Sometimes there is too much going on, in which case simplifying a scene can make it easier on the eye. We can choose to highlight particular shapes or colors and leave out or remove others.

Chaos can become peaceful and meditative. Clutter can give way to a clean, neat orderliness. By going down the path of minimalism, we can create images in settings where we might otherwise not readily find something pleasing.

We might not all completely agree on when an image is or isn’t minimalist, but the principles are nevertheless helpful for composition. It is about simplicity rather than complexity. This doesn’t mean that there will be no details, but it does mean that potentially competing elements will often have been discarded. Clean lines and shapes may pop out at us and there might be a strong use of geometry. There tends to be a sense of elegance to the way the author has stripped back the composition to include only the essential elements.

In this article, we are focusing on how long exposures can help to give a minimalist feel. There are plenty of other aspects to explore, but for now we will take a look at a relatively easy way to dip your toe into the world of minimalism with landscape photography.

Table of Contents

Landscape Photography Using Long Exposures

Around 2010, there was a huge trend that sprung up in landscape photography and it remains with us today. It involved blocking out most of the light from our cameras with very heavy ND (neutral density) filters – most notably using the now infamous 10-stop filter. This was mainly for seascape images to give a very different feel to the water, turning it at times into little more than a mist. Rocks, piers, and other structures are then left in stark contrast, offering strong lines and shapes for your composition.

Long Exposure Minimalist Seascapes

Waves can create a lot of interest in landscape photography, but at times they can seem to clutter up a scene. We don’t always want pin-sharp details all over the water as it can distract from other areas in the image. It also restricts the mood that we are able to convey. Using long exposures of various lengths gives us great freedom to sculpt the look of water in our photos. From softening the edges of the waves to creating a milky or misty look, there is a lot we can do with water to change the mood and look of a composition. The more extreme end of this is particularly handy for drastically simplifying a scene.

Piers and sea defenses suddenly stand serenely and boldly, carving out strong lines in an ethereal soft landscape. Adding very strong Neutral Density filters in front of the lens allows you to keep the shutter open for longer. These can be screw-on filters or rectangular/square sheets that go into a filter holder system. I have used a few of each and one thing that is worth bearing in mind is that you will get a slightly different color cast on your images from strong ND filters as they don’t tend to be truly “neutral”. So, expect to have to correct the white balance afterward. Weaker ND filters have less of a noticeable effect. But, if you are after the extreme movement blur then you will normally need something like a 6-stop or more during daylight hours and that tends to affect the color.

How to Shoot Long Exposure Seascapes

For long shutter speeds you will, of course, need to put your camera on a tripod. It is also worth using either a timer or a remote shutter to avoid any wobbling of the camera when you take a shot. I sometimes take a bag with me to fill up on-site with sand or stones to use as a weight to stabilize the tripod more securely. The benefit of this is you don’t need to hike along the beach with weights. Just fill a bag with sand or pebbles, then empty it when done.

Cover up the eyepiece on a DSLR to avoid any light creeping in there during very long exposures. Make sure that if you are using a filter holder system there isn’t anywhere for light to leak in. Some filters have foam fittings to help with this.

It tends to be easier to work out the exposure by finding a good exposure without the filter and then making the necessary adjustments afterward. So, if the scene would suit a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second and you are going to add a 10-stop filter then you know that you need to change that to 10 seconds (double it ten times or x1000). You can get free and paid apps for your phone that can do the calculations for you.

It is much easier to compose your scene without the ND filters in place and to add them only when ready to take the photo. Otherwise, you may struggle to see sufficiently well to focus accurately.

Minimalism with Monochrome

Another technique commonly used for minimalist approaches to composition is converting to monochrome. It is another way to reduce the competing elements in a scene to get the viewer to focus more on shape. This can also make it look more abstract as we no longer have the color to guide our interpretations. The image below of the sea swirling around rocks at the beach almost looks like it could be mountain tops in the clouds.

Using Long Exposures to Simplify Land and Sky

As well as changing the appearance of water, long exposures can be helpful for simplifying things like clouds and blocks of plants. Clouds can be stretched across the sky, creating a smoother look, or forming lines. You can use this to your advantage when the wind is blowing in the right direction to create leading lines going towards or emanating from your subject or area of interest.

