Austin, Texas experienced an unusually wet and mild-tempered summer in 2024. No complaints for this hiker! Over two months, I found myself reconnecting with the once-dehydrated creeks. With currents flowing through the avenues, I have taken many opportunities to enjoy the outdoors and capture some movement in my landscapes.

Last year I attended a workshop at Precision Camera & Video that covered the principles of long-exposure photography. My love for landscape photography was unveiled almost twenty years prior only having limited knowledge and practice with long exposure. Ready to take my skills to the next level, I left with some newly learned techniques and a starter filter kit from NiSi Optics. Thanks to one of the staff members, I took my time in going through the pros and cons of different kits and went with something suitable for beginners—just in case things didn’t work out.

The NiSi 100mm V7 Starter Kit features everything I needed to assist me in this elevated venture:

• Nisi V7 Holder

• True Color CPL and adapters for 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, and 82mm

• The holder permits up to 3 square filters and 1 circular polarizer

• 100 x 100mm IR ND 1000 10 stop (ideal for sunny days and close subjects)

• 100 x 150mm IR GND8 medium 3 stop (great for far horizons)

• Clever cleaner, cleaning cloth, blower, lens caps, and caddy pouch

I’ve had the pleasure of taking my NiSi V7 kit across Texas, Montana, and Wyoming on extensive hikes and camping trips, focusing on waterfalls, sunsets, and sunrises. I instantly fell in love with my new filter kit, taking it with me everywhere I go and making it a must-have when assembling my gear. Fast forward to this summer, I’ve developed more confidence in my art and gained enough courage to record my process.

After my video and audio recordings, I completely forgot to share my settings.

In the video, I mentioned that I set the ISO between 100-200. This will allow less light to flow through, preventing overexposure in highlights. Here, I set my ISO to 160. My aperture was set at F/9 to allow as much of the image to be in focus as possible without risking distortion around the edges. Finally, as I said in the video, I set my shutter speed (exposure time) to the center of the meter in-camera (or sometimes just below the center), again to prevent overexposure. Everything will change once the filter(s) are applied.

Given the coverage from the trees and surrounding hills, I didn’t need to use more than the 10-stop filter. I kept all my aperture and ISO at their original settings but needed to increase my exposure time to a shutter speed of 20 seconds per image. I took four different images: foreground, two at midrange, and the background. The light was evenly distributed, so I didn’t need to worry about adjusting for exposure, however, I did need to ensure that each layer was in focus. As I stated in the video, a large aperture won’t guarantee that each layer at a different distance will remain in focus. Once I was happy with each focal length, I took the four images into Photoshop and stacked them to blend the best-focused areas. I didn’t think to record my editing process, but maybe I’ll try that next time I use this technique for my landscapes.

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