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A Beginner’s Guide to Long Exposure Street Photography

15 Jul

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Long Exposure Street Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

You may have done some long exposure photos and perhaps a bit of street photography. But have you combined these two genres for long exposure street photography?

Consider this: Photographs are frozen slices of time, and your camera is a time machine capable of freezing or stretching a moment. A short shutter speed can freeze things that happen far too fast to see. With a long shutter duration, motion is blurred, stretching time. When photographing in busy urban environments where people, vehicles, and other things are on the move, long exposures can create a sense of motion in a static photograph.

man walking near street long exposure — Late in the day when the light was fading, by dropping the ISO to 50 and stopping down to f/22, I was able to get a 1.3-second shutter speed, enough to blur this subject walking past the camera. Note the degree to which he is blurred compared to other people farther away in the shot.

I’d never before considered this quote from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to have photography implications, but considering what we’ll explore here, I like what it says:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Ferris Bueller

Taking photos is one way we “stop and look around.” It’s also a way we share what we see with others. But a limitation of still photographs is they are a 2D, static representation of a 3D, moving world. So how can we better communicate motion in a still photo? A long exposure that leaves the shutter open for an extended period will cause moving images to be rendered as blurs. That look communicates motion to the viewer.

So let’s talk about the mechanics of how to do long exposure street photography.

people walking along outdoor seating — Midday and in full sun; even at the minimal ISO of 50 and an aperture of f/22, I had to use a variable ND filter to cut the light for a 1-second shutter speed. Note the difference in blur between the moving subjects and those seated.

Where to go for the best long exposure street photography

If you’re going to depict motion, you want to go somewhere where things are moving. Busy locations where people, vehicles, and other things are on the move will work well. A busy city street or intersection might be a perfect spot. You could also try a sporting event where the participants are in motion.

For long exposure night photography (which we’ll discuss in greater depth), locations with moving lights and illuminated vehicles work well. Also, consider the interesting looks that can be created when your photograph combines static and dynamic elements. One person standing still in a crowd of moving people can make for an impactful image using the long exposure technique.

group of people walking by long exposure — When people walk, their feet are temporarily still – just for a moment – with each step. Even with a 2-second shutter speed, as in the photo above, while the bodies blur, the steps are visible. Low evening light, a low ISO, and a small aperture allowed for the 2-second shutter (no ND filter was needed).

A still camera in a moving world

You likely want the motion in your photos to be created by the movement of your subjects, not by the movement of your camera. Handholding your camera and keeping it still during a multi-second exposure will be very difficult, so a tripod is a good idea.

(Though consider if you will be able to use a tripod on a busy city sidewalk or other crowded environments. Creating a hazard where someone could trip over a tripod leg is not something you want to do.)

There is also the “attraction of attention factor.” I will confess: I have not done a lot of street photography because of my personal trepidation about having to engage with strangers who want to know why I’m taking their photo on a street corner. Should I decide street photography is something I want to pursue further, that’s something I’ll need to get past.

long exposure at the beach — A high vantage point off a pier assured no one was paying much attention to me as the photographer. A 6-stop ND filter, a low ISO of 50, and a small aperture of f/18 were all needed to deal with the bright sun and get this 8-second exposure.

That said, I guarantee that you will attract even more attention and possible questions if you set up a tripod and a professional-looking camera on a busy street corner and start taking photos of passersby. Perhaps you could find other ways to brace your camera aside from a tripod. Maybe even figure out how to do long exposures with your cell phone to reduce the attention factor.

(If this isn’t a concern for you, more power to you; you’ve already dealt with a major barrier to being a great street photographer.)

What is a long exposure?

Your objective here is to make “long exposures” so that your subjects move during the shot. So how do we define long exposure photography?

An object will render as blurred in a photograph if it changes position from the time the shutter opens until the time it closes. Two factors will determine the amount of blur:

The speed of the moving object relative to the duration the shutter is open
The relative distance the subject moves during the exposure.

Let’s use a moving car as an example. Say you have a shutter speed of 1/30s. You are taking a photo of a car moving at 40 mph. If the car is relatively close to the camera, it could move completely across the frame and thus be rendered as a complete blur. But if the same car, still traveling at 40 mph, was in the distance and relatively small in the frame, it would only move a relatively short distance across the frame in that same 1/30s – and thus wouldn’t show as much blur.

long exposure with blurry car and person — The car in this shot was moving quite slowly, so I needed to drop the shutter speed to 0.6 seconds for some noticeable blur.

long exposure of people waiting and dog — This car moved perpendicular to the camera, stayed fairly close, and moved completely across the frame during my 1-second exposure, thus rendering as nothing but a blur.

So to simplify, the distance an object moves across the frame during the exposure is what will determine its blurriness. Even relatively slow-moving objects can be blurred if the exposure time is long enough. Take a close-up of a snail with a 5-minute exposure, and you could quite possibly have it appear motion blurred, too!

It’s that exposure triangle thing again

I hope you know what I mean when I speak of the “exposure triangle” – the relationship between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture when making a properly exposed photograph. If you’re not completely familiar, I’d recommend you stop what you’re doing and read all about it here.

Now, if you’re going to make long exposures that are well exposed, you’ll need full control over your shutter speed. There are two basic modes you can use to achieve this: Shutter Priority mode (Tv on Canon cameras, S on Nikons and some other cameras), or full Manual (M) mode.

In either case, you will be able to pick a shutter speed and lock it in. (We’ll talk about choosing a shutter speed in a minute.)

police officer riding a motorbike — 1/60s isn’t what we’d normally consider a “long exposure,” but panning the camera with a fast-moving subject blurs the background while keeping the subject sharp.

Let’s assume you decide to make a 2-second exposure. Let’s also assume you are in Shutter Priority mode.

When you meter the scene, your shutter speed will be 2 seconds. Your aperture and ISO (if you are using Auto ISO), will “float,” automatically switching to a setting for a proper exposure. Depending on the ambient light, you might get something like 2 seconds at f/11 and ISO 1000. Locking the shutter speed and letting the camera determine aperture and ISO will allow you to get a proper exposure at the shutter duration you choose.

Using Manual mode can give you even greater creative control. Say you set your shutter speed for the same 2 seconds but stop down to f/16 for some additional depth of field. Your ISO can be adjusted to maintain the right exposure, and you’ll get the same 2-second exposure but at f/16 and ISO 2000.

If you are in Manual mode, you get to do all the adjustments yourself. Assuming you want the same 2-second shutter speed, you dial that in. Then you can adjust either the aperture, ISO, or both to center the exposure bar indicator and get a proper exposure. Should you decide to capture multiple shots from the same spot and the light remains constant, you shouldn’t need to make any additional adjustments.

Two important factors

How you choose your long exposure street photography settings will depend on two important factors:

Your desired shutter speed
Ambient light in your scene

So ask yourself:

What shutter speed do I want? Like so much of photography, the answer here is probably “it depends.” How much are the subjects in your shot moving? How fast? How close are they to the camera? What is your desired look? On a crowded street with lots of pedestrians scurrying about, you might be able to make everyone completely disappear in your photo if you use a several-minute exposure. Is that the look you want? Experimentation is the best way to learn the perfect shutter speed for this kind of photography. Try different things, “chimp” your shots, adjust and try again. You will get a feel for what you like and what works best in different situations.
What are the ambient light conditions? You might decide you’d like a 30-second exposure but are out shooting in the middle of the day in bright sunshine. Even stopping down to f/22 and ISO 50, a 30-second exposure might not be possible without drastically overexposing the image. Long exposure night images, taken when you don’t have much ambient light to deal with, are much easier. At night, instead of lowering the ISO, you might need to raise it. The same 30-second night image might be something like 30 seconds at f/4 and ISO 1600.

