Bring buildings to life
Learn how to use long exposures during the day to add movement to your scenic shots as Peter travers slows down with a 10-stop ND filter
in this project, I’ll show you how to bring sunny castle scenes to life by using ND filters and long exposures. As buildings are stationary it can sometimes mean your images feel a little lifeless. To boost our shot of a castle scene, I’m using an ND filter to extend our exposure during the day. I’ve used a 10-stop filter for our shot of a castle across the water – this has extended my shutter speed from 1/60 sec to a really long exposure of 20 seconds – this has in turn added movement to skies and water to bring our scene to life.
Neutral Density (ND) filters work by reducing the amount of light going into your lens and on to your Canon DSLR’S sensor. To expose the scene correctly you then need a very long exposure, and it’s the resulting slow shutter speed that means any movement in your scene – the clouds in the sky, people walking past, and moving water – all become blurred. The slower the shutter speed or the faster these elements are moving, the more they blur.
So what Canon kit am I using for this photoshoot? First up, I’m using a Canon 6D Mk II full-frame camera with an EF 16-35mm wide-angle lens, so I can fit lots of sky, water and the castle in my frame. As I’ll be using very slow shutter speed, I’m using a tripod for shake-free shots plus a remote control to take the shot.
Focus on the castle as this is what you want to appear sharpest. You can select an AF point over the castle in the viewfinder to focus, but I find as I’m using a tripod, Live View is much easier.
Now to add some magic to our castle scene. I’m using a 10-stop ND filter for a really long exposure during the day, which will add movement to clouds in skies and any water in the scene.
When using ND filters, it’s best to use Manual mode for full control. I’ve set an aperture of f/16 and ISO to 100 for the best image quality – even in sunny day-time conditions, with a 10-stop ND filter, I can achieve a slower shutter speed of 20 secs.