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Long eхposure shots emulation. Pentax K-1 / K-1 Mark II

Serge

Serge

Well-Known Member
About 8 years ago I forgot to take ND Lee filters with me. When I got to the location, I decided to use the Pentax K-1's built-in feature - Interval Composite. This is the process of stitching together several frames to create a single image. You can get a great result by stitching together from 15 frames at intervals of one second. You can also use more frames. See examples below...
2023-04-14_20-17-44.jpg
K1M26794_DxO_1440_LE.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - PENTAX K-1 Mark II
  • 15.0 mm
  • ƒ/5.6
  • 1/400 sec
  • Center-Weighted Average
  • Manual exposure
  • ISO 200

_IMG7210_DxO_1440_LE.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - PENTAX K-1
  • 15.0 mm
  • ƒ/8
  • 1/10 sec
  • Center-Weighted Average
  • Manual exposure
  • -0.3
  • ISO 100

_IMG7220_1440_LE.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - PENTAX K-1
  • 15.0 mm
  • ƒ/7.1
  • 1/2 sec
  • Center-Weighted Average
  • Manual exposure
  • -0.3
  • ISO 100

_IMG8768-Edit_1440_LE.jpg
  • PENTAX K-1
  • 15.0 mm
  • ƒ/8
  • 1/25 sec
  • Center-Weighted Average
  • Manual exposure
  • -0.3
  • ISO 100
 
Interesting Serge. You know many of us... (ok, me)... use the camera as a basic tool. Maybe I'll bracket exposures a bit.

But your images here, in addition to looking beautiful, show us... (ok, me)... that the tool we're using is more complex with features that are not obvious at first. Anyway, good post. Thanks.
 
Serge said:
About 8 years ago I forgot to take ND Lee filters with me. When I got to the location, I decided to use the Pentax K-1's built-in feature - Interval Composite. This is the process of stitching together several frames to create a single image. You can get a great result by stitching together from 15 frames at intervals of one second. You can also use more frames. See examples below...
View attachment 1163
Click to expand...
Yep, used it before but I had some issues (I can't remember) so I stick to using ND filters (ND10 and ND12) for long exposures. What I do find this feature useful for is noise reduction at high ISO but I prefer to do the averaging on the computer in post.
 
That’s very impressive Serge. Wish I had that patience and skill.
 
Thanks for the kind comments!!!
BTW...
This method has a few drawbacks, so it is still better to use high quality ND filters.
1. When someone looks at the Exif, they will see a mismatch. The image will look like a long exposure photo, but the shutter speed value will not.

2023-04-15_06-34-40.jpg

2. The shutter speed will be much slower than with ND filters (there are intervals between shots and there can be many shots). This means, that small moving objects are "more critical" when shooting this way. So not everything can be shot like that.

But there are some advantages.
1. When you stitch shots together, you improve the clarity of the shot and this dramatically reduces the amount of overexposed areas (for example, highlights on the surface of the water from the sun).
2. If the weather conditions are not favourable (rain, fog, splashing water, etc.), you can save on expensive ND filters.
3. By using this method, it is possible to reproduce very long exposures without the degradation of colour that is possible with "strong" ND filters.
4. "Backup" method when no ND filter is available
 
Further examples. The Solovetsky Islands, White Sea. (15-20 frames stitched in one image)
_K1M1255_DxO_2019_1440.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - PENTAX K-1 Mark II
  • 15.0 mm
  • ƒ/5.6
  • 1/3 sec
  • Center-Weighted Average
  • Manual exposure
  • -1.3
  • ISO 100

_K1M1185_DxO_2019_1440.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - PENTAX K-1 Mark II
  • 15.0 mm
  • ƒ/11
  • 1/3 sec
  • Center-Weighted Average
  • Manual exposure
  • -1.3
  • ISO 100
 
Serge said:
About 8 years ago I forgot to take ND Lee filters with me. When I got to the location, I decided to use the Pentax K-1's built-in feature - Interval Composite. This is the process of stitching together several frames to create a single image. You can get a great result by stitching together from 15 frames at intervals of one second. You can also use more frames. See examples below...
View attachment 1163
View attachment 1167
View attachment 1164
View attachment 1165
View attachment 1166
Click to expand...
 
The top image was taken at 0.5sec f11 and the bottom is in camera 9 exposures totalling 0.6 sec f11 both taken with my K-7 back in about 2010. Sorry for the poor formatting of the post it isn’t behaving well with my iPad.

113C6E50-61FD-4FA3-9F31-6FA4A65E8BBD.jpeg
  • PENTAX - PENTAX K-7
  • 70.0 mm
  • ƒ/11
  • 1/2 sec
  • Pattern
  • Manual exposure
  • 0.7
  • ISO 100
At various times I have utilized this technique as well. I believe I settled on 9 frames as being adequate in most instances.
39824719-585D-422C-AE83-4A58C3451288.jpeg
  • PENTAX - PENTAX K-7
  • 70.0 mm
  • ƒ/11
  • 1/2 sec
  • Pattern
  • Manual exposure
  • 0.7
  • ISO 100

around 2010 with K-7 f11 9 exposures total time 0.6seconds
 
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