The amount of light you have to work with will impact what you can do. Long exposures in low light are usually easier, as you can always open up your aperture to its widest setting and crank up the ISO (noise is still a consideration but less so thanks to improved sensor technology). But how do you make a long exposure when there’s too much light and the smallest aperture and lowest ISO won’t get you the shutter speed you want?

kids playing soccer with panning technique — A cloudy day, an ISO of 50, and an aperture of f/32 coupled with panning the camera along with the action enabled me to get this impressionistic image of kids playing soccer.

Reach for the “sunglasses”

On a bright, sunny day when the light becomes too intense for our eyes, we’ll often reach for a pair of sunglasses to reduce the brightness. We can do the same for our cameras with neutral density filters (ND filters), which offer different levels of darkness. We can use ND filters to reduce the light hitting the camera sensor, and thus get long shutter durations even in bright conditions.

Here’s an example: You meter the scene, and at your smallest aperture of f/22 and an ISO of 50, the slowest shutter speed you could use and still get a proper exposure is 0.8 seconds. So grab your 6-stop ND filter, add it to the front of your lens, and you’ll be able to use an 8-second exposure. (A 10-stop ND filter could take you all the way to a 2-minute exposure!)

long exposure street photo taken with an ND filter — Even with a minimal ISO of 50 and an f/10 aperture, a variable ND was needed to reduce the midday sun and get a 1/8s shutter speed, not a particularly “long” exposure.

Using ND filters and calculating exposures takes a little study and practice, but the advantage is being able to take long exposures in bright conditions where it would otherwise not be possible. (A nice app to have on your cellphone is an ND filter exposure calculator like this one from Lee, a filter manufacturer: for Android/for iOS).

Lights at night

We’re very accustomed to seeing nighttime long exposures, and light trails caused by moving vehicles are quite easy to photograph, so long as you have a tripod or way to stabilize your camera.

Decide how long you want your exposure to last. Then in Shutter Priority mode, pick an aperture. If you’re set to use Auto ISO, the camera should pick the ISO setting for you. Of course, if you’re in Manual mode, you get to pick all three settings.

Again, determine your desired shutter speed, pick an aperture, and then adjust the ISO to a setting where you get a proper exposure. It could take some trial and error, but once you get everything dialed in, you will be able to make repeated shots without too much need for further adjustment.

Boise at night with light trails — I made a lot of shots to get the look I was after with this image of rush-hour traffic in Boise, Idaho. During the “blue hour” with limited light, I was able to keep the ISO at 100, the aperture at f/13, and a 15-second shutter speed. Nighttime long exposure is often easier than daylight long exposure (as you now know, too much light requires the use of neutral density filters).

experimental long exposure in the back of a car — A different way to create some motion: Put the camera on a tripod in the back seat of your vehicle. Strap it down (or bring an assistant). ISO 100 helps keep down the noise and f/7.1 is a good sharp spot, at least for my Tamron lens. Take a downtown drive and trigger the camera with a 6-second exposure. Try different shutter speeds and take lots of shots. You might get one you like!

long exposure of freeway traffic — Freeway traffic with a 2.5-second shutter speed…

long exposure light trails — I then stopped down to f/22 and tried a 15-second shutter speed. You will find it beneficial when doing long exposure images to experiment with different shutter durations. You will get different looks depending on the speed of your subject, proximity to the camera, and various other factors.

Idaho state capitol building with long exposure light trails — A passing car adds some additional interest to this 10-second exposure of the Idaho Capitol building in Boise.

Beyond the mechanics

Working out the camera mechanics when making long exposures is a matter of determining how to get a long exposure in any given lighting conditions. The rest of making an interesting image is no different than with other kinds of photography. Determine if there’s a “story” you want to tell. Decide how to compose your shot. Use compositional guidelines, vary your perspective, and try different shutter speeds to create different looks.

For street photos of people, it can be interesting to go out with a model, someone who will work with you and pose as needed. Put them in a busy location, but instruct them to stay still while you make your shot. They will remain sharp in the shot while the moving passersby will blur. The contrast of static and dynamic between your frozen model and the people moving and blurring can create some dramatic looks.

people crossing the road — The woman on the corner was not my model, but this illustrates the concept. She remained relatively still during the 0.6 second exposure, while the other people walked across the crosswalk. It’s a good example of the static/dynamic image you can make, particularly if you take a model with you.

Add a flash

Here’s something else you can try:

Put a speedlight on your camera and set it up for second-curtain sync. (If you’re unfamiliar with the technique, make sure to read up on it!)

What you’re after is a long exposure that will motion-blur moving people or objects – but then, just before the shutter closes, the flash will fire. Moving elements will have a blur of motion behind them but be frozen by the burst of flash, like this:

second-curtain sync blurry bikers — Here, 1/8s was long enough to blur the action. A pop of flash using second-curtain sync was enough to freeze a part of the image. The final result is both dynamic and static at the same time.

Just be aware that, if you thought shooting with a tripod on a busy city street might attract attention, firing a flash will make it clear you’re taking photos. What’s nice about having a model with you is that people will assume you’re making photos of the model and not be as concerned about you making photos of them. You’ll even get lots of apologies from people who say, “Sorry, I got in your shot,” not knowing that was your intent all along.

people walking down a narrow road — In early evening without much light, I reduced the ISO to 50 and stopped down to f/16. With a 1.6-second shutter speed, you might get a look like this. The camera was mounted on a tripod, and I tripped the shutter nonchalantly as these people walked by.

Go hit the streets

Learning the mechanics of long exposure street photography is the easy part. Getting out on the streets and making photos, particularly with people in them, is the bigger challenge, especially if you haven’t done much street photography before.

If you pride yourself on being a people person, that will come in handy in this genre of photography. The rest, as they say, is practice. Best wishes!

Now over to you:

Do you have any favorite tips or techniques for long exposure street photography? And do you have any long exposure images you’re proud of? Share them in the comments below!

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Long Exposure Street Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

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So Long (for Now!) and Thank You.

01 Jul

In 2006 I started a lighting blog while working full-time as a staffer at The Baltimore Sun. By early 2007, it became obvious that I didn’t have the personal resources to give 100% to both Strobist and my job at the newspaper.

That’s exactly the position I find myself in today. For the past year I have been working on a new project. It is photography-based, and will be as unique to the photo space as Strobist was back in 2006.

But, as I found with Strobist in 2007, this project will require all of my focus. So I am shifting Strobist into archive mode to allow myself the time and mental space to do that.

If I had more available brain cells/hours in the day, I would be happy to do both. Alas, I do not. So I am choosing the one I think can make a bigger difference to photographers. When the new project launches, I’ll do my best to make sure you hear about it. So please, stay tuned!

For those of you who are interested in our in-person lighting workshops and/or our X-Peditions trips (both of which are currently on pause during the pandemic) we absolutely are planning to restart them once the coast is clear. Please make sure you are on the relevant notification list(s) by clicking through to the links above.

Finally, I want to take this moment to say thank you to the countless people I have met, and new friendships made, as a result of publishing Strobist over the past 15 years. It is impossible to express how much you all have enriched my life, and that of my family.

Thank you so much,
David
Strobist

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6 Places to Use ND Filters for Long Exposure Photography

05 Apr

The post 6 Places to Use ND Filters for Long Exposure Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.

A neutral density (ND) filter is one of the most versatile accessories you can have in your camera bag. They may be small, but ND filters open up a range of creative options for photographers.

If you need some inspiration on where to use your neutral density filter, keep reading. In this article, I’ll share with you some of my favorite places to use ND filters for long exposure photography.

What is an ND filter, and why would I want to use one?

A neutral density or ND filter is a piece of glass that sits in front of your lens and reduces the amount of light that reaches the sensor.

