Dramatic waterfall

This is a favourite place of mine to sit and wait. This was on a photo tour around Iceland last week to Dettifoss. This time I was waiting for the rain to soak these big basalt rocks, but alas only a few spots came. Strange to have Europe’s most powerful waterfall beneath my feet spilling out thousands of gallons per second, yet the sky could only afford a thimble of water per square km. Like those big waves on the beach, it never rains when you want it to.

Magic Cloth

This image was gradually introduced to my digital sensor with a magic cloth long exposure. Use the Magic Cloth Technique.

Posted by Iceland Aurora Photo Tours on 2014-07-18 18:38:59

The Magic Cloth approach was born out of the necessity to get the picture right in the camera but to nonetheless boost the dynamic range of a scene.

The Magic Cloth Technique includes controlling the amount of exposure throughout a very long exposure to various elements of a landscape. It replaces a set of Graduated filters.

A set of quality Graduated filters are about the same cost as a used car. Instead, I decided to purchase a quality ND filter. This allows me to get a long exposure in daylight. This is where the idea came to be, because during a 30 sec shutter, I wondered what would happen if I covered the sky half way through the exposure. I used my lens cloth (Consequently Magic Cloth) The Magic Cloth approach has an identical effect into a soft grad filter and may also act as a Reverse Grad.

It is also possible to completely clean your lens half way via an exposure. Quite helpful for waterfall photos. It is possible to use the material to keep the lens dry during the exposure.

Maybe you need to give more exposure to the shadows like a average northern light show, the Magic Cloth Photography is a useful tool for your camera bag.

Magic cloth photography

Check out some more Icelandic waterfalls on our Iceland Photo Tours.