Melissa and I recently took a short trip down to Georgia to visit family. While there, we went to a park that had a lake/swamp with boaters floating by in many directions.
In addition the boats were these beautiful trees which appeared to be floating on the water. Of course they weren’t, but I had to capture a long exposure photo to illustrate how majestic they were.
The problem came when finding a spot to capture the photograph. There was a floating dock (problem number one) that had a good view of the trees. Every other view was either dangerous territory (alligators) or just not as stunning.
When photographing a long exposure you want to be on still ground. This situation did not allow that to happen. I had no choice but to stand on the floating dock.
Nikon D800, f/8, 116mm, 20 secondsI varied the exposure from a longer shutter speed to a slower one. At the same time keeping an eye on how still the water is so the trees look as if they’re floating.
The other issues came during the exposure when a boat went by. The shutter was long enough to make the water smooth but fast enough to capture streaks from the boat floating by in front of the trees.
There are very few times that I work in Photoshop, but in this case I had no choice. Unfortunately Lightroom’s healing tool was not smart enough to handle the streaks, but Photoshops content aware healing was.
The final result is exactly how it appeared in my head while photographing it.
You can read the full story of this scene over at the Really Right Stuff blog.
Thanks for reading and happy shooting,
Scott
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