You can also see in the image above how plants can be blurred over time, recording their movements in the breeze. Larger trees (particularly if they have bare branches) normally move less, so they can become the sharper, static elements of your composition. Instead of distinct individual plants being visible as details, you can create something that looks more painterly or impressionist. This can be anything from almost just a smudge of color to something that looks like loose brush strokes. For more blur, it really helps if you have a strong breeze to create the movement for you.

Camera Settings

In terms of camera settings, you will need to respond to how strong the wind is when choosing your shutter speed. The image above needed around 5 minutes as the clouds were moving slowly in a more gentle wind. By contrast, the image below needed just over 1 minute. If you need the shutter open for a long time in order to get movement and end up with the image being over-exposed, then use an appropriate strength ND filter to cut down the light so that you can get a good exposure.

Here the time has also smoothed out the water in the river to some extent, giving us softer reflections of the buildings. Monochrome conversions such as this can be a good way to over-emphasize the details in cloud movement as you can push the contrast harder than you can with a color image.

ICM: Intentional Camera Movement

Another way of creating more extreme blur is to move the camera during the exposure. This can be a gentle or rapid side-to-side or up-and-down movement, for example. You may still need to use an ND filter to avoid over-exposing the capture as you will need to have the shutter open long enough to register the blur clearly. The image below shows a side-to-side technique used around sunrise at the coast. I tend to avoid getting the sun itself in the frame as it leaves a very bright streak that rarely looks good.

ICM can be a good way to drastically simplify a scene down to bands of color. It can also give a more abstract painterly appearance, especially when there is a lot of blur.

Other Uses for Long Exposures

In the image below I used a long exposure to remove detail from the shoreline and create stripes of color with the water and foam. This is an alternative to using a shallow depth of field. Sometimes you may want a large depth of field to keep a lot of detail but still wish to control the appearance of the water.

Long exposure techniques are useful to know as they can work with most moving subjects. For example, if you find yourself in a city and want to take architectural shots it can be very difficult if there are people around. Sometimes you can use a long exposure with an ND filter to make the people invisible or ghostly. Provided they keep moving and your exposure is long enough, they can vanish completely.

If you don’t have any ND filters and still want to try long exposures, then I’d recommend having a go at light trails. These are easiest to do in cities where the traffic is moving freely. Traffic jams don’t work so well! The low light in the evening means that you need a longer shutter speed anyway and the brightest bit of the cars are their lights, so that tends to be all that registers. Then you can create flowing trails of color through your scene – provided that the traffic plays along!

You can apply these techniques to various genres – even studio portraits – for a creative effect. Sometimes the blur created actually makes things more complex, so it isn’t always going to give you an automatic minimalist feel. You need to pay attention to other aspects of your composition if you want minimalist images. These final images above are obviously not as simplified and clean as others in this post. But they do show that techniques can be re-applied for all sorts of purposes.

When a long exposure can help you to achieve simplicity, clean lines and shapes, elegance, and a focus on just a few essential elements then it can help you create minimalist images. It obviously doesn’t always work, and the extent of the effect can vary. But, for seascapes at least it can be extremely effective.

About the author: Joe Lenton works as a freelance product photographer and is also a Judge, Mentor, and Ambassador of The Societies of Photographers. He holds a Fellowship in product photography with The Society of International Commercial & Industrial Photographers.

Image credits: All images © Joe Lenton, used here with permission. Not to be reproduced without permission from the author.

A while ago, I reviewed a couple of attachments by Apexel for phone cameras. They asked me to review their night vision scope but I told them nobody would believe my review of a product like that! I inquired if I could write a review of a couple of LED light kits and they agreed.

Full disclosure: A free review unit of the lens was provided for the purpose of this review. Although I did not pay for the review sample, the links you see in this article are not affiliate links.

Apexel APL-FL19 USB LED Video Light Kit

The product’s official name has “video” in it, but my main interest was to use them as easy-to-handle lights for tabletop photography. I received two kits. One contained a single light with a rechargeable battery, and Dennis wrote a separate review for that. The second kit with two lights needed to be plugged into a USB power source. Although a wall plug would have worked, I purchased a couple of power banks for portability. They can fast-charge my phones as well.

Highly Suitable for Photography

The maker, Apexel, offers it mainly for video creation and portrait fill lights, but I believe they are much more than that for many photographers. As you will see, I like them for tabletop or product photography, and Dennis will provide a segment on their outdoor use for nature and flower photography.

