64 PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY
H
AVEYOUEVERTAKENA
portraitusinga 10-stopND
filter?Probablynot!TheND
filterreducesthelightthat
reachesyoursensor,forcing
you intoa wideraperture
and a slowershutterspeed.Alittlebit of
creativitycanturnthisto youradvantage
though.Findsomewind,fix yourND
filterandseta wideapertureforthe
shallowdepth-of-fieldanda slowshutter
speedforsomemotionblur.These
will combineto achieveetherealshots,
resultingin somelovelyportraiture.
Geta longexposure
AttachingtheNDfilterto yourlens
bl ockssomeof thelightin thescenefrom
reachingthesensor,allowingyouto get
botha slowshutterspeedanda wide
aperture.Withoutit you’llonlybe ableto
get oneor theother.NDfiltersaregiven
a st rengthrating– thehighertherating
the morelightit blocksout.Theamount
oflightit blocksoutis measuredin stops.
A 10 -stopNDfilterreducesexposure
by10 stops.Eachincreaseof 1 stop
halvestheamountof lightthatreaches
the camera’ssensor.If youdon’thavean
NDfilter,youcangetsimilarresultsby
shootingin thelateeveningwhenthe
li ghtstartsto fail.
Buildtheshot
Tomakea slowshutterspeedworkfor
thistechnique,finda modelwithlong
hairandshooton a windyday.Thesemay
seemlikequitespecificrequirements,but
the windwillcreatea lotof movementin
the model’shair,whichwillbe recorded
duringtheexposure.Withoutit, the
modelwillbluronlyslightly,andit’lllook
li kea mistake.Thekeyto makingthis
workis to keeptheeyesas sharpas
you can.It mighttakea bit of trialand
error,butif theeyesaren’tsharp,there’s
a chanceit’lllooklikea misfirerather
thana deliberateeffect.
Ta kethephoto
Toachievetheethereallook,you’llneed
the widestapertureyoucanmuster–
f/ 2.8is ideal,butf/5.6wouldworktoo.
Tofurtherdecreasethedepth-of-field,
lo okto shootusinga 100mmfocallength.
Togettherightamountof motionblur,
you’llwantto starton a shutterspeed
of2sec.Muchshorterandyouwon’t
captureenoughblurin thehair,much
fa sterandyou’llgettoomuchmotion
bl urfromthemodelas theystandthere,
eventhoughtheyaretryingto stayas
st illas possible.
GO SLOW
FOR LONG
EXPOSURE
PORTRAITS
PROJECT#2
TIP
SHOOTLOTS
OFFRAMES
Withso manyvariables,
it ’s helpfulto shoota large
batchof shotsto ensure
yo u geta coupleof
keepers.
