The light is harsh and uninteresting photographically. But this day wasn’t quite that bad. There were a few wispy clouds working their way across the sky as the day went on.
In order for me to create a little bit more mood in my images on a day like this, I needed to change the process and avoid the random point-and-shoot approach. I figured on doing some long exposures on the tripod with neutral density filters… always fun!!
I put on my Tiffen Variable ND which gave me about 3-4 stops I’m guessing. I then added to that my Lee Filter System with two filters, both a 3-stop neutral density. It was enough to bring my exposure down to 30seconds at f/8 or f/11 depending. I took a grey card exposure and set a custom white balance. Using that many filters will really throw the colour off. Even though I intend to make it black and white, having the right colour balance at the beginning makes the developing of the RAW file much easier.
So here’s a behind the scenes comparison of what I saw, and what the camera saw.
(I really need to buy the Big Stopper someday… )