If you’ve never used an ND filter before, you might be wondering why you’d want to do this; let me explain.

Many long exposure photography beginners shoot at night. Here, a shutter speed of a few seconds or more is necessary for an accurate exposure of the scene, and any movement captured in the image is magically transformed into a thing of beauty. If your camera is steady on a tripod, buildings remain in sharp focus, but the movement of car headlights or rushing water is captured as interesting streaks in the image:

harbor with bridge and city — A neutral density filter can be a photographer’s best friend.

Capturing this kind of effect can only be done after dark, right?

Wrong.

With an ND filter, you can take stunning long exposures during the day.

You see, if you don’t use an ND filter, a long exposure in bright daylight conditions would result in an overexposed image. But with an ND filter reducing the amount of light that reaches the sensor, you need to use a much slower shutter speed to photograph the scene. This allows you to capture movement.

There are so many amazing places where you can use an ND filter to take stunning long exposure photos. I’ve listed some of my favorites below, starting with:

1. Waterfalls

Waterfalls are the place many photographers try out their ND filters for the first time.

They’re certainly a fantastic location for you to start; flowing water is transformed into a silky-soft cascade, which gives images a real wow factor.

Just watch out for mist and water spray and make sure it doesn’t cover your filter and lens!

waterfall long exposure — Waterfalls are a popular place to try out an ND filter.
Captured with my Fujifilm 16mm f/1.4 lens at Springbrook National Park in Queensland.

The intensity of a waterfall can depend on recent rainfall. But the good news is that, no matter how large or small the waterfall is, it’ll look amazing when shot with an ND filter.

2. Rivers and harbors

Rivers and harbors are fantastic places to capture movement and lights along with the flow of water.

During daylight hours, it’s possible to capture the movement of boats along the water. And as the sun goes down and the city lights come on, ferries and boats create colorful light trails that can bring an image to life.

I love this image of a ferry on Sydney Harbour:

harbor long exposure — Rivers and harbors provide an array of long exposure opportunities.

Thanks to my ND filter, I was able to use a shutter speed of around 1s, giving the ferry a nice, colorful blur (while buildings behind it remain in sharp focus).

3. Ocean pools

Saltwater ocean pools dot the Australian coastline, with most of them found in the state of New South Wales. The pools are very popular with locals and tourists alike and can get very busy each morning. But the good thing about these iconic locations is that you have another body of water to photograph alongside the sea.

This image was taken early one morning in Yamba, New South Wales:

ND filters for long exposure photography ocean pool

I framed the pool in the foreground with the sea and the cliffs in the background. As I was taking a series of long exposures with a 10-stop ND filter, a swimmer jumped out of the pool right in front of me, creating a ghostly figure in the foreground of the frame.

The image below was taken at 6 AM (when it was already very bright). I was attracted to the scene by the reflections in the flooded area next to the pool, which contrasted nicely with the pool’s ethereal-looking water and the waves of the ocean on the far left.

ocean pool ND filters for long exposure photography — I love the three different bodies of water in this ocean pool shot.

4. Traffic

Traffic trails are typically one of the first things photographers shoot when they start taking long exposure images. Well after the sun has sunk below the horizon, a shutter speed of between 5 and 15 seconds is often needed to create a properly exposed shot, resulting in a colorful blur of traffic trails.

But if you have an ND filter, there’s no need to wait until after dark.

This is a composite of images I took with my ND2 filter at a subway station in Taipei, Taiwan:

city long exposure — A composite image of dusk in Taipei, Taiwan.

I knew I needed an exposure of a few seconds to make the most of the traffic and the subway train in the image. But it was too bright, and my exposure times were barely a second. Adding an ND filter allowed me to capture this scene as I had envisioned, and the final file is a composite of some of those long-exposure images.

5. Funfairs

Funfairs and carnivals are fantastic places for photography. There are so many opportunities: people, rides, food, and animals, to name just a few.

And when the sun goes down, don’t head home – set up your tripod for some long exposure images.

That’s exactly what I did for this image of a sideshow alley at Brisbane’s Royal Queensland show four years ago. The photo has been shared on Instagram every year since – sometimes with my permission, sometimes without. With an ND2 filter, I was able to take exposures that were twice as long as usual.

fair in Brisbane long exposure — My images of this funfair in Brisbane have been very popular on Instagram.

6. Unique natural attractions

Okay, so I’m cheating a little with this last image by combining two places I’ve already mentioned: a waterfall and the sea.

This stunning location (below) is the village of Gásadalur in the Faroe Islands. Unfortunately, there are not many places in the world where you can see such an incredible sight, though there are probably many unique natural locations near where you live.

waterfall heading into ocean ND filters for long exposure photography — Perhaps the most unique waterfall in the world, Gásadalur, Faroe Islands.

Gásadalur was number one on my list of places to photograph when I visited the Faroe Islands in 2017. Blessed with sunny weather on my first day, I headed to the coast just outside the village to take this shot. I wasn’t disappointed.

6 places to use ND filters: final thoughts

Neutral density filters are quite possibly the handiest accessory photographers can keep in their camera bags. They have many uses, but the most common is to take photos with a slow shutter speed.

This makes ND filters a must-have for long exposure photography during daylight hours; you can use them to blur subjects that would otherwise be frozen.

It’s always fun to get out your tripod and ND filter and experiment!

Now over to you:

What are your favorite places to use ND filters for long exposure photography? Share your thoughts (and long exposure images) in the comments below!

The post 6 Places to Use ND Filters for Long Exposure Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.

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12 Tips for Beautiful Long Exposure Night Photography

25 Feb

The post 12 Tips for Beautiful Long Exposure Night Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.

Long exposure night photography can seem tough.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Because there are a few simple tricks you can use…

…that’ll ensure you get great long exposures, consistently.

And that’s what this article is all about. I’m going to give you 12 easy tips for long exposure night photos. Specifically, I’ll tell you:

Every piece of gear you need for pro-level night photography
The simple secrets for keeping your long exposure shots sharp
The best time of day to capture long exposure night photos (hint: It’s not at all what you’d expect!)

Plus a whole lot more.

Are you’re ready to become a master of long exposure night photography?

Let’s get started.

Long exposure night photography city from above

1. Scout your location ahead of time

Most photographers think that scouting is overkill.

But here’s the thing:

Knowing where the best locations are for night photography ahead of time can pay huge dividends.

It means you won’t have to work out where to set up when you arrive.

(And setting up is very stressful if you can’t find a spot and the sun is sinking rapidly!)

If you can, scout your location at the same time of day you plan on shooting. This will give you a good idea of what lighting to expect.

Have a good look around the area. And ask yourself:

Will there be any trees or obstacles blocking my view? Are there any lights in the vicinity – such as streetlights or floodlights – that will affect my images?

When choosing your location, also look for sources of movement, including:

Crowds of people
Cars that create dramatic light trails
Boats skimming across the water

Why?

Because movement is great for long exposure photos!

Long exposure night photography fair at night — In this photo of the Royal Queensland Show, both lights and people are creating a sense of movement.

If you’re not able to scout a location beforehand, consider your options.

For instance, you can turn up an hour or two before sunset to find the best location.

Or you can research the location by looking through social media. This will give you ideas for potential locations – including what they look like at night.

To learn more about the virtual scouting process, check out this article: Top Tips for Photographing the Best a City has to Offer in 48 Hours.

2. Consider taking multiple shots

Once you’ve determined your shooting location, here’s what to think about next:

Whether you will move your camera and tripod around on the shoot (changing locations, capturing different compositions, and/or using different focal lengths), or whether you will take a series of images that are exactly the same (perhaps for blending in Photoshop).

If you’ve decided on the latter, it can be worth taking a second camera and tripod with you; that way, you can take additional shots and make the most of your trip.

3. Use a checklist to pack your gear

Night photography requires a lot of equipment.

