I recently went out and photographed some drift wood stuck out in the middle of this pond trying to make the wood look exposed well and the water misty. I stacked two of my Cokin ND filters ( a 6 and a 9) as i was out around 4pm and it was still quite bright out. These filters are the rectangle plastic filters that slide into the Cokin filter system... I put the shutter speed down as low as it would go and still wasn't able to get a long enough exposure before the camera told me I"d have to put it into bulb mode for manual long exposures.... when i did this, The image became properly exposed but right through the middle of the image was a White streak of light, completely wrecking the image... Am i doing something wrong? or would this be due to the fact that the sun was still out, semi high in the sky and off to the side creating a flare into the lens? ... when shooting out in the middle of the day with an ND Filter system and long exposures... how do I stop this from happening? I couldn't put the lens hood on because my filter system won't allow it.
It always helps to post an example so we can see exactly what's going on -- your description does run somewhat short of a thousand words after all ... :-)
ETA: If the water is moving enough to becoe "misty" with a long exposure, I'd expect the wood to also be moving at least a bit ...
I didn't post an image as I don't have it on this computer or in a file size small enough at the moment... after all it was a useless image so why would I edit it... but i'll see what I can do to get it up here for tomorrow.
I recently went out and photographed some drift wood stuck out in the middle of this pond trying to make the wood look exposed well and the water misty. I stacked two of my Cokin ND filters ( a 6 and a 9) as i was out around 4pm and it was still quite bright out. These filters are the rectangle plastic filters that slide into the Cokin filter system... I put the shutter speed down as low as it would go and still wasn't able to get a long enough exposure before the camera told me I"d have to put it into bulb mode for manual long exposures.... when i did this, The image became properly exposed but right through the middle of the image was a White streak of light, completely wrecking the image... Am i doing something wrong? or would this be due to the fact that the sun was still out, semi high in the sky and off to the side creating a flare into the lens? ... when shooting out in the middle of the day with an ND Filter system and long exposures... how do I stop this from happening? I couldn't put the lens hood on because my filter system won't allow it.
Thank you.
kevin.
are you covering up the viewfinder? if you don't, stray light will enter the viewfinder and ruin the image.
I recently went out and photographed some drift wood stuck out in the middle of this pond trying to make the wood look exposed well and the water misty. I stacked two of my Cokin ND filters ( a 6 and a 9) as i was out around 4pm and it was still quite bright out. These filters are the rectangle plastic filters that slide into the Cokin filter system... I put the shutter speed down as low as it would go and still wasn't able to get a long enough exposure before the camera told me I"d have to put it into bulb mode for manual long exposures.... when i did this, The image became properly exposed but right through the middle of the image was a White streak of light, completely wrecking the image... Am i doing something wrong? or would this be due to the fact that the sun was still out, semi high in the sky and off to the side creating a flare into the lens? ... when shooting out in the middle of the day with an ND Filter system and long exposures... how do I stop this from happening? I couldn't put the lens hood on because my filter system won't allow it.
Thank you.
kevin.
are you covering up the viewfinder? if you don't, stray light will enter the viewfinder and ruin the image.
Lanndon answered your question. When looking at your viewfinder you'll notice a little lever at 10 o'clock. Flip it and it will shield light from leaking into your viewfinder during these long exposures. The good news is that even if you forget you can still sometimes end up with an interesting image.
ahhh the viewfinder! I didn't even think of that and No, I didn't cover it.. I figured light was leaking in from the side of the lens as I couldn't use the lens hood... the sun was to my back so it would have gone right into the viewfinder... thanks guys.. i'll shut the viewfinder cover and see if that helps
I have this same issue as shown in your photo, but it doesn't seem to be consistent or reproducible, except when I don't want it. It's not the eyepiece cover - I'm good about closing it when I take long exposures shots. I sent it to Nikon on under an extended warranty, but they didn't fix it and now the warranty is expired. Any other ideas what is happening?
Well I'll be a goose fried in chicken fat...I never even thought about covering up the viewfinder before for long exposures. Now I know better. Proof that this site is an invaluable learning tool!
