Magic Cloth Technique Long Exposure Photography

The Magic Cloth Technique involves controlling the amount of exposure to different parts of a scene during a long exposure.

Using a dark cloth (or card) you can reduce the exposure to the sky (or highlights) by covering the front of the lens for part of the exposure time. By using this technique, you can also extend the exposure time to give extra exposure to the foreground. The results are similar to using a graduated neutral density filter, with a bit more flexibility.

Because it requires a long exposure, it is well suited to night photography, or landscape photography. It is an in-camera Dodging and Burning technique.

Using your cloth, give the sky a short exposure, give your foreground a long exposure.

The Magic Cloth Technique came from the need to get the image right in the camera with a single shot but to still increase the dynamic range of a scene. Previous to the Magic Cloth, I was using HDR technique for landscapes.

In ordinary landscape photographs, the top part of the scene is brighter than the lower half. Even with a mirror reflection, such as a lake, the difference can be a couple of stops. In order to get the best exposure of both the land and the sky, photographers have traditionally used filters which are darker at the top and clear at the bottom. These are called Graduated Filters (grad) and although they come in different colours, the most popular are Neutral Density (ND – Grad). Neutral density adds no colour to the scene. Aside from different colours, Grad filters come in different strengths – measured in stops. They also come as soft or hard grads. So if you wanted to have graduated filters to cover every eventuality, you would have a set of around 6 filters plus a holder and adapter. Then there are reverse grads to consider – the top half is darker, but gets slightly lighter towards the top.

If you want a set of quality Grad filters, you are paying about the same price as a used car. I couldn’t afford them! But while I was looking I decided to buy a decent ND filter. This allows me to get a long exposure in daylight, but without any graduation. The ND filter darkens the whole scene and is much cheaper than a set of Graduated filters.

This is where the idea was born (at least for me), because during a 30 second long exposure, I wondered what would happen if I covered the sky half way through the exposure. I used my lens cloth (Hence “Magic Cloth”) This image can be seen below. The Magic Cloth technique has a similar effect to a soft grad filter and can also act as a Reverse Grad.

Right: This photograph uses a special application of the Magic Cloth. The exposure time was 3 minutes, but the sky was only exposed for 6 seconds and the sand was only exposed when it was wet from the waves. In other words, for most of the 3 minutes, there was no exposure going on. None of the white surf appears in this scene and I was incredibly lucky that a big wave didn’t disturb that little ice pop.

Read more about this image here.

Important:

Long Exposure – around 10 sec for regular use, no less than 2 sec. (to achieve this you have to shoot when it gets dark or use a dark filter.)

Settings

AV (aperture) mode. 2 stops over compensation (live view) or 3 stops over (without live view), 2 second delay

My first attempt The image on the right was taken just after the idea came to me on a Jokulsarlon Glacier lagoon tour. I was shooting a 30 second exposure (with a 6-stop filter) and dodged the sky after 15 seconds with my lens-cloth. The result was good, so I have spent the last several years perfecting the technique.

Procedure
Use your camera light meter and set the exposure compensation about 2 stops over. This should give you a really nice exposure on the immediate foreground. Then divide the total exposure by 10 for the sky exposure. For example, a 10 second exposure would be a 1 second sky.
Press the shutter to activate the 2 sec timer, during this time get your cloth ready.
When the shutter is open, allow 1 sec for the sky exposure.
Karate chop the cloth to cover the whole lens, then carefully lift the cloth to the level of the horizon (x 2 – keep it moving – keep the cloth level). The more slowly you raise the cloth, the higher the strength of the Grad. For example; if you expose the foreground for 30 seconds and raise the cloth very slowly to allow only 3 second on the sky, you will have a 10:1 ratio which is just over 3 stops. Move the cloth around the bottom of the lens until the end of the exposure (now you can put some angles in). The more you move the cloth, the softer the grad. Do not allow the cloth to become still during the exposure.

Thanks for Reading!!

This is my camera gear.

Choose the right equipment for Magic Cloth photography. Your camera must be able to take a long exposure and live view is a bonus. A lens that can take filters is also important if you want to do daylight Magic Cloth.

• Sturdy Tripod – essential for long exposure work.
• Dark Cloth or card (larger than the front of lens and with a straight edge).
• A 6 stop – ND filter – Like this: B+W 77mm 1.8 ND MRC 106M Filter For daytime work.

The ND filter is just to lengthen the exposure. You can get silky waterfalls or nice wave action without having to wait for it to get dark. Like Grads, they come in different strengths. I bought one of these… B+W 77mm 1.8 ND MRC 106M Filter

My advice is to buy a filter for your largest lens and use Sensei 72-77mm Step-Up Ring so you can use the same filter on all your lenses.

Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM

Landscape Lens

Focal length – 17mm + is the best focal length, super wide has a distortion that makes the straight edge of your cloth wonky. Choose a lens with a large front element with room to move the cloth around.

Canon 5D mark IIIperfect for Magic cloth photography!

• Simple features and total manual mode
• Great live view can see auroras before humans!
• Essential features can be changed with external buttons and dials.
• A little Red light on the back lets you know you are exposing.

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Skógafoss

On a longer exposure, it is possible to clean your lens half way through an exposure, so it is very useful for waterfall shots.

This shot of Skógafoss Waterfallwould have been very difficult because the spray was constantly soaking the lens. I was able to use the cloth to keep it dry during the exposure.

The technique is to double the exposure time so you can spend half the exposure cleaning the lens. This only works while your cloth is clean and dry.

The Magic Cloth Technique works beautifully for capturing the foreground or reflections in a night scene. Night photography can sometimes demand short star exposures, but with details in the landscape. If star trails are undesirable, using a Neutral Density filter would be a bad way of balancing the Heavens and the Earth. The Magic Cloth is a much better choice.

Landmannalauga

The magic cloth technique isn’t for everyone or for every scene, but it is certainly cheaper than carrying around a set of expensive glass filters. It is probably best thought of as being a night photography technique, which I have adapted for day photography with the use of a strong ND filter.

The downside is that you need a long exposure for this to work. The longer the exposure, the more control you will have. For day-time shots, you will need a way of slowing your exposure use a combination of ND filter, small aperture f/16 – f/22, and slow iso 50-100. I have had acceptable results with 2 second exposures. The other downside is that is can involve a lot of trial and error, this can be frustrating if you are taking a very long exposure. It is not really suitable for extremely long exposures as your arms and shoulders will ache.

The upside is that is is a very cheap method and can give excellent results. Also it is dynamic, you can expose all the sky in one go to give detail to the clouds, or you can use short bursts to give the clouds extra movement. It is possible to change the exposure if the sky suddenly changes. It is possible to use a mixture of angles if one side of a scene is too bright.

Magic Cloth group on flickr

Magic Cloth group on Facebook

Cloud movement and extreme colours are the result of special long exposure work.

This was an extreme condition as the sky was a lot brighter than the cliffs. I gave the foreground around 5 minutes and the sky around 10 seconds in total. I exposed the sky for about 1 second every minute to give the clouds a sense of movement.

Join me for some Magic Cloth Photography here in Iceland…

Running regularly between October and March.