Before we started our trip to Eastern Canada and USA last fall (2019) I purchased a neutral density (ND) filter for my Nikon DSLR camera. I didn't spend a lot of time with the filter while we travelled, but I did make a point of using it while we visited the Hays Falls in New Brunswick. Changing the visual effect of water was my original goal for buying the filter, and this was a perfect opportunity to try it out for the first time.
Hays Falls is located between Woodstock and Meductic, NB. Using Google Maps, we had difficulty locating the trail to the falls from Highway 2. We made a couple of passes along the highway, and finally drove south along Highway 165 until we found a parking area beside the road. The falls are located between the 2 highways, and although the trail from 165 was the longer route, it was an easy hike with only a moderate uphill climb.
After taking some time to enjoy the view of the falls, and the obligatory photos of us in front of the falls, I set up my tripod to take a few shots with and without my filter. The filter is an inexpensive ND1000 for which I only paid about $35 or $40.
For my initial shot, I set the camera at ISO 400 and f/7.1 - aperture priority and the lens at 22mm. This allowed the camera to automatically set the shutter speed to 1/25s. From that point, I installed the filter on the lens, changed to manual mode and included all the same settings. Of course the first shot with these settings was all black. I checked the photo app I was using, and it calculated the required equivalent exposure to be 40 seconds. That seemed a little excessive and it required me to use bulb mode on my camera. I double checked using a manual calculation - multiply by 1000 (for ND1000). That also works out to 40 seconds ( 1/25 * 1000 = 40). Instead I counted the stops on my camera: 10 stops - 1/25 - 1/20 - 1/15 - 1/13 - 1/10 - 1/8 - 1/6 - 1/5 - 1/4 - 1/3 - 1/2.5, and started from there. My first shot at 1/2.5 was still quite dark, so I thought, lets sneak up on the correct exposure by changing the shutter one step at a time. It took another 15 exposures before I reached what I thought was an optimum setting of a 5 second exposure. Why did my results differ so much from the suggested calculation? I can't explain it, but perhaps the cheap filter I bought isn't a true ND1000? I know some of the difference may be due to clouds that passed over during the 10 minutes I spent with my experiment, but that wouldn't explain it all.
After loading the final exposure into my computer, I realized that I probably could have bumped up the exposure by another second. However, better to be a little under exposed than over. It only took a couple of minor adjustments in my editing software and I now I have what I think is a very good first attempt with my ND filter. I really like the effect created by the filter and long exposure - the water takes on a creamy appearance and everything appears soft. I've noticed a couple of differences when comparing the initial and final photos. Check out the illumination at the base of the trees at the bottom left, and note that the fallen tree in the bottom right is brighter in the initial picture versus the final. I'm not sure of the reason for this as I didn't perform any significant exposure adjustment when editing. I think these differences are caused by cloud cover.