So before you go out to shoot, I highly recommend you create a checklist for packing your kit.

This is a great memory aid and will ensure that you don’t forget anything. Here are some of the things I have on my gear checklist:

Cameras and lenses
Fully-charged camera battery. If you’re capturing multiple images of the same scene to blend in Photoshop, you will have a very hard time lining them all up later on if you have to move your camera to change batteries.
Spare batteries
One or two tripods
Tripod base plates (these small rectangular bits of kit can be the difference between a successful shoot and a disaster!)
SD cards. Make sure you have a formatted card in your camera ready to go, as well as spares.
Water and snacks
Wireless headphones. Often, I’ll be in the same location taking images for several hours. If there’s not a fellow photographer to chat with, I listen to podcasts or music.

4. Set up early and be mindful of others

Try to arrive early so you can set up and be prepared at your preferred location.

When you set up your camera and tripod, be mindful of pedestrians, cyclists, and traffic in the area. Don’t place your gear where it will obstruct paths or where people could trip over it.

street corner with light trails — Always make sure your gear is not in the way of others during a night shoot in a busy area.

5. Shoot during blue hour for the best skies

If you want to create the most striking long exposure night photography, then I highly recommend you shoot during blue hour.

Specifically, start capturing images as the sun is setting, and keep photographing until all the color has drained from the sky.

That’s how you’ll get images with drama, like the one below:

blue hour photo of cityscape — The best time to take night photos is when there is still color in the sky!

6. Use a tripod

You must use a tripod for sharp long exposure night photography.

Otherwise, your photos will be full of blur.

I bought a Manfrotto tripod in 2005, and it’s still going strong! I also have a smaller, lighter MeFoto tripod for travel.

Owning several tripod quick release plates is also a good idea. That way, you can detach your camera from the tripod whenever you need (and stick it back on quickly, as well!).

tripod head — A good-quality tripod is a solid investment for long exposure night photographers.

7. Turn on your camera’s electronic level

Most cameras have a built-in guide or electronic level.

If your camera has one, then turn it on.

Why is an electronic level useful?

It’ll let you know if your camera is crooked, just like an old-fashioned spirit level. And you can adjust your camera so that every single image comes back straight.

(On my Fujifilm X cameras, this is a horizontal line across the screen that turns green when the camera is level.)

Of course, you can always straighten the horizon in a program such as Lightroom or Photoshop.

But this can get annoying, especially if it’s a frequent problem.

So find the electronic level, and make sure it’s active before you start shooting.

8. Use a remote release

When taking long exposures, you must minimize any movement of the camera during an exposure.

Which means that you cannot press the shutter button.

Why?

No matter how careful you are, when you tap the shutter, you may create camera shake. And end up with blurry images.

One way to avoid camera shake is to use a remote release. These are small accessories that plug into a socket on the side of your camera, allowing you to trigger the shutter without pressing the shutter button.

Many camera companies also have a smartphone app you can use to activate the shutter of your camera.

Long exposure night photography with a remote — You can trigger many cameras via an app.

9. Use the self-timer feature

Here’s a second way for you to minimize camera movement during an exposure:

Use your camera’s self-timer feature. I actually prefer this method of hitting the shutter button for two reasons:

I usually take two cameras on shoots, so using a smartphone app is not an option since it can only connect to one camera at a time.
The two cameras I take use different types of remote releases, and I’d rather not have to remember to bring both of those accessories.

Instead, I recommend you set up a two-second self-timer delay in advance. That way, you can hit the shutter button, wait for any vibrations to fade, then get a tack-sharp shot.

(Just remember to deactivate the self-timer feature after the shoot is over!)

Long exposure night photography with water — The self-timer feature is a great way to minimize camera shake.

10. Try interval shooting for great results

Do you want to capture the beauty of a scene over a long period of time?

Try interval shooting.

With interval shooting, you can fire off photos with a set time interval (so you capture one photo every two minutes, for example).

I set my camera to take a photo every two minutes during the early part of my shoots, then – when the light starts to get interesting and the city lights come on – I set my camera to take a photo ever 20 or 30 seconds.

You can also set this feature to stop after a certain number of exposures.

Handy, right?

Interval shooting essentially sets your camera on autopilot, leaving you free to take images with a second camera.

Just be careful not to bump or move your main camera when adjusting settings during your shoot.

11. Turn off image stabilization

If you want sharp long exposure photos, you must turn off camera and lens image stabilization.

Now, you’re probably thinking:

What? Image stabilization makes photos sharper, not blurry!

And you’re right…

…mostly.

But remember:

You should always use a tripod for long exposure night photography.

And when image stabilization meets a tripod, it causes problems. You see, your tripod should be completely still, yet your image stabilization technology will often move your camera and/or lens slightly – resulting in unwanted blur.

Some newer lenses can sense when a camera is mounted on a tripod and turn off image stabilization automatically.

But I recommend you check, just to be sure.

12. Always stay safe!

This is of paramount importance when taking photos at night.

Always be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to who is nearby. I usually have my bag zipped up and next to me at all times.

Often, I put one of my bag straps around my leg so no one can try to run off with my kit.

And while I take wireless headphones, I would only ever use them in busy locations where I feel safe.

lighthouse at night — Always be aware of your surroundings when shooting in remote places or late at night.

Long exposure night photography: Final words

I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to long exposure night photography.

While shooting at night may seem difficult, with some extra thought and planning, you’ll capture some stunning images!

Of course, the best way to improve your photography is to get out there and practice as much as you can.

Now over to you:

Which of these long exposure night photography tips is your favorite? Which one do you plan to use the next time you’re out shooting? Let me know in the comments below!

The post 12 Tips for Beautiful Long Exposure Night Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.

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Long Exposure Fire Photography – 5 Tips for Beginners

11 Jan

The post Long Exposure Fire Photography – 5 Tips for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Dena Haines.

Do you want to capture stunning long exposure fire photography?

A long exposure photo can make flames look soft and feathery, capture spark trails, and create a romantic or cozy mood.

The tips in this article will help you get started taking gorgeous long exposure fire photos, today!

Long exposure fire photography: 5 tips for beginners

A word of caution:

Be careful as you practice your fire photography. Fire can be dangerous, and it’s easy to be careless when thinking more about your photography than the fire. Maintaining a safe distance is important for you and your gear.

tips for long exposure fire photography — 5s | f/10 | ISO 100

1. Use a slow shutter speed

To take a long exposure photo, the camera shutter needs to be open long enough to blur motion and light. Here are a couple of ways to ensure that the shutter stays open:

Shutter Priority mode: Here, you choose the shutter speed and your camera selects the aperture
Aperture Priority mode: Here, the camera chooses the shutter speed, but you can control its choice based on the aperture you select

Fire photography with Shutter Priority

Put your camera in Shutter Priority mode, choose your desired shutter speed, and let the camera do the rest.

This will force your camera to let in light for the amount of time you’ve chosen. Your camera will choose your ISO (if it’s set to Auto) and your aperture.

Shutter Priority will give you different results depending on how much light is available – and shooting this way can be a lot of fun.

When you choose a shutter speed of five or six seconds, you can capture interesting flame shapes and lots of spark trails. In fact, the bonfire and torch photos in this article were captured in Shutter Priority mode.

long exposure fire photo — 6s | f/10 | ISO 100

Fire photography with Aperture Priority

You could also set your camera to Aperture Priority, choose a mid-range aperture (f/8-f/11), set a low ISO (100-200), and let your camera choose the shutter speed. If you’re shooting at night (when it’s really dark) and the fire is your main light source, your camera will choose a slow shutter speed. This should give you a photo with a large depth of field, and one that’s relatively free of grain (i.e., noise).

