Gas Street Basin, Birmingham, November 20th
Monday night the photographers were out en masse taking photos at the Frankfurt Market and wound up on the canals, tripods at the ready, for some long exposure action. Here are the photos.
While shooting the canals we noticed that occasionally the reflections were bending. In reality there was a slight bend but it was mostly an optical illusion. On a 20-30 second exposure the bend was really pronounced. There are numerous explanations for this but none of them quite add up. Anyone with a decent knowledge of light care to shed any?
(And this one from your friendly tour operator in Gloucestershire!) I think the light bending effect is probably related to ripples on the water surface which in turn are caused by swirling eddies within the “canyons” that are the city canals. Longer exposures would provide a cumulative effect.
I was going to say something similar. The canal is moving, albeit slowly, and hence the light refelcted onto it is in a different place over time, and over a long exposure, this is giving your effect above. Similar to light streaks from moving traffic, but slower. Make sense?
Also, any lens distortion at the edges of your picture, from using say a zoom lens at full zoom, or at its widest, might produce some vignetting or halo effects, but that’s not the case here, is it?
These bending light photos are really excellent. I’ve no idea how its caused though!
It’s the water that is bending, not the light, silly.
Great photos, by the way.