Decryption skills of decryption mirror in landscape photography

ND Fillter, commonly known as grey mirror, reduction mirror, medium density reduction mirror, etc. Used to reduce the amount of light entering the lens and give the photographer more freedom to control the aperture and shutter speed.

In portrait photography, grey mirror often uses a large aperture lens, and always wants to use the maximum aperture in the hot sun, such as 1.2, 1.4. Here, I just want to share my experience in using grey mirror in landscape, especially in slow-door photography of seascape. Welcome to discuss, discussion is the best way to learn and make progress.

Waves in Hallerdt Bay

First of all, I'd like to share some seascape works taken by grey mirror and give some examples:

Selected as the outstanding works of the Tang Dynasty 20 12 Global Chinese Photography Competition.

Photographed at: 20 1 1 September 1 1 3 pm11.

Shooting equipment: Canon EOS 60DEF17-40 mm f/4L; Filter: light craft workshop ND 8~400 (using 400); Exposure:15s; Aperture: f/18; Focal length: 35MMISO: 100

Precautions for shooting:

Under the Australian scorching sun after three o'clock in the afternoon, the normal exposure is almost F 1 1, 1/250 or 1/500. In order to get the above wave atomization effect, you must wear an ultra-reducing lens like ND400.

This was taken shortly after I bought an adjustable gray mirror. Slow gate spray is closely related to tide. Generally speaking, the larger the spray, the better the effect. So I accidentally took this slow door spray at 3 pm.

The F/22 performance of this lens is not good, so I can only adjust it to F/ 18 and get an exposure time of about 4 seconds through ND400. Then I took the initiative to try the exposure time of 15 seconds through two steps. The original film was overexposed to high light, but it was adjusted back to about two steps through RAW later, and almost all the details were still preserved. The most important thing is that I passed 65438.

The adjustable filter in the light workshop is very convenient to use alone. There are no dark corners on APS-C machine, and the price is low. I just don't know what brand it is called in China. Must be made in China, Hong Kong brand.

Brighton beach trestle

Shooting time: February 12 at 8: 23 pm.

Shooting equipment: EOS 5d Mark II+EF16-35mm/2.8L+B+W 82mm XS-Pro CPL+Lightcraft Workshop ND 500.

Shooting parameters: exposure time 305 seconds; Aperture: f/22.0; Focal length:16mm; ISO: 100

Precautions for shooting:

On February 1 day, Australia in the southern hemisphere is equivalent to midsummer, and the sunset has just started at 8: 30 daylight saving time. At the end of the trestle, there is a unique perspective to shoot the trestle and land along the light.

The sunset glow is beautiful. Adding CPL and ND500 grey mirror, I get the shutter time of 1 1. At sunset, I relaxed or spent more than 5 minutes and 300 seconds, and got a very strange work. Many local people who live by the sea saw this photo and said it would have such an effect.

The exposure time of 300 seconds can reduce the number of pedestrians walking in the cool on the trestle and reduce the line of sight interference. The seawater is completely exposed on the calm lake like a mirror, and the clouds in the sky are pulled into filaments.

However, this photo also fully reflects the limitations of the circular spiral filter. The ultra-wide angle of 16MM reduces the price of ND+ ultra-thin CPl, and there are still a lot of dark corners. Even if it is corrected later, the fake problem of cheap filters is very serious in low light. Fortunately, the reddish color is very suitable for the atmosphere of sunset.

Sunset at marino Rock

Shot at 4: 44pm on July 8th, 20 12.

Shooting equipment: EOS 5d Mark III+EF16-35mm f/2.8L+B+W82mm XS-Pro CPL+Lightcraft Workshop ND 500+Hitech 0.6 HardGDN+Stallone filter holder.

Shooting parameters: exposure time 30 seconds; Aperture: f/7.1; Focal length: 20MMISO: 100

Precautions for shooting:

July 8 is winter in Australia, and there are few people by the sea. It is rare to see fishermen. They are still waiting for the fish to bite. The sky is blue and white, and the rocks are illuminated by the sunset.

I shot it with CPL+ND500+0.6 hard GND, and the scenery will feel better with people.

GND of 0.6 solves the problem of underexposure of foreground rocks. The exposure time of 30 seconds makes the water surface calm, the clouds are a little atomized, and the almost motionless fishermen add a little vitality to the picture.

The above three pictures are some works of grey mirror during my three fuselage periods, with three different styles. From the slow door under the scorching sun to the slow door for a long time, and then to the slow door with people involved, nd grey mirror has always been in a very important position in my landscape photography.

I use ND grey mirror mainly to freely change the exposure time. By changing the exposure time, we can get the effects of different shapes of streams, streams, waves and clouds, rotation, atomization and clouds. I live by the sea, and there are relatively few opportunities to shoot waterfalls and streams. I mainly shoot beaches, trestle bridges, rocks and other beaches. In fact, the principle should be similar.

You don't have to use ND lens to shoot scenery. Usually, we can get a suitable exposure time by changing the aperture, ISO and focal length. For example, in the prime time of sunrise and sunset, a relatively long exposure time can be obtained by using ISO50 F/22.0 instead of grey mirror.

For example, as shown below:

Photographed at 6: 50am on February 20 18 12.

Shooting equipment: EOS 5d Mark II +EF 16-35mm f/2.8L without filter.

Shooting parameters: exposure time 0.5 seconds; Aperture: f/8; Focal length:16mm; ISO: 100

If I want to get longer exposure time, for example, if I adjust to F/22 and ISO50, I can add four shutters or get eight seconds exposure time. The sky and waves will be another effect, but if I want to get a longer exposure time, it will be a bit difficult. When shooting in RAW format, you can get an exposure time of 32 seconds by overexposing two files, but this method has certain limitations and damages the image quality, which is not a special case.

This is also the limit of low light ratio at sunrise. In many cases, it is impossible to obtain a longer exposure time only through aperture, ISO and tolerance. For the latest popular slow door, sometimes you can't do anything without grey mirror.

Classification of variable diameter mirrors:

According to the shape, it can be divided into round screws and square inserts.

The representative manufacturers of round screws are ND 1 10 from B+W, ND400 from Hoya, ND500 from LightCraft Workshop and many others. Grey mirror with round screws is of good quality and low price, which is the best choice for grey mirror to start shooting.

Circular screw can also be divided into adjustable grey mirror and fixed value grey mirror, the adjustable representative is Hoya and LightCraft Workshop, and the fixed representative is B+W.

The adjustable filter is easy to use and can be adjusted freely according to the light condition. The disadvantage is that it is difficult or impossible to overlap with CPL, because both filters are two pieces of glass, which need to be rotated and adjusted, and it is difficult to reach a stable value.

The representative manufacturers of square inserts are 100* 100 standard gear, Tiffany 6th gear grey mirror, Hitech Pro Stop, etc. The advantages are that it is not necessary to match every aperture lens, and it is convenient to use with CPL and GND. 16mm 17mm ultra-wide angle has no dark angle. Disadvantages are: high price, need for filter bracket, easy to fake (hitech), low yield, no market value (Lee).

I just upgraded from circular spiral filter to square Hitech ND3.0 4 grey mirror and Pro Stop 10 grey mirror. The main reason is that Li Dasai can't book it. I waited for more than six months and didn't want to go on. Although the Hitech color temperature is inaccurate and easy to turn blue, there is always a trade-off. Equipment is just a tool, and I try my best to get the best tool.