Y Garn, Snowdonia - How I captured the waterfall with smooth water
Best road trips are unplanned. This road trip took us to the North Wales - Snowdonia.
It’s a first week of April. Early Friday morning at 5am. Rain is pouring down all the way up North. Today we don’t have any big plans, only get from point A to point B and if the weather allows us, we can visit a Penrhyn Castle.
We finally arrived to North Wales, the landscape is completely transformed compared to flat mainland. Snow is still on top of the peaks which outline the border of Snowdonia National Park. Later, we will get there tomorrow…
In the evening I checked the camera equipment to be sure all is in order. This is a first trip with mirrorless system, Sony a7RII and manual focus lens Zeiss Loxia 21mm f2.8 - a big change after using Nikon system for over 13 years.
Saturday morning, clear sky, cold and freezing air. We hit the road and after 30min drive we arrived at the destination - National Trust - Carneddau and Glyderau. On the left side is lake Llyn Ogwen, on the right side is Tryfan and a footpath leading towards lake Llyn Idwal. Easy walk, should take only couple of hours but we got here to get some pictures, so the whole walk could be a whole day hike.
Route from carpark to first checkpoint is an easy terrain, we walked pass the great views at Pen Yr Ole Wen, Y Garn, Catell Y Geifr and many other peaks surrounding the lake Llyn Idwal.
When we got at the footpath outlining the lake, we crossed a bridge and stopped at the Afon Clyd Bach, a stream flowing down the hill from Llyn Clyd lake. This is the magical place with a small waterfall I wanted to have in my portfolio.
So I quickly scout the place for the best angle and position of camera and of course it was right in the middle of the stream, it’s never on the bank - somewhere comfy and dry. Back to “basecamp”, couple of backpacks near the bridge, picked the tripod, Lee Filters and went back to position I found a moment ago.
Tripod was placed in the middle of the stream, camera safely sitting on top of it. To tackle down the morning sun which was hitting the right side of the waterfall I used Lee Filter ND 0.9 Grad Hard which took down the exposure to acceptable level. To add a bit of warmer tone and eliminate the water reflection on rocks I used Circular Polariser. When I was happy with the composition, position and rotation of filters I calculated the final exposition when using Lee Big Stopper which is a helpful piece glass for a long exposure. Final camera setting were ISO100, aperture f8 and shutter speed 30s. That should do the magic. I took 3 exposures with different shutter speeds: 15s, 20s and 30s. The 30s version was the sweet spot so I was happy with the result and it was time to hit the road and see what’s behind the next bend of the footpath.
Quick tips for long exposure photographs:
Make sure the batteries are fully charged
Scout the location with camera in hand not on tripod otherwise you limit yourself and you compose in the height of tripod you carry
Place the tripod securely so the stream (or you) will not knock it over
On soft or springy ground, use tripod with spikes and try to remotely fire the camera, away from tripod as your every tiny movement is transferred across the moss/grass to tripod and could shake the camera and blur the image
Mount the camera safely on tripod head. Done? Double check it just to be sure.
With AF focus on DSLR, focus first, then switch to MF to “lock” the focused area before you slide in Big Stopper filter (you won’t see anything later on with DSLR. Mirrorless can usually focus with Big Stopper attached.)
Take a test shot without Big Stopper to confirm the exposure settings are correct then calculate the exposure with Big Stopper calculator (could be an app or a small flysheet with time conversion packed with your filter. Apps available here: LEE Filters - Stopper Exposure, NDTimer )
Slide in Big Stopper filter in first slot of Lee Filter holder, make sure there are no gaps around filter otherwise light leaks can ruin the image.
Always use cable release or remote shutter to avoid any camera movement when you press down the shutter on camera. In case you don’t have cable release use self timer - around 10s should do the work.
Without cable or remote shutter the camera will not let you go above 30 seconds (BULB mode requires the remote shutter for “holding” the shutter open without your finger on camera for the whole time.)
Majority of filters for long exposure have a colour cast over the final image - mostly towards blue. Further postprocess is required to get rid of the colour cast (if you have a calibration tool such as X-Rite Passport - use it, if not, edit it as you feel :) )
Make multiple exposures with different times - as the light conditions are constantly changing
Happy shooting :)