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A Long Exposure on the Coast- Dalesman
Most photographs are taken at shutter speeds between 1/1000 and 1/8 of a second, the equivalent of a blink of the eye and this range of speeds is enough to cover a broad range of subjects and capture them sharp and just like we view them with the naked eye. These shutter speeds can produce some of the most spectacular images, and even capturing stunning night scenes usually only requires a shutter speed of up to 30 seconds.
So what effect do you get beyond this and increase the exposure beyond one minute and perhaps up to around 10 minutes? Well, without some help you would of course end up with a very over exposed shot. Even with a standard neutral density photographic filter over the lens, which some photographers often use to hold back the light to prolong their exposures is not enough, especially in broad daylight. So for my project, I found a filter manufacturer that were making a special filter that fools the camera into thinking that the light levels are the same as compared to night time and so require a very long exposure to create an image.
So why would you want have an exposure of this length of time? Well, if you imagine you are stood by the coast, with the ebb and flow of the tide and heavy clouds in the sky above drifting pass in the breeze. As we view this scene with our eyes, it will look quite ordinary, as our brains register a snap shot of this, just like viewing an image taken at say 1/100 of a second. At four minutes however, this movement of nature takes on a surreal and ethereal feel within the image. Blurred beyond recognition or even disappearing altogether, the effect of the movement means your images have a beauty and mystery to them that only the sensor in the camera can capture.
As I experimented with the technique, I tried different places where there would be some movement in the scene, yet I always seemed to come back to the coast for the best effects. This I think is because you have both the sea and the sky, which have good movement in them to exaggerate the effect. A pond or lake has less movement in general and the water doesn’t seem to pick up enough light reflections as the sea and also lakes are more even in tone, whereas the sea has the bright surf adding essential highlights to the image. Therefore, I decided to concentrate on coastal images, but again, only certain locations made the most of the effect. With all the movement and blurring in the image, it also helps to balance or contrast this with a solid object in the photograph. At the coast, this could be things like, jetties, stone piers, groynes or even harbour walls. Even a solitary rock in the water can become a strong image with this technique.
This is the other key point I found to finding compositions that worked. It needs a simple, uncluttered composition to make an effective image. The idea of the blurring effect is to create a surreal and evocative image and this is only possible if the picture is constructed with the bare minimum of elements to the composition. Too much in the picture and it becomes a mess. For this reason, I also found that my final image often looked best when cropped to a square format, as it helped balance the image and aids the simplicity of it.
An overcast day also worked better than a sunny one. Not only did it mean there was cloud overhead to add movement in the sky, but also the soft light added to the surreal look of the image. A sunny day with blue sky, not only means there is no effect of movement in the sky, but the image will lack atmosphere and exposures will be shorter because of the increased light levels.
The wonderful Yorkshire coast therefore was the ideal place to practise the technique. As I searched the coast, I also found that there were ideal locations that had the range of subjects needed to make a successful image. In the south you have the mighty Humber Bridge and Spurn Head which both proved ideal places to shoot. Spurn Head has plenty of groynes along its stretch as well as the lifeboat bridge, which created an unexpected image on one visit. Heading north to Bridlington, I found the harbour useful and again the groynes along the beach were perfect as the tide went out.
Whitby has become a popular hunting ground for many photographers over the years, and the piers were ideal to work as static subjects. I’ve shot the piers here from all sorts of angles and in different lighting conditions, but with the long exposures they are given a whole new look. The clouds in the sky drift into obscure patterns, whilst the sea blurs into a mass that becomes almost unrecognisable and the piers become the only solid object in the picture. I shot them side on, in profile, as I wanted them to be just a small part of the picture, but enough to add a static element as contrast to the movement in the picture.
Further up the coast, Sandsend also has its fair share of groynes, and was in fact the first location where I practised the technique. I had never stopped here before to take photographs, usually because I have always been in a rush to get to Whitby to make use of the light conditions available on the day. This cloudy day however, was ideal to stop at Sandsend and head down the steps to the beach to see what I could get. You don’t really know how the final image is going to look, even when working with digital, as the LCD on the back of the camera gives little away to reveal how the finished picture will look. It’s a case of timing an exposure and hoping that you get enough movement from the tide and the overhead clouds to give an exposure which you can then work on, back home on the computer.
Each location produces a different result and each day can also produce different effects, even at the same location. That’s part of the appeal of this kind of photography and I know that the Yorkshire coast has the variety to keep producing these fascinating images.
© Craig Roberts
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