An inspiring photo from the Guardian eye witness app. The photo is in the hills of Snowdon North Wales. Click on the link for more information.
http://gu.com/p/37kya
I love how the photographer used a slow shutter speed to make the lakes icy smooth, like glass.
Trying to work out what the settings were. The aperture must be very small possibly f22 to try and keep as much of the scene on focus, the point of focus is the cliff on the left side of the picture. The focus is really sharp.
Shutter speed was probably between 3 and 5 seconds?
ND filters must have been used, I was looking at the shadows to see if I could work out what time of day it was, normally you would expect a photo like this to be taken first thing in the morning our last thing in the evening. But the shadows seem very short suggesting closer to the middle of the day!
The other possibility that it was a HDR photo, but we know a low shutterspeed was used so trying to get three photos exactly the same with no tripod movement is likely to be tough. Do it was unlikely to be HDR, but not impossible.
What I like about the photo is how your eyes go straight to the cliff on the left side then the stones lead you down the mountain to the lakes and the through the valley.
I most certainly want to try and get a picture of the lake looking like glass, something for me to try.
Hope you like it as much as I do.
It’s likely he took the picture before the sun came up.
My wife took an image of herself in a lake, with the resulting image of her appearing ghost-like (due to slow shutter speed) and the water silky smooth. Plus as you’ll see – very short shadows due to no sun – it’s predawn after all – something like 3 or 4am in the morning!
But there’s enough light to do great photos. Here’s that photo (she won an award for it – http://www.katrinagwynnejones.com/#!portfolio/vstc2=page-17 (it’s a Flash based site though)
Thanks for your comment, your right, I didn’t think of night photography or extreme morning photography. I like your wife’s website I will add a link.