Flexible, Easy Adjustments With Remotes

The lights can be independently adjusted with their inline buttons or with a unified remote that can control them separately. Quite convenient. The level of light on each can be stepped up or down, and by pressing another button, the light cycles through different color modes from 3200 K to 5600 K in three steps. Apexel calls them Warm Light, Warm White, and White Light. The light level can be adjusted from 20% to 100% output in five steps.

Wall Power or Power Banks

If you decide to use power banks as I did, I suggest placing them in small bags and hanging them from the lower knob of the light stand. That will increase stability by adding weight to the base and make changes in the light stand position more convenient.

You can see the lights in the box and after they were assembled with the power banks attached below. You can learn more about the Apexel APL-FL19 USB LED Video Light Kit on their website.

Color Accuracy

The Apexel USB LED Video Light Kit has several modes with different light tints. Additionally, they come with slide-in color gels if you like strong color effects. For my initial testing, I was more interested in the light’s ability to render daylight-balanced illumination. To test that, I set it to daylight mode by eyeballing since there is no indication on the back of the light what it is set at. It is not hard to see when the light is the whitest. Then, I put the camera to “Daylight White Balance” and took a picture of an Xrite ColorChecker.

The result looked quite good, and I set the camera to Auto White Balance and took another frame. Although there was a difference between the two, it would have been hard to assess if I did not know the settings. My visual observation and checking the evenness of the third square from the left on the bottom row indicates an almost perfect white balance. The camera set on Daylight White Balance yielded slightly warmer results. See for yourself.

Quality of Light

The Apexel lights have a soft diffuser built-in and render pleasant soft light on subjects. I did not use any other light modifier in front of the lights. The shadows are gentle and soft. The objects also show smooth lighting on them. I used highly reflective objects to push the lights a little, and they rose to the occasion. Yes, I tamed the highlights a little in Lightroom to render the pen nib to show its writing, but overall, the adjustments are minimal.

I was having problems with my Canon R7 kit when I took the first set of photographs. I picked the sharpest images and gently tweaked the sharpness to make them presentable. I had more in this group but eliminated some after adding the second set with my newly replaced R7.

A New Collection

Since I resolved my Canon camera issues by getting a new R7 kit replacement for my and Jan’s old ones, I thought I would shoot a few new ones using the new gear. I used Dennis’s suggestion of putting the power banks in small bags and hanging them on the light stands. Luckily, he has also provided two bags for that purpose too!

I used the drop-down desk for its old wood surface and took a quick snap of the setup with my phone to show the lights and camera in action. The results with the new camera are remarkably different from the first bunch above and show the qualities of the lights even better as well. Here they are.

Color Gel Inserts for Effects

The included red, green, and blue gels can be inserted into the grooves in front of the light panels for different effects. I did a brief experiment with red and green gels on a couple of pens. It may or may not be your, or my cup of tea, but here are the results of using a varied mix of lights with colored gels. They are there if you want them.

Conclusion

Although Apexel markets it for video applications, they are highly suitable for tabletop photography. I have not tried portraits with the two-light kit. But they may be a bit on the small side unless used near the subjects.

• At its current price of $39.98, this two-light kit is a highly affordable and capable addition to your lighting setup.
• The light panels sit on three-level expandable light stands, and the ball head is easy to use.
• You can easily mount them on your more elaborate light stands using the two female screw sockets on two edges of the lights.
• Each light panel provides ample soft light on the subject yielding gentle shadows.
• The ball heads allow the positioning of the lights at suitable angles.
• Although I took a sample or two photographs with the colored gels to show their effect, those into experimenting with color will have fun with them.
• Adjusting the color and intensity is very simple with the inline or remote controls.
• I would welcome an indicator of the color setting and the intensity of the light on the back of the panels.

About the author: A. Cemal Ekin is a photographer based in Warwick, Rhode Island who has been shooting for roughly 60 years. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Ekin retired as a professor of marketing emeritus from Providence College in 2012 after 36 years of service there. Visit his website here. This article was also published here.

Photography By: Diane Fleischman | Review By: Janel Spiegel

Event Review: Maren Morris with special guest October Rose

August 12, 2023

711 E. First Street

Bethlehem, PA

Musikfest 40^th Anniversary

Well, Bethlehem, I lost an earring tonight, I won something, I talked to a bunch of amazing people. I ran into friends I haven’t seen in a while. It’s late, and it’s storming. Tomorrow will be the last official day for Musikfest with Train and Better Than Ezra taking the main stage.

