Lessons

Lesson Info

Big Sur: Twilight Long Exposure

We're going to go into our twilight session or one of my favorite times a day it's not the golden hour it's the blue hour we're going to talk about using a sturdy tripod using andy filter for long exposures and as well as you know, putting your your subject on a background so that there is contrast because one thing that we don't typically have the sun has gone down now we don't really have a light source per se so we need to then think where is the best place to place our subject so I think we're gonna go ahead and start this video you can roll that video we will work right into that all right so we're in big sur found another location down on the water and uh we're going to shoot some long exposures my favorite lens to shoot long exposures or just general photography uh nick or twenty four to seventy twenty four to seventy is a great range lens ah seventy seven millimeter threads and we're going to do something counterintuitive now we're gonna go out and the light is going down we're...

actually going to add neutral density filters to give us a really long exposure because I want to have a really interesting shot of about maybe fifteen seconds so where this water goes really milky on we have just a little bit of color left in the sky so we're going to set up real quick grab a very sturdy tripod uh eric's gonna get his wet suit we're gonna have the surfboard and we're going to try to knock the shot out really quickly go ahead and head out and get a little bit higher vantage point on. The reason we're going to go for a higher vantage point is because a little bit higher we're gonna be able to see the water a little bit better and the whole point of this is to show movement and this long exposure we're gonna be ableto do that so we're gonna go over here and find a good spot, so I'm going to set my camera up here. Ah, I like to use the self timer mode is my trigger because it allows me to push the button camera settle, it's one less. Uh, gary, uh, sometimes I will shoot a number of shots the self timer I consent to dio five shots. You could do a lot of racket ing and such that way, but for this instance, I'm just going to shoot one shot at a time. I have a delay set for two seconds that allows me to push the button on the camera, the shutter release and take one shot so I'm just gonna do one shot here. Use the focus on the camera here to pre focus find a spot with good contrast alright and it says we're getting a three second exposure at eleven to four seconds I'm going to go ahead and do you want test here can take one shot we wait for the green light to come on and we could see what our test looks like we're getting some good good movement in the water not quite enough ah so I'm gonna go ahead and grab a nd filter so come on over here orion and it's in the back here so I got a bunch of filters here and I'm gonna go ahead and use just a variable andy which is going to allow us to get a longer exposure time not just goes directly on the front of the lens is going to be able to get quite a long exposure eric you about ready? Uh do you want to have your hair wet? Yeah let's go and do that. So eric just asked me do you want my hair to evil and were trying to again make this is authentic as possible so we're gonna go ahead and have eric get his hair a little bit wet and go from there. So now it f eleven we're getting about a twenty five second exposure that's gonna be a little bit too much, I'm thinking I want about fifteen so with this variable indy were able to dial up how dark or how much neutral density were doing based on how much light we've got slits discord and do a quick test twenty seconds and now we should get a really cool washed out milky look for the ocean uh we're still holding a little bit of detail in the sky we've got a little bit of color and again this twenty second experience so we're gonna wait green light will go on and then we're gonna have kind of an interesting shot, so yeah, now we're getting to where we want to be I'm to go and change my white balance now we were ten thousand kelvin earlier that's a little bit warm here this is we're getting sort of an interesting blue color you won't see it with your eyes because your eyes automatically white balance but I'm going to go ahead and go to just a sunny white balance because I want to get a true to life color we're gonna beautiful blue off the ocean uh eric's just coming back we're doing one more test shot here and the ocean is going to go really sort of a nice white with a little bit of blue in the foreground eso one more test and then we should be able to place eric into our scene uh again twenty second exposure so it's going to take a little bit waiting for that green light uh one of the things you want focus on when you're doing these longer exposures is having a very city tripods something sturdy heavy tripod is a good tripod um make sure if it's a lie tripod you put some rocks or something to weigh it down because you don't want it moving it all and now all of a sudden we got a really beautiful frame nice foreground elements uh some rocks and such going out to the ocean um so now I'm gonna work with eric to find a spot that will be you know basically good in the frame but also someplace that he constabulary about twenty seconds without moving so um yeah so straight out if you can eric and if you go you see with this this pile of rocks is right here you go to the right side of that just a little bit yeah just just to your right and remember eriks wearing a black wetsuit right now so he's like going to be basically camouflage on the rocks so is much on the water behind him the more he'll be standing out on that so eric can you go further towards the ocean perfect and now if you can face that way say there but just face this way yeah yeah exactly so we want eriks board basically to be in an angle to us so we can see it really well um and we're still in an average your priority here we're losing a lot of light so we dial this down so wherever about fifteen seconds our exposure so it might raise our eyes so we're gonna be upto so one hundred again f eleven alright hold really still three two one typically I'd wanna have radios here so we know what was going on he's gonna hold really still hopefully boom boom boom all right, we got one shot okay? You're good cool it looks awesome. We got a really nice frame uh he's a little bit far to the right that's fine. I'll get when I when I yell go that's where you're gonna hold for fifteen seconds okay. All right, just do another focus on him. All right? Go get ten second exposure this time he's told this still is he can eighteen thousand seven thousand six you're good zoom and check the focus it's looking good I'm gonna go ahead and go down just a