I recently got my hands on a ND100 filter. I've never used an ND filter before, but I had to purchase one for my adventures into the world of video. I firstly ordered a variable ND filter going up to 5 stops (ND32). But as I was researching ND filters and their use cases, I learned about some of the strongest ND filter: ND100.
This is the type of filter that darkens image so much that you can play around with really long shutter speeds at day time. And that's what I set out to do today.
I cycled on my new bike to Trade Port, the dystopian industrial logistical center between Sevenum and Venlo. There is lots of motion: massive windmills, truckloads of trucks, trainloads of trains, even some little streams of water.
Below here are some of my experiments.
The experiments
- The classic long shutter speed subject: moving traffic. I played around with various shutter speeds. I tried some video's as well, but it was more difficult to achieve an satisfactory motion blur there. I'll have to dive into that a bit more, not sure how that works.
- Here I waited half an hour for the train to come.
- This photo is pretty cool to me. I was hoping the capture the motion of the traffic in the mirrors as well, but I couldn't draw out the exposure time that long. It makes me excited to return at night time though, because I'd love to see the rear lights drawn out in the left mirror and the headlights in the right mirror. Might be a cool picture!
- Here I tried to keep the center tulip in focus, while spinning the camera. I didn't use a tripod (not sure how that would work), but still managed to get a cool 'dizzing' effect.
- Extra photo. I liked the frame of this picture. The creepy smile of the tank behind bars, hmm.
Tripod bike carrier plan
For long exposure photo's you need to carry a tripod. There's no way around it. I brought mine in my sling bag, the one I made myself. It was a bit of a pain in the ass the get the thing out of the bag everytime I wanted to use it. Then I thought: why not attach it to the frame of the bike, like a frame bag? With some easy straps or something. That might be a nice sollution. Will try it next time.