If Aperture Priority causes your shutter to be open for longer than you want, increase the ISO. This will decrease the shutter speed, though it will also start adding noise (fortunately, this can be reduced during editing).

The card game and match photos in this article were shot using Aperture Priority mode.

long exposure flame photo — 1s | f/11 | ISO 100

Anyway, those are just a couple of suggestions to get you started. Long exposure fire photography is all about playing around and having fun! Make sure to try lots of different apertures and shutter speeds.

If you’re like me, you’ll get excited as you review each shot and see the interesting shapes you’ve captured.

2. Set your camera on a tripod

When capturing a long exposure fire photo, you’ll want to reduce camera shake, which results in blurry photos.

Camera shake occurs when the camera moves while the shutter is open. Slow shutter speeds (of more than one second) make it impossible to handhold your camera and still get sharp images.

But using a tripod will keep your camera steady – and therefore prevent camera shake plus the resulting blur.

3. Use a remote shutter release or set the self-timer

A remote shutter release (or the camera’s self-timer) can also help you cut down on camera shake.

You see, when you press the shutter release, the camera moves slightly – and this can cause blur in your photos.

But when you use a remote shutter release (or you set your camera’s self-timer), you don’t have to worry about this movement.

Using a remote shutter release may seem like a small thing, but it can significantly affect your image sharpness.

long exposure fire spark trails — 6s | f/6.3 | ISO 320
Spark trails.

Note that, when capturing match flames, a remote works best. While a self-timer will prevent camera shake, the delay makes it tough to capture that initial burst of flame with any real precision.

4. Choose your subject

Do you want your main focus to be the fire itself? Or are you trying to capture the mood created by the fire?

When capturing the mood, it can be tricky to get sharp shots of people. It’s not easy for anyone to sit still during a long exposure, and movement will create blur in your photos.

So first identify your subject, and then adjust your camera settings to keep the subject sharp.

The following photos were shot in Aperture Priority mode with an aperture of f/8. For the first photo, I set the ISO to 100, and my camera chose a shutter speed of 5 seconds. That was too long for my daughter to stay still, so the photo turned out blurry.

For the second photo, I set the ISO to 400, which cut the shutter speed in half (to 2.5 seconds). That made it easier for my subject to stay still, and the photo is sharper.

5. Switch to manual focus

Autofocus doesn’t always work well in the dark. And autofocusing on a moving fire can be tough.

That’s where manual focus comes in.

Now, you don’t need to turn off your autofocus immediately. Instead, try autofocusing on something near the fire, then switch to manual focus to capture the shot you’re after.

How do you do this?

First, shine your flashlight on an object near the fire. Train your camera on the object, and press the shutter button halfway. When the autofocus locks on, turn off the flashlight and switch to manual focus.

Finally, without adjusting anything on the camera, take your shot. Your camera will maintain the same focus point – and you’ll end up with a sharp photo.

Note: You could also try back button focus!

Where will you practice?

Do you enjoy a cozy fire at your campsite or bonfires on the beach? Do you like candle-lit dinners? What about backyard marshmallow roasts? All of these would be great places to practice long exposure fire photography.

long exposure bonfire — 6s | f/5.6 | ISO 160

Experimenting with long exposures around a campfire can be a little addictive. The more you practice, the more fun you’ll have.

And don’t forget your flashlight! You’ll need it to see your camera controls, to help with focusing, and to get you safely back to your car.

Now over to you:

Do you enjoy creating long exposures of fire? Share your tips and photos by commenting down below!

The post Long Exposure Fire Photography – 5 Tips for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Dena Haines.

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How to do Long Exposure Photography and Light Trails at Night

16 Aug

The post How to do Long Exposure Photography and Light Trails at Night appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Barry J Brady.

Gastown light trails, Vancouver, Canada

Before I understood how photography worked, I was always intrigued by light trails in images. I never understood how that happened. When I began to study photography, one of the first assignments I did was an advanced course on night photography. I decided I would try and capture some light trails.

I set up my camera, made sure the settings were correct and waited. A few cars went past, but my timing was off and the shots were not great. I continued to wait. After about an hour of trying and experimenting, I got the shot I was looking for. It was like magic to me.

The car was not in the shot but the lights seemed to float in mid-air. I was hooked. This was something that had mystified me for a long time, yet I had managed to get it right. What was so mesmerizing for me was that the image I saw on my LCD screen was not what I saw in real life. The camera had managed to capture a scene that my eyes could not capture in the same way. This seemed amazing to me.

I soon realized that the camera was able to “see” things differently compared to the way my eyes saw them. I spent many nights trying to capture light trails in various locations. I was also doing lots of reading and research and came across a technique called long exposure.

This too was amazing. It had the ability to alter a scene in such a way that it looked totally different to the way our eyes normally see it. Again I was hooked; to this day, long exposures and light trails are some of my favorite techniques in photography.

Long exposure photography and light trails have similar techniques; it is the subject matter that differs. So I will discuss each technique separately, and tell you how to get the best results in both.

How to do long exposure photography

Shooting long exposures effectively requires that you should be shooting in Manual mode as much as possible. If you are not sure how to shoot in Manual, take a look at “Getting Off Auto – Manual, Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes Explained to learn more about these modes. To be able to get sharp and effective long exposure images, here is a checklist of items you will need.

1. What equipment is needed to shoot long exposures?

A tripod – this is a good piece of equipment to have in most instances, but is a critical piece of equipment for shooting long exposures. Make sure your camera is properly mounted onto the tripod before you start shooting.
A camera – obviously you will need a camera, but many people assume you can only do this type of photography with an SLR. Some advanced point-and-shoot cameras can also do long exposures if they have a Shutter Priority function. Take a look in your camera’s manual to see if it has this function; you may be surprised.
Cable release – your camera will be on a tripod, so it should be very still. However, sometimes the action of pressing the shutter release button can cause the camera to move slightly and this movement can cause your image to blur very slightly. You may not notice this on the LCD screen, but when you open the image on your computer, it will be evident. I recommend getting a cable release (also called a remote trigger). It is simply a cable that attaches to your camera and acts as a shutter release button. Using a cable release means you can set up your camera, step away from the tripod, and press the button without touching the camera. Cable releases can be wireless too. If you don’t have a cable release or don’t want to buy one, you could use your camera’s self-timer function to trigger the shutter.
Warm clothes and comfortable shoes – depending on where you live, and depending on the time of year you plan to be shooting, you may need to dress warmly. Long exposures work well after dark and it may get cold, so be sure to wear warm clothes. Be sure that you have comfortable footwear, too, as you may be standing for a few hours.

2. What subjects are best for long exposure photography?

Long exposures work well for certain types of subjects like seascapes, landscapes, and cityscapes. The key to getting a successful long exposure image is to have something in your image that is perfectly still and something that is moving. Water, clouds, and trees blowing in the wind all work well if the rest of the scene is stationary. This difference between the elements in the scene will create drama, and will add significant value to your image. The viewer will be seeing something that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

The reason why long exposure images are so compelling is that they warp time. Water looks like a soft mist, trees look like a dull blur, and clouds become long and streaky. This is what makes a familiar scene more compelling.

Long exposure scene in Vancouver, Canada

3. What camera settings should be used?

Long exposures are ideally shot in Manual mode. If you are not sure how to shoot in Manual mode, you can use one of the other semi-manual modes such as Aperture priority or Shutter priority. Here are some quick pointers on the settings:

Shutter speed – depending on the light in your scene, your shutter time will need to be at least 10 to 15 seconds, or longer if necessary. If you are doing a seascape and the water is moving quickly, then a few seconds may be long enough to make the water look misty.
Aperture – you will want to have your aperture set at anywhere between f/8 and f/16. This will be determined by how much light is in the scene and how long you want to expose for.
ISO – keep your ISO settings as low as possible. ISO 100 is what I use for long exposures.

