The Big Stopper

This is how I use my Lee Big Stopper:

1. Compose the scene either in Live View or through the viewfinder. Use the Camera's inbuilt level to make sure the horizon is straight.

2. Focusing in Live View with the help of the magnifier. Have to use my glasses or else all things are blurred no matter what ;)

3. Make sure that manual mode and bulb have the same aperture setting - for instance f11 or f14 if it is light - I go down on the aperture when it gets darker.

4. Balance the scene with my Lee ND soft - that is done in Live View moving the filter up and down the slot until the scene looks balanced.

5. Setting the exposure manually, that is, measuring the scene. No fancy measuring method - Just a regular average reading - Evaluative measuring (Canon).

6. Inserting the Big Stopper.

7. Switching to Bulb mode

8. Start the exposure. I always use my remote to start and finish the exposure.

(181 secs)

9. Calculating the exposure. If the manual reading said 1/15 I count like this: 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 2 4 8 16 30 1min (10 stops). In dwindling light I add half a stop or more. In this case it would be around 30 secs.

10. Checking the image and the camera's histogram. If the image is too dark (which happens) I do it again and add usually one stop. In this case I would perhaps add one minute so that the total exposure will last 2 mins.

NB!!! Remember to cover up the viewfinder to avoid light leaks!! Super important!!

(181 secs - sorry about the image quality - Google does weird things to my images these days)