Sharp Focus March 2025

FROM THE CHAIR

March 2025

Dear Members,

A huge thank you to everyone who joined our March club meeting – we were just shy of a full house! The evening was a true feast for the eyes, with an exceptional standard of images on display. The bar was raised this month, with a minimum score of 13 required for nominations for Picture of the Month in our digital category – a testament to the talent and dedication within our club.

A special thank you to Jane for her interesting presentation on Salon Rules, based on Ms. Sneesby’s slideshow. It was also wonderful to catch up with familiar faces and share in our collective passion for photography.

Looking ahead, our April theme is Long Exposure, and I encourage everyone to read Geora Zadok’s insightful piece to prepare for the challenge. To put theory into practice, we’ll be heading out for an outing on Saturday, 5 April to Muizenberg. We’ll meet at 08:30 for a brief discussion before setting off in search of the perfect long-exposure shot.

Keep capturing those magical moments, and see you next month!

Kind regards

Betzi

How It Was Done

This photo is  “Crystal Ball Light Painting” by Karen Parisi

Camera settings:  24-70mm lens, f9,  6 sec, ISO 100

This photo was taken with lots of trial and error and experimenting, until I eventually achieved what I wanted.
The settings might not work for everyone, as I experimented with different shutter speeds until it worked for me. I also had to leave enough time to press the camera shutter and then position the lights where I wanted them to start.
I used a crystal lens ball on a black perspex board, on top of  a low coffee table and slowly swung a small strand of fairy lights (attached to a battery) in circular motion around the ball. The photo was taken in the dark.
It was a bit challenging to begin with, as I had to experiment where to stand, so as to get the lights revolving around the crystal ball in the right place, while getting some reflection as well.
I processed the photo afterwards in PS, darkening the background and bringing out the highlights and clarity.
Hope you enjoy experimenting as much as I did. I only attempted this on one occasion, but would definitely say it is worth trying again, maybe with different lights or patterns of movement.

Our thanks to Karen for submitting this article .

Themes 

We rearranged the themes to fit more appropriately to the season.  You should be working on your images for the next 3 months – Long Exposure – April; Pet Portrait – May; High Contrast Mono – June.  Click here to view our themes and outings for 2025.

Theme for April – Long Exposure

Long exposure photography a quick introduction  – courtesy of Geora Zadok

Where? Anywhere where there is some sort of movement that will be picked up and usually blurred by the length of the exposure or the movement of the camera through a space.

When? Anytime, you just need to be able to control the length of the exposure in some way that gets you a long enough exposure time to pick up and blur the movement in your image. Low light conditions are the best when starting out, this requires less gear and expense. You need to be able to use their camera in Manual mode, use the cable release, and bulb mode going forward.
Day time long exposures requires ND filters to achieve the long exposures needed to get the movement in the photo and a tripod to keep the parts of the photo that don’t move sharp. You can use a polarising filter to get a stop or two if you don’t have ND filters.

I recommend getting a ND filter if this is something you want to do.

Technique.

Low light condition such as dawn, dusk and over cast days are a good time to start long exposure photography. At this time you can still see the controls of your camera with ease and get decently long exposure times with no need for ND filters, tripod recommended any time you have long exposures.

1 sec f/19 at sunset, hand held using the traffic light pole as a support

At night long exposures don’t require ND filters as its already dark and long exposure times are the norm. To get longer exposure times you can use your camera’s lowest ISO and stop down the camera’s aperture to get longer shutter/exposure times.

A tripod and cable release are required for sharp photos. At night we can take long exposures of the sky, the stars will move through the scene causing light lines to show up in your photo, the longer the exposure, the longer the lines. Tip on a wide angle lens  – it will take longer for the stars to move through your scene than with a telephoto lens.
At night we can also add lights like flashlights/torches, lasers and fire to the image, referred to as light painting. Set up your camera and tripod, set a long exposure, when you expose the photo you can use the torch to light certain areas of the scene. There are no rules here, you need to practice and experiment – trial and error is the only way to produce satisfactory images. Adjust exposure time and light painting till you get something you like.