4. When is the best time of day to shoot long exposures?

It’s normally a good idea to shoot long exposures as the sun is setting, or just after sunset. My suggestion is to be on the scene an hour before sunset. That way you can test some shots, make sure your composition is good, and be sure all your settings are correct. Then wait.

I will sometimes simply sit there and enjoy the scene; other times I may listen to some music. But I like to be relaxed and ready for when the light starts to work. Normally you will want to start shooting about 15 minutes before the sun has completely set and up to an hour after it is below the horizon. The important part is to be willing to experiment.

Each time you decide to shoot long exposures will be a little different. The light may be brighter than you think, the sunset may not be as dramatic as you hoped, or the shot may not be just as you imagined. Be patient and experiment. I will sometimes go back to a location two or three times to try and get the shot I am looking for. Once I have it, though, the sense of reward is fantastic, and the patience and effort are paid off!

Long exposure of Science World in Vancouver

How to shoot light trails

Much of the advice for shooting light trails is very similar to the tips above. The key difference is in the timing and location of your shoot.

1. What equipment is needed to shoot light trails?

Same as above

2. What subjects are best for light trails?

For light trails to work, you need to have something with lights moving through your scene. A car, a bus, a train, and even an aircraft can work. Be sure to be out of the direction of the vehicle you are photographing. Please do not stand in the middle of the road, or on train tracks. Position yourself in a safe place to make this work. Always be aware of your surroundings. It is easy to become immersed in what you are shooting and lose sight of where you are standing. Be safe, first and foremost!

A moving bus in the scene made this shot more dynamic

3. What camera settings should be used?

Light trails, like long exposures, are ideally shot in Manual mode.

Shutter speed – depending on the light in your scene, your shutter time will need to be at least 10 to 15 seconds, or longer if necessary. Make sure that your shutter speed is long enough to capture longish light trails. You don’t want to cut them off too soon as you will have some short trails in your image that may look strange.
Aperture – you will want to have your aperture set at anywhere between f/5 and f/11. This will be determined by how much light is in the scene and how long you want the exposure.
ISO – keep your ISO settings as low as possible; ISO 100 is what I use for light trails. If your ISO is set to 500 or higher, your exposure will be shorter and you run the risk of overexposing the highlights, especially when shooting car headlights.

4. When is the best time of day to shoot light trails?

Light trails can be shot in the early evening, or after the sun has set. Each scene will be different, but sometimes it is too light to get effective light trails just after sunset. You may need to wait until 30 minutes after the sun has set to get longer light trails.

The important part, once again, is to be willing to experiment. Try different times after sunset and see what works for you. Spend time behind your camera perfecting your timing. Scout locations during the day that you will think will work for light trails and then go and try it out.

Steam Clock in Gastown, light trails on the road

Photographing after dark can be very rewarding. It is worth the effort to learn how to use these techniques to bring new images into your portfolio, and to have new skills which will enable you to shoot under any lighting conditions. Experiment and enjoy it! Happy shooting.

The post How to do Long Exposure Photography and Light Trails at Night appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Barry J Brady.

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Step-by-step Guide to Long Exposure Photography

02 Aug

The post Step-by-step Guide to Long Exposure Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Francesco Gola.

In the past few years, thanks to the diffusion of useful accessories and photographic filters with good quality and low prices, the technique of long exposure has become increasingly popular among photography enthusiasts. Even if this technique can be used both in the studio and in an urban environment, the perfect playground for long exposures is landscape photography.

Unfortunately, it often happens that the result we get is far from our expectations, and we end up classifying the long exposure as an impossible technique. However, following this step-by-step guide to long exposure photography, you’ll see how easy it is to get a good result on the first attempt (or almost!).

Step One: Study the weather

A day with a cloudless sky is a good day to drink a beer with friends, not to make long exposures. Likewise, it cannot rain forever, so do not resign yourself to an afternoon with your PlayStation. You should study satellite images rather than the meteorological sites, trying to figure out if there is an incoming storm, or if the downpour is about to end.

Step Two: Visit the location well in advance

Scout the location ahead of time, as you need a lot of time to find the perfect composition, or at least more than the time needed for a “short exposure”. In fact, in a long exposure, the world is completely different from how you see it with your own eyes. You have to try to see it with your mind, looking for a harmonious composition that includes moving subjects, trying to predict the direction of the clouds or the force of the sea.

Try not to put the sun into the composition, because its movement will ruin the shot and it will create an area of overexposure that is not recoverable. If you cannot avoid the sun, wait for it to hide behind a cloud.

Step Three: Use a tripod

Mount your camera on a tripod and install all the accessories such as the remote shutter release and the filter holder (if you are using drop-in filters). However, wait to actually install the filters. This is very important!

Step Four: Compose the image and lock focus

Refine your composition, focus on the subject, and lock the focus. If you are using manual focus, go ahead and turn the lens’s focus ring.

If you are using your camera’s autofocus mode, you should focus by half-pressing the shutter button, and once the focus has been made, while still holding down the shutter button halfway, push the lever from Auto Focus to Manual. In this way, your camera will maintain the focus (alternately, you could use back-button focus).

Step Five: Set the exposure

Now set your camera to Manual (M) mode or Aperture Priority (A/Av) mode. Then set the aperture to an appropriate value for the scene (for landscapes I suggest between f/8 and f/11) and take a “test shot.”

The test is complete when you get a correct exposure. To determine if the exposure is correct, check the histogram (do not trust your display, it is too bright). It is true that there is no universally correct result on the histogram, but there are histograms that are universally incorrect, namely moved completely to the right or left side (the image is respectively overexposed or underexposed).

Once the test shot is successful, write down the shutter speed you used for that shot.

Step Six: Add your filter

Now add your Neutral Density (ND) filter. If the filter is very strong (10 stops, for example), you will not be able to see through the viewfinder or the Live View. Do not worry, because if you have followed the guide up to this point you will notice that we have already made the composition and the focus too. You are blind, but your camera will see everything perfectly.

Step Seven: Change to Bulb mode

Set the shooting mode to Bulb (B) in order to discard the thirty-second limit of the camera. Do not change any of the other settings (ISO and aperture) used in the test shot.

Step Eight: Take your long exposure shot

It is finally time to take our long exposure shot.

But how long will you need to leave the shutter open? It is less difficult than you might expect. First of all, recollect the shutter speed that you noted down from the “test shot” you did in Step Five above. Now you must compensate by the number of stops introduced by the filter.

For example, if your test shot was 1/15th of a second, adding 10 stops will get a shutter speed of approximately 60 seconds. Now you have your shutter speed!

(No need to get stuck in the mathematics: On the internet you can easily find conversion tables and applications for your smartphone that will do the conversion for you.)

Step Nine: Check the histogram again

Once you’ve taken the shot with the calculated shutter speed, check the histogram. If the new histogram is approximately equal to the histogram of the test shot, mission accomplished. If it is shifted too far to the right or to the left, repeat the shot again correcting the shutter speed.

Easy, isn’t it? Now fill your backpack with your camera and filters and go to practice in the field!

The post Step-by-step Guide to Long Exposure Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Francesco Gola.

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How to Use Photography Filters for Amazing Long Exposure Landscapes

15 Jul

The post How to Use Photography Filters for Amazing Long Exposure Landscapes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

One of the most competitive genres in photography is landscapes. In this article, you’ll learn how to add creativity to your landscapes by using filters. The use of filters will allow you to create masterpiece long exposure landscapes, and you’ll learn what’s needed to do this. So read on and discover tips and tricks to get the best results.

How to Use Photography Filters for Amazing Long Exposure Landscapes — Using the correct exposure length meant an interesting foreground from the movement of water.

What is long exposure photography?