Today was a beautiful day and Mother Nature was having a moment or two. There was talk of shutting Musikfest down again due to the weather but Mother Nature may have enjoyed the music coming from Levitt Pavilion. I walked around today, and sort of took in some things that I missed or didn’t get a chance to see. I ran into some friends I have not seen in a while. I stopped by the 99.9 The Hawk van and had a conversation with everyone. It was fun as usual. 99.9 The Hawk always has great giveaways, and they are fun to talk to.

The Dunkin’ Donuts truck was lined up with 99.9 The Hawk today. They were helping to give away concert tickets, and iced coffee samples. That seemed to make a lot of people happy. I mean, its coffee, how could it not make people happy. Okay, onto the concert, Maren Morris with special guest October Rose. October Rose is made up of, Leanne Weiss from New Jersey, and Derek Allan from Pittsburgh, Pa. Yes, the Eagles fans took time to boo the Steelers fans. All in good fun.

October Rose is a talented duo/group, and Leanne and Derek are married with a baby on the way. They danced together on-stage; they sounded great. They performed a cover of “Shallow,” and Leanne put a lot of soul in. They performed and got the crowd ready for Maren Morris.

Maren Morris was greeted by an energetic crowd. It was the end of the day, Saturday night, and having a blast was on everybody’s mind. Maren performed a variety of songs including: “Circles Around This Town,” “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” “I Wish I Was,” “The Middle,” which hyped the crowd up, and everyone sang along. It was a fun moment.

She performed a song called, “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry,” and that went over great with the crowd. Maren interacted with the crowd; she told stories about songs. She took us to church on a Saturday. The crowd was into this song. She got her “Hallelujah” and I appreciated the Johnny Cash reference. The breakdown of this song was great and the crowd loved it. I appreciated the song because to me, it’s sort of saying just driving and listening to music you love is your church. Call it whatever you choose.

She ended right before the rain started. Mother Nature was in her feelings. Maren wanted to finish the songs and kept singing despite it did start raining. It was beautiful. There is nothing in the world like that feeling. Imagine it, I’ll take you there. You’re listening to your favorite band or singer at a concert, and it starts raining. The band or singer decides to stay and keep singing, you know like STYX did, and they rocked it. Joan Jett and The Blackhearts did!

Maren Morris stayed and kept singing, and the crowd also stuck around. That feeling of feeling the rain, and knowing it’s sort of like a cleansing for all of us, and maybe Mother Nature had something to say. Right as she sang, “Let it rain,” it did indeed keep raining. Musikfest was a lot of fun, and it continues tomorrow. Space Kamp, Train, and Better Than Ezra.

Maren Morris and October Rose delivered. They put on a good show, and the crowd had such good energy. I know my section was singing and dancing. The Musikfest staff, the Bethlehem Police Department are all working hard. It was a good night.

https://www.musikfest.org/

https://www.marenmorris.com/

https://www.octoberrosemusic.com/

A bride has requested a full refund after she discovered that her husband had slept with their wedding photographer.

The heartbroken woman demanded her money back, saying that her man had bedded the 20-year-old snapper who he met at their big day.

In a painful slap of cruel irony, she even had photographic evidence to prove the affair.

However, her reimbursement request wasn’t lodged with the offending 20-year-old, but with another photographer – the man who hired her for the occasion.

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The professional, who calls himself Wedding Dude, explained his predicament in a Reddit post, writing: “Earlier this summer I shot a wedding. My typical second shooter couldn’t make it, so I found someone else online who I felt did good work.

“Anyways her [sic] and I did the wedding, and everything seemed business as usual. Photos were edited, delivered to client, all was good.”

However, he continued: “Then this morning I got an email from the bride. She was wanting a refund because the lady I had hired as second shooter for the day ended up sleeping with her husband at some point after the wedding, and she also included photos from his phone to prove it.”

Addressing his community on the Wedding Photography sub-Reddit, he then asked: “I haven’t responded yet, but what’s the best thing to do here?

“She hired me for a job and the job was completed and product was delivered. But I also feel like this would be as if I were a professional dog walker who walked a client’s dog, then came back and shot it later.”

But, he pointed out: “Of course the second shooter is considered a private contractor and not an employee….”

Wrapping up his story, he asked: “What is the best thing to do here? I really feel for this lady, but that’s also a lot of money to have to give back for work that was done.”