46 sec f/11 on a tripod at night.

During the day. In the day time ND filters are required to achieve the long exposures needed to capture the movement in the photo, and a tripod to keep the parts of the photo that don’t move, sharp. You can use a polarising filter to get a stop or two if you don’t have ND filters. I recommend getting a ND filter if this is something you want to do.

Set up your camera on the tripod with cable release and compose your image, Set the exposure to capture the scene correctly. Focus and put your focus on manual as the camera won’t be able to focus through the ND filter once its on the front of the lens.Use the long exposure calculator to extrapolate the exposure time for the ND filer you will be using, this will give you the same correct exposure as the set up but over a longer exposure time.

30 sec f/13 on a tripod mid day with a 10 stop ND filter

For example it your set up exposure is 1/125 th and you add a 3 stop ND filter then your new exposure time will be 1/15th, or a 10 stop then your exposure time will be 8 seconds. Add the 3 stop and the 10 stop together and now you have an exposure time of 1:05 (1 minute 5 seconds) Basically the ND filter is used to correct the exposure over a period of time not available to youunder normal circumstances.
Day time long exposure photos may include moving water, clouds, and wind moving things like leaves on trees, anything that moves even slowly will eventually blur out and things that don’t move will be sharp.

Gear

Camera with manual settings.
Tripod, its hard to hand hold a long exposer especially when they get really long
Cable or remote release, to avoid camera shake and to use bulb mode for exposures longer than 30 seconds
Filters, polarizer will give you between one and two stops depending on the filter.
ND (neutral density filter) come in stops from 1 through 16 and up. I usually use a 3 stop and for extremely long exposures I use a 10 stop.
Long exposure calculator app, like Nd timer and Photo buddy if you are using ND filters.

Tips

If you don’t have a cable release or remote, learn your camera’s delayed release settings. these usually have 2” and 10” delays. This will reduce camera shake when pushing the shutter release button.
Keep your ND filter clean at all times especially near the sea and other moving water, any spray and water that gets on your filter will be exponentially exposed on you photo, easier to wipe and keep clean than to do the editing to clean it in post.
Use an app, its easier than doing the math yourself and the app usually has a timer which it truly helpful on extremely long exposures over 30 sec when in bulb mode.
Batteries! Make sure you have a fully charged battery and if possible a spare. Long exposure photography is power intensive.
At night dress appropriately warm, if your out for any extended time you will get cold.
When using a laser pointer NEVER POINT it at ANYONE or directly at the camera, this can cause damage to the sensor.

WARNING – These are the thoughts of a  lunatic with a camera obsession, use them at your own peril. And remember to have fun and experiment. There is no wrong or right way just interesting photos.

Our thanks to Geora Zadok for this contribution and for admitting his passion.

Further examples and all the text on a pdf can be downloaded here

March Results

Many thanks to this months Judging Panel – Geoff, Jane, Keith, Ceridwyn and Peter B. Observed by Peter F and Betzi.

You can view all the submissions by going to Flicker – just click here

Evaluation of Digital Images – March 2025

Digital Image of the Month – March 2025
Please click on images to enlarge.

Winning Image  – Didi Franklin.
We were the first car into Cape Point in the morning, and decided to walk along the path above Dias beach. As we came over the rise, on the path, we spotted two juvenile caracals asleep next to a rock. We spent an hour watching them playing and exploring. We assumed the mother was out hunting and were pleased she never returned to find us with her offspring!
I have subsequently seen two more juveniles in a similar spot.
It will remain the best animal sighting of my life.

Shutter speed 1/400, f8, ISO 1000

 

Evaluation of Theme Images – March 2025

Nominations for Theme Image of the Month – March 2025
Please click on images to enlarge.