PhotoPlus The Canon Magazine – August 2019

WB

SET AF

The Canon Magazine 85

Long exposures & filters

hile you can shoot
long exposure
JPEGs, this
technique really suits Raw
files, as you can freely
fine-tune the brightness,
colours and noise later.
If you do record your images
as JPEGs, then it pays to get
everything right in-camera;
even if you rely on Raw it makes
sense to get the settings
correct so that you get an
accurate preview image.
One of the things you’ll likely
need to address is the white
balance. Strong ND filters
often give images a colour
cast. For instance, the LEE
Filters Big Stopper can leave
images with a cool blue cast.
You can go some way to

correcting this in-camera

by setting a ‘warming’ white

balance preset, such as Cloudy

or Shade, or manually dial in a

K (Kelvin) value north of

7000K if your camera offers

this option. Alternatively you

can remove the blue cast

completely in post-production,

whether you use Canon’s

Digital Photo Professional

software or a third-party

one, such as Lightroom.

Then again, the cool look

can really suit some pictures.

Throw in a subtle vignette and

you’ve got a classic moody

long exposure. I’ll often go

this route for coastal shots.

Your choice of Picture Style

will allow you to manipulate the

mood too. Some images will

suit the more saturated

look you get with the

Landscape preset, while

others may benefit from

the desaturated look

offered by Neutral. A

high-contrast black and

white treatment often

adds a sense of drama too.

Long exposures at higher

ISO settings can increase

picture noise, so it’s worth

setting ‘Long Exposure Noise

Reduction’ is set to On if you

shoot JPEGs. The drawback is

that the noise reduction can

take the same amount of time

as the exposure and you

cannot take another picture

until it’s finished. Save yourself

some shooting time by

switching to Raw and reducing

noise in images in Photoshop.

W

Make the most of

in-camera processing

Experiment with a range of different looks

iN-camera tips

School tip Dust Delete Data

Stop removing sensor dust manually

The smaller apertures used

for long exposure shots, and the

motion-blurred parts of an image,

will show how clean a camera’s

sensor is. While manually removing

one or two dust spots from an image

isn’t a chore, but if your sensor is

filthy now may be the time to register

Dust Delete Data so that DPP 4 can

erase the spots for you.

To do this, select the option in the

red Shooting menu. You’ll need to

shoot a sheet of plain white paper

with a defocused telephoto lens from

about a foot away. Once the camera

has mapped where the dust is, the

data will be appended to each image

(Raw or JPEG) taken from that point.

You can then apply the data via the

stamp tool in Canon’s software.

set the Monochrome style

when you shoot raw for a

black and white preview

leaving the white balance set

to Daylight gives this quayside

shot an icy ‘blue hour’ feel