Dean Cooper, who is based in Victoria, Australia, has been working as a full time Landscape/Seascape photographer since 1999. He runs workshops in Australia and New Zealand focusing on Landscape Photography. An inspiration for Dean Cooper’s work comes from shapes, patterns and details of the natural world, he loves finding these and including them into his images as a foreground.

ISO: 400

Aperture: F8

Shutter Speed: 0.3s

I was out shooting with the NiSi 15mm lens, when I came across this scene and thought it would be perfect to test the Sunstar effect at different apertures.

There were patches of green foliage among the Tea Tree and this spot with the red flowers really caught my attention. The composition fell into place pretty quickly with the sun bursting through the trees to the left of the Boat Shed. I shot a frame at each aperture from f4 to f22, each producing a beautiful sunstar.

I love the manual focus scale on this lens, it is so quick and easy to set focus and know instantly that everything will be sharp, it is my preferred way to focus. The depth of field is also incredible on this lens, and I find even shooting down as low as f5.6, I get nice sharp images from foreground to infinity without having to focus stack.

Normally when I’m shooting Seascapes I have a swag of filters in place, for this image, I had the NiSi V6 system in place and only used the CPL, this brought out those rich greens in the foreground.

I have been shooting with the NiSi 15mm lens for a few months now and have loved it so much for shooting Landscapes and Seascapes.

by Dean Cooper

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Magnus Winbjork is a photographer and adventure guide located in the Swedish Lapland. He is an expert in capturing the magnificent nature of the Nordic nations.

ISO: 100

Aperture: F8

Shutter Speed: 1/400s

Took this photo during a day trip to the area around Kebnekaise mountain massif in Swedish Lapland. The weather was perfect, it’s cold, and the sky is clear.

I really like to compose with the sun in the frame, and with the NiSi 15mm F4 all becomes like a dream. Being able to get such clear and distinct sunbeams and completely without some unwanted reflections is fantastic. Then I shoot a lot in the white snow-covered landscape, it is very important for me with a lens that gives me as few reflections as possible when shooting straight to the sun, cause when you have big pure white areas even a small reflection will ruin the photo. It’s a big benefit to be able to get this kind of sunbeams already at a quite big aperture, cause using a to the small aperture will easily give you diffraction which is very visible with today’s high megapixel cameras. The NiSi 15mm f4 with its special design has really opened up a new way of taking photos for me, and I’m now more inspired than ever to compose with the sun as an ingredient in my photos. The NiSi 15mm wide-angle lens gave me the opportunity I needed to capture such a moment.

by Magnus Winbjork

The post A Clear Sunstar in the Snow-Covered Landscape appeared first on NiSi Filters and Lenses for Camera and Cine－Beyond imagination.

Andrei is a photographer with a passion for nature photography and capturing the magical moments that appear at times when most of us are sleeping and in places that most of us never visit. His photographs are published in National Geographic and he has received several awards and recognitions such as the GDT, Asferico, Sony WPO and local nature photography awards.

ISO: 200

Aperture: F11

Shutter Speed: 20s

When my observations show a low tide by the sea, I will try to plan my photo trips to coastal areas. I know that in these conditions you can find special foreground objects to include in your photo, that would otherwise remain hidden underwater. The shallow bays of the Baltic Sea are just right for such moments. The sand patterns that emerge there at low tide always provide endless possibilities. The movement of the clouds also gave hope for a beautiful sunset, and it seemed that all the necessary elements for a good landscape coincided.

The closest focusing distance of the new NiSi 15mm wide-angle lens is only 20cm and so it allows you to get close enough to the subject to achieve the desired result.

I really enjoy how compact and lightweight the lens is, which allows me to choose the composition with ease. I placed the tripod in the lower position to get a reflection of the sunset colors. To maximize the depth of field, I took two images and focus stacked them later.

I used a NiSi IR GND 3 Stop Hard filter to neutralize the bright light and a polarization filter to bring out the foreground.

The NiSi 15mm wide-angle lens gave me the opportunity I needed to capture such a moment.

 by Andrei Reinol

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Carlo Alberto Conti is an Italian landscape and seascape photographer, who has over 15 years of of photographic experience. He has been collaborating as an Official Photographer with the famous Italian photographic agency Clickalps since 2018. And he was also appointed as an Ambassador for brands such as FEISOL, NiSi and f-stop.

ISO: 200

Aperture: F13

Shutter Speed: 1/2s

I shoot this photo during my first field test of NiSi 15mm F4 ASPH lens. Thinking of the perfect location I chose the wonderful cliffs around the iconic old town Tellaro, near La Spezia, Italy. Everything was planned down to the last detail, especially the weather forecast. The sea was very rough and the frontal sunlight was very strong, thus I decided to combine two GND filters, the 0.6 and 0.9 soft ND grads, which allow me to achieve the right movement of the waves and control the strong frontal sunlight. Then I waited for the right moment, and when the sun was where I expected, I set the aperture to F13. I used manual focus to get the best sharpness and the filters allowed me to have the job done, which is a colorful and sharp image. I’m very satisfied, and could not expect this lens and its debut better!

