How do you calculate shooting in bulb mode?!

[sam_justice]

Have a look at my stuff on flickr - there is lots of long exposure stuff on there. Although I used 182 seconds - there is no scientific calculation behind this. It would have looked much the same at 150 secs and 220 secs. The reason I stopped was prob to crack open another can of beer But you would be amazed at how flat and calm ypou can make water with just a 10 sec exposure. Keep practising.

Really? But there must be some kind of starting point? Especially when shooting sunset since time is limited.

 

[sam_justice]

Has anybody tried something like this?
PhotoBuddy - Ambertation.de

Certainly seems to be detailed! I'll have to try it


Thanks for the 15 examples, certainly helps. The only thing I worry about when shooting low light is that the street lights and other lights will blow out the image etc. How do you control this?

 

[Newcastle Shooter]

Hey Sam. Somebody said you could produce a chart to calculate long exposure times. I preferred to practice and get an understanding of how long to expose. Charts would not work as there is too many variables - moonlight vs electric light gives different exposures / distance from light / and whats the perfect exposure time when looking at a rock in the sea under moonlight, my perfect exposure is down to the effect im trying to create.

General rule of thumb based on experience is:

1. If I go out shooting long exposure sunsets and if the actual sunset time is say, 6.00pm - then I will be there from 5.30pm onwards trying a few exposures to see what works best and I will still get lots of light until well after 6.30pm. For all of this I will use a ND110 filter and exposures of 170+sec @ f9 @ iso 200 will be common.
2. Night dark exposures - no filters. If im on a beach in the complete dark and the only light is the moon then exposures of around 170+secs will also be seen. however if Im shooting piers or traffic or city in dark then 30-60secs at f11 iso200 may work.

2010 Monolith Moonrise by Paul Santos Photography, on Flickr
Above 185secs @ f7 @ iso200 no filters pitch black under moonlight

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsantos/3762946921/]Branch Out by Paul Santos Photography, on Flickr[/URL]
Tripod stuck out of the window for 60 sec @ f13 to make the lamps star.

Too much mathematics tens to spoil it - just practice, make mistakes, and learn

Also try shooting in RAW and the tweakability on your image will help you learn too. (if you dont already shoot in RAW)

 

[sam_justice]

Hey Sam. Somebody said you could produce a chart to calculate long exposure times. I preferred to practice and get an understanding of how long to expose. Charts would not work as there is too many variables - moonlight vs electric light gives different exposures / distance from light / and whats the perfect exposure time when looking at a rock in the sea under moonlight, my perfect exposure is down to the effect im trying to create.

General rule of thumb based on experience is:

1. If I go out shooting long exposure sunsets and if the actual sunset time is say, 6.00pm - then I will be there from 5.30pm onwards trying a few exposures to see what works best and I will still get lots of light until well after 6.30pm. For all of this I will use a ND110 filter and exposures of 170+sec @ f9 @ iso 200 will be common.
2. Night dark exposures - no filters. If im on a beach in the complete dark and the only light is the moon then exposures of around 170+secs will also be seen. however if Im shooting piers or traffic or city in dark then 30-60secs at f11 iso200 may work.

2010 Monolith Moonrise by Paul Santos Photography, on Flickr
Above 185secs @ f7 @ iso200 no filters pitch black under moonlight

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsantos/3762946921/]Branch Out by Paul Santos Photography, on Flickr[/URL]
Tripod stuck out of the window for 60 sec @ f13 to make the lamps star.

Too much mathematics tens to spoil it - just practice, make mistakes, and learn

Also try shooting in RAW and the tweakability on your image will help you learn too. (if you dont already shoot in RAW)

The thanks button seems to have disappeared, but thanks loads for this. It's my last "hurdle" per se in shooting landscape photography.

 

[Newcastle Shooter]

No probs - happy to help

 

[KmH]

With film, all-night exposures are no big deal... ...

It depends on the film. Many print films shut down after a period of time and quit reacting to light.

It's called reciprocity failure. Reciprocity (photography) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[KmH]

Too much mathematics tens to spoil it - just practice, make mistakes, and learn

Absolutely....In time, because of your experience, you can look at a scene and keep your ballpark exposure triad estimated values in the infield - day, night, indoors, outdoors, flash, etc.

 

[jwbryson1]

Does anybody else have a handy-dandy way to compute exposure time for bulb mode images?

 

[runnah]

Does anybody else have a handy-dandy way to compute exposure time for bulb mode images?

Trial and error.

 

[KmH]

Does anybody else have a handy-dandy way to compute exposure time for bulb mode images?

You calculate the length of the exposure based on how much light there is in the scene, factoring in the ISO and lens aperture you want to use.

Basically if there is so little light you need to use bulb mode you will need to use a hand-held light meter.
The concept of 'a stop' of light comes into play.

It's not used here often but the amount of light can be referred to as an f/stop. - "Yo, Ralph! We got f/16 (or f/8, or f/2, or f/64) for the light!"

 

[runnah]

Does anybody else have a handy-dandy way to compute exposure time for bulb mode images?

You calculate the length of the exposure based on how much light there is in the scene, factoring in the ISO and lens aperture you want to use.

Basically if there is so little light you need to use bulb mode you will need to use a hand-held light meter.

I like my method better, less calculations.

 

[cynicaster]

The few times I’ve done shots like this, I did the following and it seemed to work quite well:

• Set camera to Av mode
• Set ISO 100 and whatever aperture I want for the scene
• Grab a test shot and if I like the exposure, make note of the shutter speed
• Compose my shot, grab focus, switch focus to manual (if not there already)
• Multiply the previously obtained shutter speed by 256 to get good approximation of the required long exposure shutter speed
• Switch to M mode, set same ISO and aperture as before, but change shutter speed to value calculated in last step
• Carefully thread on 8-stop ND filter
• Activate shutter with remote release

If the long exposure shutter is more than 30 seconds, then obviously bulb mode is necessary. If your camera supports mirror lock-up, use it, but it probably won’t matter much for exposures longer than ~1 sec or so.

Of course, trial and error is a perfectly reasonable way to do this as well. After you do this enough times then hopefully you’ll just “know” what settings to use, but if you’re at the sunset of your life and you’re afraid you might only have time for one or two kicks at the cat before the lighting changes too much, then this method would probably be a good way to make sure you at least get an exposure that falls within the “tolerance window” of RAW.