Extremely long exposures

[EDL]

I've seen several examples of extremely long exposures (a year or longer) by guys like Michael Weseley. How does this work? How can you open a shutter for that long without ending up with just white, over exposed picture?

 

[SoulfulRecover]

extremely small aperture and very slow film speed? not entirely sure. pretty cool stuff

 

[Robin_Usagani]

ND filter

 

[limr]

Pinhole camera.

Edited to add: A pinhole camera can have an f-stop in the hundreds (I just made one with an f169 aperture) and photographic paper has an extremely low ISO rating (Harman Direct Positive is rated at ISO 3). I'm not sure that explains a 2-year exposure, but I can't see how it's possible with anything but a pinhole.

And after some checking, I see he indeed used a homemade pinhole camera. I don't know how small the hole was or what he was using for film or paper. Perhaps he added some sort of homemade filter to reduce light levels even further. I don't doubt that he also has tricks for developing that allow him get as much out of the image as possible.

 

[Buckster]

From this page: Unusually Long Exposure Photographs by Michael Wesely | Amusing Planet

For more than a decade, German photography artist Michael Wesely has been inventing and refining techniques for making photographs with unusually long exposures - some as long as three years. In 1997, armed with a self-built pinhole camera, he began using this unique approach to photography to explore major urban construction projects around Berlin.

 

[cgw]

Some tips here:

Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline: How did he do it? | Toronto Star

Follow the link in the story for the image.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Just checked out his work. Wow! I didnt read your post careful enough. Didnt know it was that long.

 

[hamlet]

From this page: Unusually Long Exposure Photographs by Michael Wesely | Amusing Planet

For more than a decade, German photography artist Michael Wesely has been inventing and refining techniques for making photographs with unusually long exposures - some as long as three years. In 1997, armed with a self-built pinhole camera, he began using this unique approach to photography to explore major urban construction projects around Berlin.

That is some amazing work.

 

[EIngerson]

Interesting.