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I was in Olympic National Park last weekend and stayed at the lovely Lake Crescent Lodge. Last week I posted an incredible picture I took of the sunset the night I arrived. Sure enough, the next morning I was up super early for sunrise. The sunrise wasn’t incredibly visible from where I was standing so I decided to go for a super long exposure facing away from the sun. I could see some wispy clouds and thought a super long exposure would make them even more wispy and make for a really interesting sky.
Real quick, don’t worry, I have a full write-up of my little trip to the PNW coming this week! Then again, if you subscribed to my YouTube channel you’d already have known and watched the videos!
I used my a7rIII and 24-70 GM lens with a Lee Big Stopper and Lee 105mm Polarizer for this shot. I forgot my Neewer long exposure trigger at home but luckily the Sony remote app can be used in Bulb mode for long exposures. I set the timer, focused everything, and waited. 466 seconds later, a gorgeous scene showed up on the back of my camera, enjoy for this week’s Picture of the Week!
For the photographers: Like I mentioned above I used a polarizer on top of a 10-stop ND filter for this shot. I metered the shot and focused without the Big Stopper and then slid the filter into the foundation/holder that Lee sells. Using the Lee app I calculated an 8-minute exposure. I got a little nervous towards the end of the exposure, since the light had changed a bit at roughly the four-minute mark, so I cut the exposure just a little short so I didn’t blow out the frame.
The settings ended up being:
- Exposure time: 466 seconds
- ISO: 100
- Aperture: f5.6
- Manual mode
- Manual focus
Once I had the image the post-processing was fairly easy. I overprocessed it a bit but decided that was ok because I wanted it to be a little exaggerated. But I didn’t really do anything outside of my normal process, feel free to ask any questions that you have in the comments below!
Hey Andy
Great shot as always! What I was wondering: How do you stack the polarizer filter and the ND filter? I assume you put on the polarizer first, and then the Lee-filter, right? Do you need something in addition for the polarizer to make this work?
Thanks and keep up the great shots!
Hi Benedikt,
The 105mm landscape polarizer comes with a ring which attaches to the front of the foundation into which I slide the Lee Big Stopper. It’s a bit hard to explain so maybe I can walk through it in a post at some point, thanks for the idea and thanks for the kind words!
Hi Andy
I think I know how you mean it, thank you for explaining.
Up until now I was just used to stack two filters into each other, i.e. a polarizer and then screw a ND-Filter on top of it, so I wasn’t too sure about it. But a vid would be great anyways, also for learning how this stuff works. Planning on getting some filters as well, so this comes at the right time 🙂
Cheers
Love the Lee Filter system. I might suggest that Benedikt Google to the Lee Filter website and there are several videos which would help explain the Lee system. Filters are square and fit into a holder that attaches to the various lenses using an adapter. Holder can hold two or three stacked filters.