Well I got a 77mm B+W 10 stop ND filter through in the post yesterday, and have all sorts of locations nearby that will benefit from the effect. I was excited about trying it out, but then realised that I would only have about 1/2 a 'golden hour' to shoot in, between work and the gym in the evening.
Still I thought I'd venture out onto the Palm in Dubai to get a shot of Atlantis - no chance, backlit by the setting sun and with a really bad dust haze. Living on the west coast during summer isn't pretty!
The only option left was to carry on around the crescent towards Jumeirah Beach, and take in a view of the buildings around Dubai Marina while in effect being 2km off the coast.
No backlighting this time, but horrible sandy skies (typical of Dubai in the summer), 45 degrees and high humidity. Still I thought I've got to give it a go.
Slapped on the Cpl, adjusted to cut as much haze as possible, set focus to manual, did some maths to work out the new exposure, slapped on the 10 stop and held the shutter for 74.5 seconds. Not the best in the world, but I'm liking the smoothing effect on the open sea with this filter.
There's a slight cooling cast from the filter, which is easily adjusted, but I had to do a lot of pp to get anything vaguely presentable anyway. Lots of levels, saturation and contrast adjustments, a bit of vignetting (to take the eye away from construction in progress as much as possible) and cropping to 16:9 ratio.
All I need now is lower humidity, clouds, no sand in the sky and some time to practice around town... Oh well - only another 2 months of mid 40's heat!
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