Long exposure photography

Long exposure photography tips

Probably everyone has seen photographs, which were carried out using long exposure photography. Long exposure settings or long exposure is shutter delay for 50-60 seconds or bulb mode is time. Span during which time curtain opens and close, the blind close on the camera and final image is taken.
waterfall stones

Long exposure photography settings commonly used in nighttime photography or when you want to capture moving objects in the background when one of them is stable, the other dynamic. For example a house, and clouds; light going out of the lighthouse. With the help of long exposure, moving objects- light, shadows, fog, clouds, rides, running water, etc. can be captured in different places of image, to take a completely different view, blurred silhouettes.

long exposure west-pier-ruins-in-Brigton
Brighton pier long exposure B&W

Tips on how to shoot long exposure photography

Soft, silky effect recovery

It is recommended to select the ND (neutral density) filter, which blocked the sun rays and colors. Each ND filter stop reduces the amount of light 2 times, which falls on the sensor through the lens.
Stops/times light reduced/ND filter number
1 stop- 2 = ND2
2 stops- 2 x 2 = 4 = ND4
3 stops- 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 = ND8
4 stops- 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16 = ND16
10 stops- 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 1024 = ND1024
Using 10 stops filter, meaning that the lock has to be opened more than 1000 times comparing without a filter.

Shutter speed, aperture, ISO

The most important long exposure photography settings that you need to know are the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity. How to use them to get a good photo with a slow shutter speed can be found here how to get correct exposure to get a bright image.

Do not take photos in any way “by hand”

Come out to the field, select a test object (moving people and track machines run and the way. etc.). Select a slow shutter speed settings, say: ISO160, f/13, 50 seconds shutter speed and shoot once while holding the camera in your hand, the next time placing the camera on a stable surface (the best fit for the camera tripod) can be a chair, a bench, a building wall, fence,- any surface on which you can safely secure, built-in camera. For the first time realize that stability is important.

If you can not autofocus

When shooting at night, in low light conditions, or using a dark ND filter it may not auto- focus. Advice is simple- remove the filter, focus manually, then carefully put the filter and shoot.

BULB mode function capturing long exposure photo

In order to increase the retention of more than 50-60 seconds, you will need to switch the camera to BULB mode. Bulb mode lets you keep the shutter open in as much as you need.
For this, you will need a camera stand and of course the camera’s remote control.
Also, you will need to calculate how long to leave the shutter open. In some cases, mathematics is negligible (for example: if you take pictures without a filter ¼ of the 10 -stop, then get 0.25 sx ~ 1000 = 250 s, 250 s / 60 = ~ 4 minutes), but in other cases, it may be more difficult plus the need to assess the lighting. It is a good helper for Android phones app- ND calc.

Movement in the picture and long exposure photography

You only have to choose the time, place settings, and you shoot like a professional. First, as already mentioned above needs a stable object, which occurs near or is a naturally moving object (maybe a lot of moving objects). For example: Take the road and moving vehicles. Your item will be a stable path (road or motorway), a moving object will be cars. Thus, a stable object will always be in place, all you need to choose a targeted location where there is a significant flow of machines (in other cases, high cloud cover and wind, flowing river, etc.).

long exposure moving-traffic-signs
moving-traffic-signs

Hot spots in the photo shooting long exposure photography

Sometimes a slow shutter speed when shooting photos there are hot spots. They do not see when you look at pictures of your camera’s LCD display, but they revealed the revision of zoom 100 % of the work on your computer screen. It really spoiled the mood. They come in red/green/blue color. The most effective way to check or not before the photography session, take a photo with a slow shutter speed, which will use only without removing the lens cap. In this case, the black background easier to find and there are no unnecessary points.

RAW format

Some brands of filters, lenses, technical parameters can influence the fact that the final result image you get, will be slightly different in the picture. There may be more color and etc. It is best to shoot in RAW format, later modify pictures by software.

Composition
sunset long exposure silky water
Using long exposure photography does not mean that your photos will be perfect right away. Mastering technique, enhance your knowledge about the composition. Long exposure is deep related to landscape photography.

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