02 Endless water
Use a long exposure to create a seamless scene at the coast
To create this classic minimalist shot, photographer Louis Stacey kept the shutter open for 337 seconds and enhanced his final image effect in Lightroom and Photoshop afterwards. Like Louis, you’ll need a strong neutral density filter, a tripod and the right camera settings. “It was achieved using a 10-stop ND filter to really make the water smooth and help blend it in with the sky. I used f/10 and ISO 160,” Louis tells us.
Louis shot the scene around an hour before it got dark. “I needed some fog to help isolate the subject and make the background seamless. However, I didn’t get the exact weather I was looking for to capture it all in-camera, so I decided to manipulate the image.”
Loading the image into Photoshop, he created a new layer, removed the subject and then copied the water layer, while flipping it vertically and aligning it with the sky position. “The hardest part was blending it in to create a seamless effect, but using the Brush tool, Clone Stamp, gradient tools, Layer Masks and duplicate layers, I got to a point where I was happy with it. Then, I brought the isolated subject back in as the final layer.”
@louisstacey