Shoot slow and wide

Adam Waring fits more into his frame with a wideangle lens and slows down time with an ND filter

Combine ND filters and ultra-wide angles

Wide-angle lenses enable you to cram much more into your scene, with a wide angle of view that sucks more than the eye can see into the frame. The widest angles available in non-fisheye lenses used to be around 16mm for full-frame cameras, but recently we’ve seen lenses that stretch to 14mm, like Nikon’s 14-24mm f/2.8. A few more millimetres of focal length might not sound like much, but the effect on viewing angle at this end of the zoom range is a big deal, at 114º as opposed to 107º with a 16mm lens.

Such ultra-wide viewing angles come with a caveat: bending such vast angles of view onto the sensor has necessitated bulbous front elements that make using regular filters impossible. However, thanks to the new Z-mount, Nikon has managed to create the world’s widest ultrawide lens with a flat front element in the form of the new Z 14-30mm f/4 S, enabling the use of screw-in filters or filter holders.

Wide angle lenses and filters go hand-in-hand – particularly ND filters, which enable you to create longer shutter speeds to blur moving elements, such as running water or clouds, for dreamy slow-shutter shots. We headed to Tarr Steps, in Exmoor National Park, using a 10-stop ND filter to lengthen a shutter speed measured in fractions of a second to one over a minute long.

You can, of course, try this with other wide lenses and a DSLR rather than a Z system. On an FX Nikon SLR, a 16-35mm or wider lens will also enable the use of filters, while a 10-20mm or similar lens will do the same for a DX, giving an equivalent focal length that starts at around 15mm. And if you do have a wide angle lens with a bulbous front element, there are filter adaptor kits, such as the Lee SW 150 system, but these are bulky and can be fiddly to use.

Compose the scene

When shooting at wide angles, it’s a good idea to have areas of interest close to the camera, as the middle distance can look far away. We set up our shot so that the steps led the viewer from the bottom left corner into the image and used the trees for framing.

Test shot

In Aperture Priority, take a test shot with no filter attached and take note of the exposure time. Under the shady tree canopy we had a reading of 1/15 sec – slow, but not slow enough to turn the water into a blur. Switch to Manual focus to prevent your Nikon from trying to refocus once the filter’s in place.

Time mode

If your resulting shutter speed is slower than 30 secs, as ours was, use the Time exposure mode option, which opens the shutter on the first press of the cable release and closes it on the second press. This is a better option than Bulb mode – as for this mode you have to keep the shutter button held down for the entire duration of the exposure.

Level up

Set up the camera on a tripod and use Live View to ensure it’s level. We used our Nikon’s touch focus facility to focus on the stone steps towards the bottom of the frame; the wide focal length combined with our narrow f/11 aperture ensures the whole scene is in sharp focus.

Calculate exposure

Our 1/15 sec shutter speed works out at one minute with the filter attached – you can try and work this out, or use an app such as Lee Stopper. The app can also set a timer based on the calculated exposure, which sounds an alarm when the exposure time is up.

Attach the filter

It’s best to have filter adaptor ring already attached to the lens filter thread beforehand and the 10-stop filter in place in the filter holder, so you can simply clip it into place. Take care not to touch the focus or zoom rings on the lens, or otherwise jolt the camera and alter your composition.