South St. Vrain Creek Closeup

[Mike Lewis]

I went out trying to shoot yesterday, but the weather turned stubbornly winterish, and rather than continue on to my original destination of Rocky Mountain NP (I'm lucky to live only about an hour away!) in a building snowstorm, I turned around. On the way there though I did stop to try out a new tripod, and got some closeup shots of the creek by the highway. I took a couple with my 10 stop ND filter, and this one I liked after cropping and converting to B&W. B&W is a bit new for me, so please let me know what you think.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Really like the tones and the milky water flow in this shot - nice tight crop too

I have had a decent ND filter set since Christmas, but really haven't put them to a lot of use yet - must think of some subjects where I can use them.

What sort of exposure time did you use for this shot?

 

[Mike Lewis]

Chris,

Thanks for the comments

The shooting parameters for this shot were 25 seconds at f/6.3 and 35mm. As I'm sure you know from your ND filter experience, with a 10 stop filter you have calculate exposure without the filter and then dial in 10 stops brighter after the filter is mounted as it is too dark through the filter to expose or compose. In this case, the 'proper' exposure was supposedly 13 seconds, but I bracketed by 1 stop either way and liked this result the best of the 3. My only regret is that I didn't really get tight enough with my shot, which necessitated the tight crop in post processing. There was also a warm cast to the shot (very typical with this sort of filter) that was easy to remove but I decided I like the B&W treatment even so.

Thanks again for taking the time to give me some feedback!

ML

 

[Hamish Gill]

Very nice! I have not seen this sort of thin done in black and White ... It's almost always done in slightly over saturated colour ... A break from that mould has worked well I think ...
The tones are indeed v nice!

 

[Mike Lewis]

Thanks Hamish!

ML

Very nice! I have not seen this sort of thin done in black and White ... It's almost always done in slightly over saturated colour ... A break from that mould has worked well I think ...
The tones are indeed v nice!

 

[Paul Lange]

I like the composition on this one, it has become more than just a load of rocks. Each one looks like it's position has been considered.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Paul,

Thanks for the comment! I have been trying to work on my compositional skills and I think they are showing a little improvement. The trick now is finding the optimal pleasing composition in a shot while shooting instead of having to uncover it in post processing. I left too many megapixels on the 'cutting room floor' with this shot. But all in all I am very pleased, especially since I hardly clicked the shutter on this little jaunt given the weather and driving conditions. 1 keeper out of about 15 snaps is a much higher ratio than I normally have, so I'll certainly take that!

Thanks for your feedback!

ML

 

[Paul Lange]

Ahh, Now you've told me that the illusion has shattered and I don't like it anymore. Just kidding!!!