When everything is gray outside, when the leaves fall, the temperature is nothing to notice and most people would stay indoors, it’s time to bring the camera outside.
Due to rain and wind, the first half of December was the least sunny period in 60 years in Denmark. To say it was not inspiring was a huge understatement. It’s always good to stay home and do some editing, but at some point, you just need to leave. I did just that and wanted to explore a very unique place, where the sea is eroding some slopes, resulting in trees falling on the beach and the sea.
The vision
A great driving force for my photography is having a vision and trying to achieve that vision. The objective of this day was to take a dark artistic photo of the trees lying in the sea surrounded by that misty water effect that you get with a long exposure.
settings
To achieve this type of effect, you generally need an exposure time of more than five seconds. This is enough to average most waves. The longer the exposure, the more you smooth out the waves and remove the texture of the moving water. You also need an opening that matches your vision. If you want the whole photo to be in focus, you will need a closed aperture like f / 11 and beyond. As a general rule, you also want the ISO to be as low as possible. With a low ISO and a closed aperture, you can easily get a relatively long exposure time. However, even on the darkest days, you may want to increase the exposure time even more and then you need neutral density filters. Four, six or maybe even ten stops.
In addition to getting the right exposure you don’t want to touch the camera. Use of a tripod, manual focus and a shutter-release cable or shutter delay of two seconds is recommended.
The problems
The main problem I faced was the movement of the tree branches, which was due to the wind. This made it difficult to find a suitable composition for my original vision, since the branches were blurred due to the movement. It took a little adaptation to take a picture. In the photo below, I tried to catch the water from a stump on the beach.
I found some other stumps coming out of the sand, which were more in line with my original vision that I could photograph without blurring being a problem. However, due to the low perspective of these stumps, I had to bring the camera close to the water. Salt water and photographic equipment do not mix well and, although the waves were not very high, they still represented a challenge, which I had to avoid. When you shoot around the sea, I always recommend taking a bottle of fresh water to rinse the camera if you spill salt water and a towel to dry.
To get the picture above, I had to time it with the waves (I show you how in the video above). Instead of using a two-second shutter delay, I used a continuous shutter, which I started as soon as I found my composition. Blurry photos were not a problem, as long as I secured the tripod by pushing it down in the sand. Using this technique, you don’t have much time between dangerous waves, so I used a short, 0.5 second long exposure. That was enough to smooth out and create some risks from the receding water.
In the photo below I used the same technique, but instead of catching the waves when they were retreating, I captured them coming towards the camera, which gave a slightly different effect.
Remember to clean the tripod when you get home, as you don’t want it to be full of sand, dust and salt.
Be sure to check out the video above, where I share more reflections on the photographic process. Merry Christmas to all of you.