This is a follow up to my previous post: Daylight Long Exposure that has details about how I use the ND filter. Obviously, at sunset you can do a long exposure without using a Neutral Density Filter. However, by using the ND1000 filter I was able to do very long exposures. I enjoyed the smoothing effect much more this time.

I picked up a ND 1000 filter that I could use on our Canon Rebel XS DSLR a couple weeks ago. You can use it to flatten out water or blur parts of your image that are moving because it allows you to take daylight long exposure. Part of the reason for the delay in trying it out was because I would need to use the Manual setting on the camera. This would require my brain. I'm going to detail the steps here so that I can reference it in a couple years when I have forgotten.

1. Use a tripod and a 2 second delay.
2. Take a picture using the No Flash Mode.
3. Take note of the shutter speed and aperture that the camera used.
4. Switch to Manual Exposure Mode and dial in the same aperture that was used for the first picture.
5. Multiply the shutter speed from the first picture by 1000 because this is a Neutral Density 1000 filter. The result is your new shutter speed. I made a chart for handy reference in the field.
6. Switch to Manual Focus and focus the camera.
7. Put the ND filter on being very careful not to screw up all that focusing you just did.
8. Take the picture.

Just to recap... I am not sure I prefer the photograph with the filter. I'll have to try out some different subjects and report back later. Click here to see that post.

Here's a time lapse that I did on the GoPro Hero 8 Black.