International Photographers Association of Los Angeles 洛杉磯國際攝影家協會

I was dreaming to result in a picture such as:

http://photography.nationalgeographic.c ... 00x450.jpg

but I ended with this:



80-200mm f2.8 Nikon lens zoomed to 200mm; 1/1000 (no filter). 1/125 (with LPL filter), f/16, 200 ISO, white-balance set to "directly against sunlight" (then auto-white balance post-process); aperture priority; matrix metering; no flash (obviously); Nikon D90

So, what did I do wrong? The entire San Gabriel mountain disappeared - it's suppose to be in the middle.

I don't think your exposure is 1/1000. Based on the EXIF data of your picture, the exposure time is 1/125 which is way too slow to capture the mountain in a broad daylight, especially with the snow.

Oh, one more thing, your ISO setting was set to 320. Are sure you're using Aperture priority?

I thing the answer might be that I used the wrong filter. I mistakenly used a LPL filter and thought it would reduce the amount of light. It doesn't. LPL (Polaroid filter) reduces reflections and glares but not the amount of light. I should have used a ND filter (Natural density) filter, I was told. Since I don't have ND filters, I tried the LD filter but that doesn't work too well (LD cuts down the greenish color of fluorescent lights only). Finally, I placed my sun-glasses in front of the camera and it seems to improve some what.

I have a number of pictures adjusting ISO and speed. That particular one I posted was 320 but I have 200 and 1/1000 sec and still no good. I wanted to keep F number to 11 and that's why I set it to aperture priority. As you see in the other message, I think I need a ND filter.

Personally I don't use much of the filter except CPL filter (Circular Polarize Filter). There are a lot of ND filters to consider; from 1 stop to 10 stops ND. In my opinion, any ND filters less than 3 stop can be easily be duplicate using the ISO, EV, and shutter settings. It's all depend on what would you like to capture.

I am going back on Monday to the same spot at about the same time to try again. This time with a pair of sun-glasses acting as ND filters.