Sunset at San Clemente Pier

San Clemente Pier is a 1296-foot long wooden pier located near the end of Del Mar street in the city of San Clemente in south Orange County, CA. It was first built in 1928, but had to be rebuilt twice after it was damaged by strong storms in 1939, and then again in 1983. It offers spectacular ocean views as well as free fishing and indoor/outdoor dining.

We visited the pier this past Sunday for some beach fun, and of course for taking some pictures of the pier at sunset. A couple of our pictures are shown below. For most of our pictures there, we used our Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 with our Tiffen Variable Neutral Density (ND) filter which can provides between 2 and 8 stops of reduction in light, and enable us to use longer shutter times and get a smooth silky water effect. Constant ND filters are dark glass elements which can cut the intensity of the light entering through the lens (without changing its color), and hence make various creative effects possible by allowing the use of longer shutter times and/or larger aperture openings. The constant ND filters come in different strengths which specifies by how much they reduce the light. For example, a 10-stop ND filter reduces the light by ~1000 (2^10) times. This means that, say, if you shutter speed had to be 1/100 sec before you put on the filter, once you install the filter, you can leave your shutter open for 10 seconds. Similarly, say, if you use a 3-stop ND filter, and your aperture had to be set to f/8, once you install the filter, you will be able to open up your aperture to f/2.8.

Using constant ND filters in situations where the lighting condition is rapidly changing (e.g., around sunset time) can be somewhat inconvenient. While one can stack up multiple constant ND filters to get different strengths, a more convenient approach would be to use a so-called variable ND filter. Variable ND filters are essentially made of two stacked-up polarizing filters, and allow a variable ND effect by rotating the front element.  When the polarization direction of the two elements become almost perpendicular, the filter will have its maximum strength. You can even build your own variable ND filter simply by stacking up a cheaper linear polarizer filter on top of a Circular Polarizer filter (CPL). Note that a CPL filter is typically recommended as the autofocus and metering systems in some DSLR’s may have issues when only a linearly polarized light passes though.

One issue with variable ND filters is the so-called X effect. Namely, at shorter focal lengths (i.e., wider angles) and at maximum strength setting, you may get an uneven exposure that appears like an X bar on the image. We have shown one example of that below. When using variable ND filters, we have to be careful and try to avoid very wide angles, and keep the strength setting of the filter a bit below its maximum. Finally, some ND filters (both constant and variable) may occasionally cause a bit of color cast. If you shoot in RAW, this can easily be fixed by White Balance adjustment in post processing.  Also we have seen some complaints about ND filters occasionally causing non-uniform (or localized) color cast in particular areas in the frame. That may not be directly related to the ND filter and instead be due to some light leak during the long exposure time.  When you have a very long exposure time in bright light, it becomes critical that you close your viewfinder (or block it with something) so that the only light reaching the sensor is through the lens (with the ND filter attached to it).

Anyway, here are a couple of our sunset shots at San Clemente Pier. Hope you enjoy them. Thank you so much for visiting, and as always, please feel free to leave comments and critique.

And this is an example showing how a variable ND filter can cause an uneven exposure like an X bar in the frame:

Variable ND filter causing an X-like uneven exposure in the frame