One of the key settings on your camera is the ability to control the exposure length. If you’re new to photography, the chances are you’ll not have tried long exposures yet. You’ll need a tripod, but once you begin taking long exposure photos, the creative potential is massive.

Long exposure photos are those that last for over one second in length, and typically don’t last more than thirty seconds. There are some situations where even longer long exposures can be taken. These can last minutes. To take these photos, you need to use bulb mode on your camera.

How to use filters for long exposure landscapes

The use of filters to produce these long exposure landscapes will increase your options. They allow you to take long exposure daytime photos (where there is lots of light), and, if you wish, even longer night time long exposures.

You can use different grades of filters to give you the ability to take photos of different exposure lengths. Of course, the time of day is a massive factor as well, with night time an easier time to take long exposures.

Filters you can use during the day

The filter you’ll need to use to take long exposure landscapes during the day is the ND filter. These are neutral density filters, which are abbreviated to ND filters.

These filters work by blocking out the amount of light that comes into the camera. They should do this without changing the color tone of your image, which is why the filter is considered neutral. The strength of these filters range.

filters for long exposure landscapes - waterfall in the fall — Filters can be used to lengthen the exposure, and produce “silk water”.

Weak ND filters

These are the ND2, ND4, and ND8 filters. They’re more often used with flash photography, but you can use them to extend exposure length during the day. In low light situations like under tree canopies, or as the evening draws in, using one of these filters may allow you to take a long exposure.

Circular Polarizer (CPL) filter

In a similar fashion to the weak ND filters, you can use a CPL filter in a low light situation to turn a half-second exposure to a one or two-second exposure. This can be long enough to dramatically change the nature of moving water during an exposure.

Strong ND filters

These filters are designed for longer exposures, the typical filters you can use are the ND110 and the ND1000. Filters like this will allow you to take exposures longer than five seconds or more even during the middle of the day.

Infrared filters

Infrared filters block out all light except infrared.

The exact light they block comes with the name of the filter. The Hoya R72 filter blocks all light except the light of a wavelength of 720 nanometers. This translates to a filter that’s even stronger at blocking out light than the ND1000.

You will, of course, be taking an infrared photo, but this will then be a long exposure that can often be minutes long.

Filters you can use during the night

The need to use filters for night time long exposure is not as extreme.

You’ll almost certainly be able to carry out long exposures with no problem, except perhaps during the transition from day to night. Here, the filters you’ll likely use are the weak ND filters or the CPL filters, with the intention of turning a medium-length long exposure into a longer long exposure.

However, the need to use a strong ND filter can occur. This happens when you want an exposure that lasts several minutes. Usually, you would not take an exposure of this length, but in order to get cloud motion across the sky, this length of exposure can be needed.

filters for long exposure landscapes - jetty over the water at sunset — Flattening the water makes for a serene landscape.

Stacking filters

The more extreme long exposure landscapes will require filter stacking. Stacking filters means placing one filter on top of another to combine their strength.

Those wanting to take an ultra-long daytime long exposure, that produces cloud motion, often need to stack an ND110 filter with an ND1000 filter.

Stacking filters gives you an extra level of control over the length of your exposure. This happens by blocking more or less light. One thing to be careful of when stacking is vignetting. When using screw-on filters, there is a greater risk of this, caused by stacking too many filters on the front of your lens.

How long to expose for?

The aim of adding a filter to the front of your lens is to lengthen the exposure. Learning the correct strength of filter you need to apply is therefore important.

To know how strong the filter should be, you will need to decide what type of long exposure landscape you wish to take. The following is a list of photo types you could take during the daytime.

Silky water – An exposure of one second is long enough to produce the silk water effect at places like waterfalls.
Water motion – The motion of water and the length of exposure is a sliding scale. At half a second, it’s long enough to capture motion from waves going in and out at a beach. A longer exposure can then be used all the way up to the exposure length needed to flatten the sea. It’s not always desirable to completely flatten water, as some turbulence can look nice.
Flattening the sea – An exposure longer than ten seconds will be enough to flatten the sea.
Cloud motion on a calm day – With slow-moving clouds, an exposure of minutes will be required.
Cloud motion on a windy day – On a windy day, an exposure of over 15 seconds is likely to be long enough. However, you will need to experiment with the conditions you have on the day.

Time for long exposure landscapes!

The take-home message is to know how long an exposure you need, and use the correct filter on your lens to allow this length of exposure.

Do you enjoy long exposure photography, or are you yet to learn about the genre?

If you have examples of your work you would like to share, please share them in the comments section. These could be from your archives or images you take after reading this article. So get out with your tripod, and create some long exposure magic!

The post How to Use Photography Filters for Amazing Long Exposure Landscapes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

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How to Photograph Long Exposures to Create Dreamy Images

02 Jun

The post How to Photograph Long Exposures to Create Dreamy Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.

Many new photographers may not know how to photograph long exposures, or even what that means to their photography. Thanks to the development of camera accessories and filters, capturing long exposures is becoming a very popular medium of photography for enthusiast photographers.

Long exposure photography is a technique used by many landscape, cityscape and seascape photographers. Have you ever seen a picture of the city where clouds show motion, the car lights have been made streaky or the seawater is rendered blurry? Well this will usually be the result of using a filter to achieve a long exposure that captures the movement of the subject.

Before we look at how to photograph long exposures, it is first worth considering the meaning of a long exposure, and the different types of photography you can apply the method to.

A long exposure is “a timed exposure of a long duration where the shutter is open for a speed of several seconds where the purpose and aim of long exposures is to sharply capture and minimize movement of static objects within the frame whilst blurring the elements with motion.”

Samples of long exposure photography

There are a variety of different styles of photography where using long exposure photography techniques can result in great images. Some examples of popular subjects include landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, astrophotography (such as creating star trails), street scenes, and even abstract scenes.

Applying the technique of long exposure photography to landscape scenes can be a great way to create drama in skies or foregrounds with moving clouds or foliage.

Shooting water with long exposures can also benefit your images. Capturing moving water can bring an ethereal look and feel to seascapes as waves break or crash. Using a long exposure, you can capture the swell of the ocean or motion of tides for dreamy-looking images.

How to achieve long exposures

When considering how to photograph long exposures,
you will initially need to think about the kit that you will require, how to
set this up and the steps to capturing your image.

How to Photograph Long Exposures to Create Dreamy Images — The Lee Big and Little Stopper Neutral Density (ND) Filters are great for long exposure photography.

Kit required

A tripod is an essential piece of equipment to enable your camera to remain still during the image capture time when the shutter is open.

Next, you will need a cable release, or wireless remote so you can start and stop the long exposure. Please note this is only required if you need to extend your exposure time beyond 30 seconds. If you shoot below 30 seconds your cameras self-timer will be sufficient to trigger and close the shutter.

A filter holder is another essential item that is required to achieve long exposures. These are used to hold the filters in place that will be used to slow the exposure time down.

With regard to using filters, neutral density (ND) filters are recommended to minimize the light entering your camera.

These vary in strength and the effect they can create. The darker the coating, the greater the number of stops of light and the stronger the filter will be. For example, a 10-stop filter will block out more light than a 3-stop or 6-stop filter, and enable you to achieve longer exposures. Examples of these filters include Lee Filters Big Stopper (10-stop) and Little Stopper (6-stop).

Leaving your shutter open for an extended amount of time can result in some really interesting shots. With this shot of a waterfall, I wanted to make the water more blurry, so I set the camera up on my tripod and photographed it using an ND filter and a longer exposure. By increasing the exposure time, you can see I have been able to create a milky, smooth effect on the water, giving a pleasing result to the image.

Set Up

Once you have found a composition you like, you will need to place your camera on the tripod, attach your cable release and affix your filter holder. Next, focus the camera manually (using the MF button on the side of your camera) before putting the filter in place.

