Comment by Crown City Photo by Bill Sandke on February 16, 2013 at 7:15pm

Nice shot. Great how the water blurs like mist with the long exposure.

Comment by Michael Griffith on February 17, 2013 at 5:26pm

Good to see you are back Mike...another nice shot!  I am trying to experiment with some longer exposure shots, but I can't match that great look you get.  The difference between a pro and an amateur I guess...

Photo Star Comment by Mike Nothum on February 17, 2013 at 9:04pm

Thanks Michael.  It does take some work and some patience but you can definitely create some long exposures with some basic camera gear.  This may be more than you wanted, but here is a quick set of steps.  (I would also encourage you googling it or go to Flickr and look for other LE photographers.

The trick to getting the ocean to have that silky look is to have an exposure that is at least 30 seconds...a minute or more is better.

Obviously you will need a good tripod and probably a wide angle lens...24mm or so (but not required)

Set your ISO to as low as it will go...this makes the sensor more sensitive to light and will allow you to take longer pictures.

Set your aperture to F13 or even higher...again, this will aid in allowing the shutter to remain open longer.

If the ambient light is pretty low, your camera should select a low shutter speed.  The problem is that it will likely not be slow enough for a minute exposure or longer. The really cool LE shots all use ND (neutral density) filters in front of the lens.  I use a 10 stop filter (allows a 1/40 sec shot to be taken in 30 seconds).  It is super dark...almost like welding glass.  It does mean you have to prefocus your shot first, then put your camera on manual and set all of your exposure values.

It takes a little experimenting to get it right.

Finally, I use NIK plug in software with Photoshop.  I will put my quick recommendation in for NIK.  They are based here in SD and they simply are the best photographic software company you will find...check out their website.

Hope that was helpful!

Photo Star Comment by Mike Nothum on February 17, 2013 at 9:17pm

OK...here are a few of my favorite LE photographers...pretty stunning work

http://500px.com/JoelTjintjelaar?page=1

http://500px.com/JuliaAnnaG

Comment by Michael Griffith on February 18, 2013 at 8:52am

Thanks Mike.  I will check them out.

Comment by Michael Griffith on February 18, 2013 at 4:41pm

Wow!  The work of the photographers that you mentioned is amazing.  Some really cool stuff there.  I see the 10 stop ND filter is important.  Thanks for the link.

Photo Star Comment by Mike Nothum on February 18, 2013 at 7:02pm

Here is one more

http://russbarnes.co.uk/

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