The wedding photographer pointed out that he and his colleague had “delivered” the work for which they’d been hirediStock

Fellow Redditors were quick to support Wedding Dude, insisting he shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s mistakes.

“This sounds harsh, but her husband was going to cheat on her regardless of who your second shooter was. It’s not your fault that she married him,” one wrote.

“Tell them you are sorry to hear that but there isn’t a way for you to refund for a service that has been completed per your contract,” recommended another, advising him to reply: “I cannot refund you because something unfortunate happened that I had no control over,” they added.

Another penned a passionate defence of photographers’ rights as service providers, writing: “How about you had been the bartender… ‘Hey bartender, my husband got drunk with your booze and cheated on me, give me a refund!’ Lol no, they wouldn’t even ask. It doesn’t happen with other vendors.

“Clients keep asking for unreasonable refunds to photographers because we keep enabling that behaviour. Job completed and delivered. You can’t take out the eggs after the cake was baked.”

Agreeing, another added: “We are human, and can feel remorse for others, but we are also a business. Unless there were serious issues with the work or deliverables, no person in their right mind would expect to get their money back.

“If she wants a refund for a wedding service, she can sue her ex-husband. This is an open and shut no.”

However, another Redditor was quick to refute their recommendations, writing: “I don’t know what the people here are talking about, I would refund her fully. If she shares this story all over the place, online, reviews, podcasts, it is YOUR name on the photography contract.”

Others pointed out that Wedding Dude risked seeing his own name dragged through the mud over the issueiStock

They went on: “I would say, ‘I am totally sorry this happened, I had no idea. Even though I did my job properly I am going to refund you just because of the situation and I feel for you. Please also sign this NDA that you agree not to leave me a bad review of anything because of this person’. At the end of the day hiring people, especially that you don’t know, its all on you.”

They continued: “I have refunded weddings for less than this because reputation is everything and its just not worth it, before adding: “Also don’t hire randoms from the internet.”

Another endorsed this as the “smartest answer here,” stressing: “Your name is your most valuable asset. Why deliberately destroy it over a point of principle?”

And a third commented: “Imagine that story being the second Google result for your business. Honesty, not worth the risk. Sometimes, through no fault of our own, we have to pay for problems to go away.”

Meanwhile, others offered more jokey recommendations as to how he should respond, with one suggesting: “Offer her a discount on her next wedding.”

Asked what the 20-year-old had to say when Wedding Dude confronted her about the matter, he said: “She denied it, then claimed he said he was in an open relationship.”

He then offered more details on the photos the wife had sent him saying they were “pornographic in nature” and appeared to have been taken in a hotel room.

One user asked if the tryst had begun “on the clock” to which he replied: “Not sure if any affair happened on the clock but he certainly established a relationship of sorts then. All the photos are from after the wedding.”

It’s not clear whether he now plans to refund the devastated bride or not.

Good luck to them both, we say.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Understanding the physics of light is essential for capturing great photographs. While there’s much more to light than what meets the eye, our eyes see more light than our cameras do. The amount of light that our eyes can convert into nerve impulses is limited, and our cameras capture even less light on their sensors.

One important concept to understand is dynamic range. On a bright day, our eyes can see details in both the bright highlights of the sky and the deep shadows on the ground simultaneously. However, cameras have a limited dynamic range and struggle to capture the same range of tones. Advances in sensor technology have improved dynamic range, allowing modern cameras to capture both highlights and details in darker areas.

The visible spectrum, which encompasses the colors we see, is only a small portion of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It’s remarkable that we can differentiate all seven colors of the spectrum within a narrow range of 320 nanometers. Our atmosphere filters out harmful ultraviolet light, allowing us to experience the colors without harm.

Bending of light, called refraction, occurs when light passes through the atmosphere, allowing us to see the sun before it physically rises above the horizon. Each color of the spectrum has a different wavelength and travels at a different speed, causing the colors to bend at different angles. This dispersion of light is what creates rainbows and the colors we see in everyday life.

In photography, too much refraction and dispersion can result in unwanted effects like chromatic aberration. Lens manufacturers use multiple glass elements to minimize these aberrations and ensure that light converges on a single point on the sensor.

Diffraction, which occurs when light hits an edge, is another important concept. The smaller the aperture in photography, the more pronounced the diffraction becomes, leading to a decrease in image sharpness.

By understanding these principles of light, photographers can make informed decisions and capture stunning images.