to capture great shots. It's quite an art.

 

[flavious27]

 

[Doug Means]

on my last trip to MK as we were walking out at around 1am there was a guy doing a long exposure picture. he had borrowed/asked a CM that sells balloons to be in it and he was doing all the light work with her in it. i wish i could have seen the finished product, it looked really cool to watch

 

[BigRedDad]

Ia m by no means a photographer. I am a picture taker with what some would call entry level professional gear. I define a long exposure by any picture you take that can't be done handheld. There gets to be a lot of camera shake with anything much over 1s. One thing critical to getting long exposure shots is a sturdy tripod for your gear. I only have a Canon 7D with 2 pro level lenses. With the long 70-200mm lens, the camera is quite heavy. I would guess more than 5Lbs. Remote control and sturdy tripod work great.