little bit and the reason I'm gonna go down is because he's a little I wanted to be a little bit higher on the water and we're a little bit high so um it's gonna go on and step down here so watch yourself, guys ryan, if you could hand me this in just a second go forward and I'm going to give you we're really losing light now so I'm probably not going to do this andy filter because you see we've lost about five stops alight so we're just gonna go ahead and go straight exposure here all right? You're good eric make sure level zoom in so we can get a focus point okay, we're good zoom out alright half eleven ten second exposure are ten seconds and go really long exposure I hope you hold still. All right, you're good quick test it's looking really nice uh there's something right behind him. I'm not super psyched about eric let's see here all moved me and I want to be just a little bit higher because there's a couple of rocks behind them their sort of sort of an eyesore. So again, we're looking for that super clean backgrounds what? I saw one hundred still a napster priority eleven. We're doing the camera do the exposure. We're just going to zoom in check our focus, which is really important here because it's getting dark. So you want to see that when I moved the camera that nothing got moved and looks good? Okay. All right, eric. All right, hold still for me and gun it's going to come back towards me. Eric it's looking really good. We're getting a really nice wash of the ocean here you got good color coming in, but I'm gonna have eric stand a little bit more in the foreground so he's a little bit more dominant uh this is one of the things where you're sort of you're working through this process really quickly so come all the way up to about right here if you can yeah so looking off again looking off sort about that way a little bit like down the coast um I'm gonna turn this just a little bit see a little more rule of thirds a man all right if you'd hold still for me here I know it's tough I'm gonna yell and then only thirteen seconds after that okay okay all right good eric we're going like a nice warm glow off his face got just a little bit of movement um this is something where maybe we'll have you actually sit sit on that rock right there that's fine yeah, that one right there is good perfect you can sit still so you're doing these really long exposures for people that are trying to get somebody to stand still the easiest thing to dio is to give something somebody something to focus on and or let them sit or give them something to brace on the winds blowing right now so I don't want to moving so it's going to a twenty second exposure hold really still I'll tell you when you're ready to go hold a gun it's a really beautiful light off eric right it's getting too dark for me to focus if we could get there's a flashlight in there I'm gonna go ahead and have you walk up and just light erica up so I can get a focus point because uh all of a sudden it's gotten really dark here so little closer we're good all right eric hold really still for me I've gone ahead and opened up f eight were still it s so one hundred uh but we're not a thirteen second exposure and hold your good alright beautiful you're looking good all right so I think we nailed it um pretty simple here um I do one more shot a little lower put you a little higher up on the ocean yes were going just a little bit lower and the reason we're doing that iss because I want eric to be just a little bit higher on this ocean so when I bring myself down there brings your subject up um do a quick test shot here so erica it's only thirteen second exposures to hold really still for me and hold are you good looking pretty good um might even go a little lower so I was actually in for take two of us so a ryan if you could come over and help me just uh clamp this down on the on the right here this is the big the big nobs get back or did it just hold it yeah go all right now if you could uh good and light him up again for me so I'm having a riot just put a little bit of light on eric's face so I could get a focus point so you go even closer a little closer here we go all right? We're good to go out and come on out and it's going to be a sea here wait ten seconds suppose eric so when I told you to hold just hold still for me cold perfect. All right, you're good? I think one last one here and we'll be good to go so I've changed my perspective a little bit and I'm still on auto exposure, so I'm just gonna go ahead and change my exposure compensation a little bit because now all of the light is behind him we've got a good spot here and I'm just gonna dial it upto one points plus one point seven because the camera seeing this the light behind him and he's basically a silhouette we want to make sure that it compensates for all of that. So eric is going to be a twenty second exposures to hold really still for me and hold all right you're good looks great looks really good might go just a little bit in between here for one last shot and I think we were around our derek it's the last shot here all right all really still for me ten second exposure and go are you going cool. All right, I think we're a wrap your guys so you know, we were really chasing the sun we got to the beach and there's a few a few options, you know, I could add the sunset directly behind there but I decided teo use the sunset sort of off to his right which actually was sort of raking across the rocks here and actually was filling his face with a little bit of light. Ah, you wouldn't really notice it with your naked eye, but doing this it's been in years you will find these little tricks um, you know, going lo I was trying to get a little bit higher on the horizon so that the ocean would be the background. I found that when, you know, I was a little bit of a higher angle on above him and he was blending in with the rock so me getting a little bit lower help me sort of place him higher on the horizon, which thus meant he was, you know, sort of have the ocean behind him is opposed, teo black rocks. You know, he just worked through these these processes of through trial and air uh, you know, shooting some test shots, you will gets amazing shots, yeah, super simple, the end we use after priority, so we're still on automatic setting and allowed the camera be doing those functions so that we could really focus on posing eric, because it's really windy. I don't know if you can tell but it's really hard. When, when somebody's are away at the ocean, be able to direct them. So, uh, basically, I was able to talk to eric and say, eric, when I when I yell at you, it's, going to be a ten second exposure. So hold really still for those ten seconds or fifteen seconds. And, you know, we actually walked away with some pretty cool shops.