For our May Workshop Damian did a short talk about preparing your images for printing.
You can find the notes from this talk on learndamophoto.net. Click the buttons below to read the notes.​ 

Hello all, here are some notes to check out, you can print them out and bring them on Thursday if you wish, and also ask lots of questions!
Intro, Technically speaking a long exposure can be anything from half a second to several hours.
Generally, a tripod will be an essential part of your kit with exception of some panning type shots which with practice can give very nice results.
Your exposure time will vary according to the available light and upon what you want to achieve.
If you want to convey a sense of motion or drama in your image then anything from 1/15th of a second up to about 1.5 seconds should cover most scenarios. This will depend of course on how active or fast the waves and or clouds are coming in and how much light is available.
For an exposure of up to 30 seconds most cameras will do this provided the light is sufficient. But to capture a 30 second exposure with nice golden light from a rising sun may require the use of filters.
Another aspect of “extended’ exposures is to go for an exposure of maybe half a second to up to several seconds. This will blur the fluid part of the scene and will inject a sense of movement and drama that can produce very pleasing results. Sometimes, a circular polariser and a smaller aperture will be enough for this type of shot.
If you want to produce an image that conveys a sense of peace or quietude then you may wish to push the exposure time to two minutes or even longer. To do this you must have the camera set to “Bulb” mode. This means that the shutter will stay open as long as you wish, but you have to manually switch it on and off using a remote battery operated device or a simple cable release, this is my choice due to its simplicity. To make one of these two minute (or longer) exposures and still have enough light to light the scene (hence avoiding excessive noise) will require a light reducing filter system to help achieve this. There are several different brands of filters. “Lee”, which for many years has been the go too brand for serious ‘togs and more recently, “Nisi” which many consider to be superior to Lee due to their lower “colour cast” attributes. I sue the Lee 100 mm system and find it excellent, and besides, any colour cast can be easily fixed in post processing.
The Lee system includes a square filter holder that fits on to the front of your lens. In this filter holder are three slots. There are dozens of different coloured filters available. However, for my style of shooting I have a set of three GND’s or Graduated Neutral Density they are .3, .6, and .9 of a stop each. I usually use only a .9 in the middle slot (and sometimes the .6 in the outer slot) for the purpose of lessening the difference in brightness and contrast between the sky and the area below the horizon and in the slot closest to the lens I use either the Little Stopper (6 stops) or the Big Stopper which is 10 stops. There is also a Super Stopper of 15 stops which, for example can turn a half second normal exposure into a marathon 4 hours and 16 minutes!!
It is best to try and keep the sun out of the frame during an extended exposure because you will more than likely end up with a big blob of overblown white out. This can be troublesome to fix and sometimes impossible. Of course, there are exceptions to everything and a nicely placed “Sun Star” just peeking out from the horizon or from behind a tree or building can give a very pleasing result.

The Club is in the process of making two roll up banners to display when we have exhibitions and we need photos for the design. Below are the two proposed layouts for the banners. Each banner has room for 5 images. You can submit your photos using the form below. Entries close midnight 30th April.

Jeff Jones is one of our prolific landscape photographers. He loves his long exposure beach landscapes and does some amazing work. Here Jeff explains the settings he uses to achieve these images and the reasons behind it.
If you want to see more of Jeff's work follow him on Facebook at Jeff Jones Photographics

"Australia Day", F11, 2 seconds, ISO 50.
One of my first on Australia day, hence the low light.  A medium to small aperture allowed the exposure to go to two seconds at ISO 50 and also helped to give a reasonable amount of DOF (depth of field) in focus.

​"Lamberts Beach Sunrise", F11, 241 seconds, ISO 50
​My aim with this exposure was to create a nice streaking of clouds and to smooth out the water, giving the image a sort of ethereal look.  The smooth water also has the added bonus of giving a nice reflection of the colours in the sky.  To keep the shutter open for 241 seconds required the use of a Big Stopper or ten stops of exposure.  I also use a graduated neutral density filter in front of the stopper to lessen the contrast between the darker foreground and the brighter sky.

"Reach for the Stars", F2.8, 20 seconds, ISO 1000
Taken on Keswick Island on a clear dark moonless night.  Twenty or twenty five seconds is about the maximum exposure time before the stars start to leave a trail.  Wide open aperture and as with the previous long exposures manual focus and a sturdy tripod are paramount.  You can use live view magnified to adjust the focus or you can turn the focus ring all the way and just back it off a smidgin.

“Colour Me Crazy”, F16, 481 seconds, ISO 50
I forgot to mention that with exposures over 30 seconds you must use your cameras “Bulb” mode, to do this it is imperative to have either a battery operated remote release or a simple cable release which I use.  Again the Big Stopper was needed to keep the shutter open for that length of time.

“Lammo”, F16, 0.4 second and ISO 50
To capture the swirls and shapes in the waves it is nearly the opposite of a long exposure.  Still on ISO 50 to ensure the minimum of “Noise”, the aperture setting of F16 was perfect to deliver a .4 of a second exposure, the rising tide and blowy conditions meant that the water was rushing in quite fast so .4 was all that was needed.  Had the conditions been a lot calmer I would have pushed the exposure to about .8 to 1.5 seconds to capture some movement.

“Light Me Up”.  F18, 1/15th of a second
.67 underexposed to try and tame the sun a little and once again ISO 50.  As you can see the sun was smack bang in the frame and was delivering beautiful golden light.  The sea really was quite lively and the wind around twenty knots so even at 1/15th of a second I was still able to capture some movement.

​“Burleigh Heads”, F20, 1/8th of a second and ISO 50
This in the middle of the afternoon with people all over the place, in the water and on the beach, not to my liking… So a panning shot like this can deliver very pleasing results without the clutter, there is colour, there is contrast, there is form and movement and there is an air of mystery as to where the shot might have been taken.  Something like this could hang on a motel wall in Waikiki, Burleigh Heads where this was taken or in Melbourne, it wouldn’t matter!