Behind the Shot – Long Exposure

I’d like to start my blog addressing a question I received many times: How did you take this photo? So here is the answer: Essentially it’s a long exposure shot which makes moving water turn into mist.

The photo was taken during my Iceland trip in May 2016 on the so called “Diamond Beach” at the Glacier Lagoon Jökulsarlon in the south of Iceland.

The “glacier ice cube” selected was on the beach close enough to the water, so that little waves bathed it from time to time. Key to a good shot in this case was to find the right moment where not too little but also not too much water was around.

I took the picture on a sunny evening at around 6pm, with a EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM lens at 70mm on a Canon EOS 6D. I used the Manfrotto 190go! tripod with ball head 496RC2. As neutral density filter, I used the Firecrest ND 3.0 from Formatt-Hitech. Exposure time was 8 sec., f/14, ISO 100.

For everyone who wants to take a similar photo, here the way to do it:

• Set RAW and JPG format to have all flexibility for further editing
• Shut down any image stabilizer
• Select the self-timer with a 2 seconds delay or as in my case release the shutter with your smart phone and the Canon Camera Connect App
• Put the camera on a tripod
• Select your image
• Measure shutter speed and aperture
• Focus and then switch to manual focus. Don’t move the camera any more.
• Select full manual exposure
• Set the aperture measured
• Calculate the shutter speed depending on the density of the ND filter you will use. (In my case the ND 3.0 requires to multiply the measured shutter speed by 1000.) Then set the calculated shutter speed
• Attach the ND filter carefully on your lens
• Take the shot

Good luck!