20141024-DSC_9510 On a beautiful early fall day on the Maryland side of Great Falls (just north of DC) I was having lots of fun with my Neutral Density (ND) filters taking long shots to smooth out the water on waterfalls. There are a number of small waterfalls along the side of the canal – one at each lock. Just before I turned off the path to head over to the Potomac River for some shots, I looked back and saw this view. The leaves on the trees were turning, the sky was peppered with clouds, the path had great shadows falling across it – I just loved it. Except for one thing. Sigh. It was such a great day that the place was full of other people. Any shot would have been ruined by other park-goers.

I set my camera on a tripod, pointed it back toward the lock, and waited. I was hoping for a moment when enough people would be out of the picture to take a good one. Yea, right. My camera pointing at them was apparently not a clue to say, “Get out of my shot”, but actually said, “Stand there in my shot and stare at me.”

There are two other ways to handle it. First, take a series of shots with people in different places and then use Photoshop and layers to remove them. I’m not much of a Photoshop guy – I’ve done it, but it’s tedious.

Second, put on a strong ND filter, open the shutter, and let their own movement over time remove them from the shot. Since they were moving and everything else was staying still over the length of the 15-second shot, they all but disappeared. You can see a “ghost” or two if you look at the highest point of the path, but really only on a blow-up. Overall, the picture turned out really well. The long exposure also gave me the tell-take smoothing of the water for a long exposure. I then dropped the highlights, opened the shadows, adjusted the white and black points, increased the vibrance a bit, and then gave the whole image that “soft” look by dropping the clarity a bunch.

This was a 15-second shot at f/14 with a Tamron 24-70mm at 46mm, and ISO 100. I think it was a total of a 10-stop ND filter.