The post The Rough Sea and Thrilling Sunstar appeared first on NiSi Filters and Lenses for Camera and Cine－Beyond imagination.

Dylan Toh is a landscape photographer based in Adelaide, South Australia, who is also an official brand ambassador for NiSi. He have traveled around the world and captured many amazing scenes, which were published nationally and internationally in various photography magazines.

ISO: 100

Aperture: F11

Shutter Speed: 1/30s

I took this image on a sweltering 40-degree evening. Adelaide’s southern suburbs were under threat from an out-of-control bushfire burning in native scrub. I decided to hike up to Brown Hill where the ridgeline overlooks the fire. While I was watching the blaze unfold, I noticed a glorious sunset happening. I shifted focus from the pyrocumulus clouds to this lone tree which I had visited frequently in the past.

As the sun moved lower in the sky, it cast beautiful long shadows through the tree. In order to capture the clouds and the divergence of shadows, I decided to go for a wide-angle scene with the NiSi 15mm F4 lens. I set the aperture at F11, the manual focus past infinity and shot a few exposures to cover dynamic range. Due to the large hyperfocal distance of the 15mm lens, this image did not need any focus stacking.

Shortly after taking these images, the pyrocumulus cloud started lighting up with the approaching sunset.

The post A Glorious Sunset Burning over Brown Hill appeared first on NiSi Filters and Lenses for Camera and Cine－Beyond imagination.

Magnus Winbjork is a photographer and adventure guide located in the Swedish Lapland. He is an expert in capturing the magnificent nature of the Nordic nations.

From my photography view, this is a very special and quite unique photo. To be able to get crystal clear spikes/rays from the sun and moon, you mostly need to have an aperture of F16 to F22. With some lenses, you can get clear ones just before F16, but you still need to at a very small aperture. It’s almost impossible to shoot night photos with such a small aperture. If you want to have good light in the foreground and there is also an aurora in the composition, the aperture of F16 to F22 forces you to use a crazy long exposure time. But that’s not possible, cause the stars and especially the moon are moving too fast. It’s also not possible to use a star tracker, cause the foreground is still. Thanks to the new NiSi 15mm F4 which gives you crystal clear spikes even at F4, and together with the Sony A7SIII that can handle high ISO very well, making it possible to take a photo like this.

The aperture of F4 is not ideal for shooting auroras, but by pushing up the ISO, it is possible to get the right shutter speed at F4, and it is enough for NiSi 15mm F4 to give you crystal clear spikes from the moon.

This is one single exposure, no blending, and no stacking.

The post Frozen Winter Landscape Lit By the Moon and Aurora appeared first on NiSi Filters and Lenses for Camera and Cine－Beyond imagination.

Dylan Toh is a landscape photographer based in Adelaide, South Australia, who is also an official brand ambassador for NiSi. He have traveled around the world and captured many amazing scenes, which were published nationally and internationally in various photography magazines.

ISO: 6400

Aperture: F4

Shutter Speed: 30s

I shot this image on the back roads near Port Julia on Yorke Peninsula. There are very few large towns in this area of South Australia. Port Julia is a two street town which emits very little light pollution and is therefore a very good location for dark skies. I was heading to this area to photograph dawn as my various planning apps had informed me that there was fast moving low cloud in the area. Whenever those sky conditions are present, there’s always a chance for good light.

I arrived in the area well over an hour before dawn and noticed that the skies were surprisingly clear for a period of time. The stars were visible and though the Milky Way core was not in view, the Southern Cross was lining up vertically to the southwest. As a result, I drove around the dirt roads looking for a road that lined up with the direction of the Southern Cross and finally found one just outside of the township.

There was very little time to take star images as the sun would be rising soon and clouds would be passing in and out. I set up my camera with the NiSi 15mm F4, placing the aperture at F4 with the focus past infinity on the manual focus ring markings. Given the lens has a widest aperture of F4, I opted to use 6400ISO to ensure the stars were well exposed. I then took a series of 10 images of the stars 30 seconds apart with the camera’s in-built intervalometer before including myself in the frame for a few final frames varying my distance from the lens. Before I knew it, the clouds blew over and it was time to head down to the beach for my original goal.

In processing this image, one of the pleasant surprises on reviewing the RAW files was that the stars appeared to emit star shaped diffraction patterns as did my head torch. I had not thought of many practical applications for a wide-open aperture sunstar image, but Milky Way photograph is one I have now discovered by accident.

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