Monday 31 January 2011

Wing Tips (Butterfly Sunset), Wisley

So it is slightly tenuous, but, having spent an hour in the Wisley greenhouse photography butterflies, I was seeing them everywhere. This was taken about half an hour after Greenhouse Effect, Wisley as the sun went down beside the glasshouse. Looks cool in Lightbox, if you have the time and are feeling indulgent!

There's more from this series to come, whilst the sun was still high and golden. Once it went behind the cloud I put my ND500 (9 stop ND) filter on to smooth the water. Although the blue cast needs some WB correction in processing, it really works well on sunsets. Another example is Meltwater, Hertfordshire.

As with that one, the main trade off is in terms of opportunity - without the filter you get to take many more pictures (I suppose theoretically over 500 times more...) of the narrow window of exciting light. That said, where there's water involved, I think it's worth the risk. I've found anything between a minute and two at low ISO, high aperture, delivers in this kind of "afterglow" situation. No doubt it must vary, but once you get to that amount of time, the wait to get yourself a stop off target is pretty lenient.

This is definitely a spot I'll return to. There's a sturdy paved border around the edge of the lake which did a perfect job as stand in tripod.

Hope everyone is well and having a terrific start to the week!

See Wing Tips (Butterfly Sunset), Wisley on Flickr for additional comments and notes.