Steps to photographing long exposures

Once your kit is set up, here are some simple steps on how to photograph long exposures using the equipment mentioned above to achieve sharper images.

1. Bulb mode

Arrange your camera so that you are shooting in bulb mode. This allows you to keep the shutter button open for longer. It will stay open as long as you hold it open.

2. Set your aperture and ISO

I recommend setting a small aperture of over f/8 to f/22. The larger the f/number the longer the exposure you can achieve and a low ISO of 100.

3. Exposure times

Depending on the strength of the ND filter you are using, your exposure time will change. Based on an initial exposure time of ½ second using a 6-stop filter, you will need to shoot for 30 seconds or 8 minutes using a 10-stop filter, for example.

Press the self-remote timer and lock the shutter open
or if you are using the cameras self-timer press the shutter button gently on
the camera. When you are ready to close the shutter unlock the cable release
(if you are using the self-timer the image will finish by itself).

4. Extra tips

If you are using a DSLR, it is also a good idea to use your mirror lock-up so that the mirror going up and down during your exposure doesn’t cause camera shake. Also, be sure to cover the back of the viewfinder to prevent light from entering and potentially ruining your pictures during the exposure. Many cameras have a little rubber cap that comes attached to the camera strap, to cover your viewfinder. That will stop any light leaking through.

Conclusion

In summary, shooting long exposures is a great technique you can use to enhance landscapes, seascapes and images of water where movement is added to the image by extending the exposure time.

When you are looking at how to photograph long exposures, be sure to get the right kit for the job such as a tripod, filter holder, ND filter and a cable release. Remember to follow the steps required above to capture your long exposures, and share the images you take with us below. It will be great to see what you capture.

If you want to go deeper into long exposures, see this article by DPS writer, Rick Ohnsman.

The post How to Photograph Long Exposures to Create Dreamy Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.

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Canon EOS R5: The long game ends with a big leap

23 Apr

The fruit of Canon’s R&D emerges from the shadows

Canon has been the best selling camera brand for most of the digital era. Different people might ascribe this dominance to different areas of strength, be that lens design, ergonomics, color response or simply very successful marketing that’s resulted in a history of cameras that people want at a price they’re willing to pay. For the past few years though, its once proud reputation for innovation hasn’t seemed so evident.

Canon’s US press releases still proudly boast about how many patents the company has been granted, but its electronics development prowess hasn’t shone especially brightly in recent models. The EOS R5’s disclosed specs reveal a camera capable of generating and processing immense amounts of data. This suggests a leap forward in Canon’s semiconductor design and one that might shed some light on why some of their most recent cameras have seemed somewhat lackluster.

Blimey!

It’s difficult to over-stress how much of a technical challenge it is to capture and record 8K footage. Just four years ago virtually every camera maker we interviewed said that 4K was really difficult because of the heat generated in the process and there are many models that stop recording or become very hot if they shoot for extended periods. Canon is promising a camera that can capture four times as much data, from the full width of its sensor while still being able to run its dual pixel AF system in parallel.

The EOS R5’s disclosed specs suggests a leap forward in Canon’s semiconductor design

If that doesn’t strike you as ground-breaking, consider that the EOS R5 can shoot 4K at up to 120 fps. Then look around the current batch of large sensor cameras and count how many can achieve 4K/60. It’s a short list, and one that gets even shorter if you mark off the ones that can only do so using a cropped region of their sensor. The EOS R5 almost certainly sub-samples to achieve this, but that’s still a lot of data.

We don’t know the camera’s full specs, yet, but this all points to a radical improvement in sensor and processing technologies.

A history of innovation

Canon was the first camera maker to fully embrace CMOS technology for its DSLRs, which gave it industry-leading performance for many years (it was another seven years until we saw a camera with a CMOS chip from Sony Semiconductor). It was also the first company to produce a large sensor camera that could capture Full HD video. Technologies such Dual Pixel AF show that the company has continued to work away at pushing its cameras forwards.

And yet, the last few generations of Canon stills cameras haven’t always sparkled, particularly in terms of video: notably the most processor-intensive feature. The EOS 5D Mark IV had to crop its sensor to deliver 4K and still showed a fair amount of rolling shutter when it did, suggesting there was a major bottleneck either in terms of sensor readout rate or the ability to process this data fast enough.

It’s also interesting to note that Canon cameras tend to achieve much lower shot-count ratings per Watt Hour of battery capacity than other companies manage, which is likely to be indicative of lower processor efficiency.

The EOS R, as the first RF mount camera, had plenty of innovations in it, but its cropped 4K video suggests a similar lack of processing power to that of the EOS 5D VI, which wasn’t especially cutting edge two years earlier. The EOS R5 is a vast leap forward from this.

And this has seen Canon’s specs begin to fall behind. This need to crop to produce 4K video was off the pace in when the 5D IV was launched in 2016 (Sony’s a7R II offered full-width 4K capture a year earlier), so to see that same limitation in 2018’s EOS R looked a little embarrassing compared to the oversampled 4K footage offered by Leica, Nikon, Panasonic, Sigma and Sony in their contemporaneous full frame models. It’s a similar story with the EOS 6D II and EOS RP and, despite the appearance of a novel 32MP sensor in the EOS M6 Mark II, the need to sub-sample the chip to generate its video also hints at a processing bottleneck.

So why had this company with a history of innovation dropped so far behind its rivals?

What’s been going on, then?

While it sources 1-inch and smaller sensors from other companies, Canon makes its own APS-C and full-frame sensors and generally hasn’t made them available to rival camera companies. This means that Canon has to recoup its R&D costs entirely from its own models, whereas most other camera makers buy all of their sensors in from a supplier that can spread out those costs amongst its many customers. That obviously creates an incentive for Canon to keep using the same chips for as long as it can.

The differing challenges of building cinema and consumer cameras make it impossible to say whether know-how has been reserved for the Cinema EOS line or has trickled down from it.

Another possibility is that Canon has been keeping this know-how for its more profitable pro video users, holding the main EOS line back to avoid cannibalizing its Cinema EOS sales. But this isn’t necessarily true: the Cinema EOS cameras work in an environment where large batteries and built-in fans are the norm, meaning there isn’t the same pressure on them to be as super-efficient as the mainline EOS cameras need to be. So I’m not sure that’s what we’ve seen: if anything it’s just as likely that the EOS R5 is benefitting from lessons Canon learned through the process of developing the Cinema EOS line.

Playing the long game

Instead, I wonder whether Canon made the decision to step back from the constant two-year development cycle for sensors and processors that other camera makers build their model ranges around, and instead decided to conduct a longer-term project to reclaim the technological lead it’d previously enjoyed.

There are, perhaps, parallels with the way Canon approached its switch to autofocus, back in the 1980s: seemingly content to let Minolta and Nikon own the AF market, only to leap ahead with its EOS system.

Taking a longer-term approach would explain both why the company had dropped so far behind and how it can now not just to catch up but jump ahead

We may never know for sure, but I can’t think of a time when Canon has so clearly fallen behind what the rest of its rivals are offering. That’s why it looks to me like the apparent lull in Canon’s innovation might have been because it wasn’t content to just keep up with its rivals but instead was willing to cede a little ground in the short term, so that it could take a significant lead in the long run. That would explain both why the company had seemingly dropped so far behind and how it’s now looks able not just to catch up, but to jump ahead.

Of course this is likely to be little comfort for customers who bought Canon cameras from the end of the previous cycle, built on technology that was significantly outdated in comparison to their rivals.

So while the rest of the market has been constantly tussling over small gains, seemingly leaving Canon in the dust, the industry’s biggest player appears to have been patiently working to leapfrog them all, taking a bigger lead than we’ve become used to seeing in the industry.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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