After the challenge comment:
The effect of the wings is not like a propellor in a video, altough it loos the same. A propellor in a video with this effect is a result of the filmspeed (frame to frame) in relation to the propellorspeed.
The wings of this windmill were not rotating fast, they were actually rather slow. The effect is a result of turning trough the dead point of the wings. The rotation is not a continous speed, it slows down when a wing comes near the top and speeds up when it falls down.
You can only see this with middle-long shutterspeeds like 2 seconds. In 15 and 30 seconds exposures the wings have passed so many times that they become one perfect circular blur.
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Lower windmill K again.
There was a full moon so I decided to attempt a 2s high iso moonscape, and to my fortune there were still some windmills turning. With the moonlight on the sails it might help to create a round blur. The 2s exposure had the advantage that you get a start/stop kind of blur instead of a continous round blur.
Near full moon behind me, parly cloudy and the sun sets in the background of the windmill. Despite the look of the photo it was very dark (night dark, with moon fill light) and there was no sun to be seen anymore (surprised me what turned up in the background). Couldn't read the markings on the camera or lens and despite my f/1.4 lens (bright for me and the focus system) it just wouldn't focus.
First did some test shots and finally decided to go for f2 (for depth), 2s (to match the challenge) and ISO800 (less noise, but also less color depth because of 1 stop underexposure) exposure. To focus it I did 30s ISO 200 long exposures with trial and error focussing. When it finally looked ok I set the 2s exposure and fired away. Did this from various angles.
Worst thing to edit. The original is underexposed by 1 stop (like I said, I decided on the spot to use ISO800 instead of 1600 and 2s was not near enough for a good exposure) and thus very dark. Pushed it stop in RAW conversion, introduced a lot of grain, but the there was more color than ISO1600 shots from other angles (except one that tech looks good but has less compo). Color was way off.
I hope it does ok, it is still pretty grainy, but the pattern of the circle and the blur of the reed shows the 2s exposure and imo the composition is okish. I'm not happy with the horizon line, but didn't want to loose the reflection nor a shooting angle that would distort the windmill angle.
(2425d_5)
Date: 13.03.2006 at 19:45:49
Aperture: f 2,0
ISO: 800
Shutter speed: 2,0 s
Program: M - Manual
Resolution: -- (RAW)
Focus Mode: MANUAL
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6 - Good and unusual. If the car/houses were not so apparent and the blades on the windmill 'somehow' a fraction more 'captured'/contrasted, make this even better in my opinion. Haven't seen a windmill shot like this before.
Got a feeling this is one of your shots Peter :) Not really liking this as much as I normally do your shots but this is far from bad, above average in the challenge so I gave it a 6.
I don't like the motion on this pic. It seems to be a nice, quiet, and serene setting, yet the windmill, due to the long exposure, is going super-fast. Its too much of a contrast in energy. The pic also looks like its been over-lightened.
I wonder where this is, oh let me guess somewhere near Hoorn :))) You know you were so lucky finding a windmill which was rotating. I have been to The Netherlands so often and I have never seen a windmill actually working!
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