5 Tips for Long Exposure Photography
Long Exposure Photography is a fun technique to experiment with. Long Exposure Photographs are created by using slower shutter speeds, between a few seconds to several minutes.
Busy, city streets at night are great for Long Exposure shots. A slow shutter speed allows you to capture car headlights and tail lights, creating stunning light trails. Your cityscapes will pop to life.
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Long Exposure shots also work well with lakes, waterfalls, and the sea. A slow shutter speed gives the water a silky, smooth, dreamy look and creates more dramatic landscapes. You’ll need to bring your tripod .
Scout Your Location
Before you drag your gear out and start setting up, scout your location.
Take a look around and think about how you’ll compose your shots. What will work best at your destination. Think about safety whether you are shooting in the city, country, or at the beach.
Cityscapes can provide a fantastic background for some dramatic shots. Find a safe spot to set up your tripod, where you will be able to capture the light trails from moving cars.
Waterfalls, rivers, lakes or the sea will provide an opportunity to blur motion ,and create dreamy unique landscape photographs. Check for tide levels, and the stability of the ground where you will set up your tripod.
Use an ND ( neutral-density) Filter
ND Filters allow you to shoot with extremely slow shutter speeds even in bright light. They are also useful for keeping the sky dark, when shooting Long Exposure Night Photography. ND Filters will help keep you from overexposing your shot.
Use A Tripod
A tripod is essential for Long Exposure Photography. It’s impossible to get a sharp image without one, especially when using shutter speeds longer then 1\60 second.
Use A Remote Shutter Release
A shutter release allows you to take a photo without touching the camera, and will help reduce your chance of blurry images. You can also use the the self timer setting on your camera.
Shoot In Manual And Choose The Correct Settings
Use your manual focus settings. Autofocus will not work without the proper amount of light.
The main setting you will use to capture Long Exposures is the shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed, the longer you are letting light in.
Set your ISO as low as possible, generally that should be around 100.
A good starting point for your aperture for is between 8 and 11.
If you need a shutter speed for more than 30 seconds, you will need to set your shutter speed to “Bulb”. Bulb mode keeps the shutter open as long as you are pressing the trigger.
For creating light trails from car headlights and tail lights, start out with a shutter speed of 2 to 3 seconds.
When shooting lakes, waterfalls, or the sea, the longer you keep your shutter open, the smoother the water will appear. A good starting point is 2 seconds.
