long exposure help

[alykatcreative]

so for quite some time now i've been basically drooling over some of the amazing long exposure photos that can be found all over the internet. shots of amazing cityscapes in focus with the blur of car lights on the street, or people crossing the street, all of that awesomeness. I've attempted it a few times but really just can't seem to fully understand how to go about it and get it right. would any one be willing to help break it down for me and better understand how to go about it? I would really appreciate it!

 

[Msteelio91]

If you have examples to post it would help so we can point out what you've gotten right vs. what you've missed.

 

[ronlane]

welcome to the forum. Here is you a start to it. I would also suggest watching youtube videos.

 

[astroNikon]

You need to start slow and you need a good tripod and a remote release.

For instance, if you put your aperture to f/22 or f/32 you will need a long exposure to get a good photo.
Doing this at night, it increases the time. Shoot for 30 seconds, after that you have to normally time it yourself in "BULB" mode.
Just go to your street and just use your camera at night to get cars going past. This will teach you the basics of long exposures and you can get car trails really easily. You could just test this hand holding your camera too - that's how I first started testing how this is done. It's digital .. no harm done eh?

After you get a handle with just your camera then you can venture into longer exposures by use of ND filters.

ND info --> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...d-filters-anyone-have-various-nds-photos.html
GND --> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ity-filters-why-you-need-them-landscapes.html

landscape photography --> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ity-filters-why-you-need-them-landscapes.html

You need a tripod and remote release. Not using a remote release causes slight blurring such as in the longer exposure here in which I used my camera's release button --> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/landscape-cityscape/366169-photo-oil-painting.html

After you play around a bit you may want to invest in either ND filters screw-in or a Lee system.
quality does count once you get above 1 stop from a ND 0.3 1x. THe darker they get and cheaper filters tend to make things purple from what I've read.


NDs come in a variety of "darkness" -->
the common ones being
ND2 or 0.3 or 1 f/stop reduction
ND4 - 0.6 - 2
ND8 - 0.9 - 3
ND64 - 1.8 - 6 (known by some a as Little Stopper)
ND1024 - 3.0 - 10 (know by some as a Big Stopper)

but when looking at screw-in ND filters you want to get the largest for your largest lens and use step-up rings so you can use one set for all of your lenses.

Also, for landscapes etc to save yourself some hair pulling, do not do long exposures while the sun is going down as the timing increases over the exposure time. It's just easier until you figure things out to do long exposures while the lighting is consistent.

 

[bratkinson]

Perhaps one of the best tutorials I've found about night photography was written by 'our own', Manaheim:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...aheim-s-ultimate-guide-night-photography.html

 

[Ido]

My best tip of advice would be not to go for too long an exposure. Most photographers who are just starting out in this field seem to go straight to the slowest shutter speed they possibly can - I've done that too. But truth to the matter is, it rarely looks best at such long exposures. People would be so blurred out that they'd practically disappear.

To blur out motion of people, try to go for around a second. To get light trails of cars passing by, you'll generally want a much shorter exposure if you're shooting from ground level than if you were shooting from a high building, for example. And for waterfalls, the photos that most people seem to just look at in awe are ones in which the water isn't so smooth that it's like a curtain, but when the water still has some sign of movement and some texture - and that balance is pretty tough to nail.

 

[astroNikon]

You can get great waterfall blur at 30 seconds or so
of course depending upon lighting eet
thus I recommend using your aperture to block light at f/22+ to test.
you can do alot without a ND to test what you want to do

 

[xzyragon]

to put this into perspective with water, i got a 9 stop ND for my wide angle and it's been fun to play around with. I live near the ocean, and try to take advantage of that as often as i can, but in my experience, the amount of smoothing you get from the increased exposure is highly variable between the amount of exposure, and distance from the water.

1/160 of a second... freezes most motion (it's an OK pic, but it gives you a standard)
IMG_6119-2 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

5 seconds... calm surf is smoothed out, but you see ghosts of rocks and other objects it moved over
IMG_6396 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

10 seconds... turbulence of water + less exposure = more smokey effect
IMG_6190 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

30 seconds... because of the angle and turbulence, water still appears smokey, not perfectly smooth
IMG_6107-2 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

30 seconds... almost perfectly smooths out rough surf
IMG_3878 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

30 seconds... another example of smoothing out surf
IMG_4256 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

 

[astroNikon]

^^^^ great examples above

 

[xzyragon]

I must add however that an unfortunate byproduct of long exposure is that you lose a lot of texture with the clouds. This can either be desired, or left bummed out because you lost awesome cloud formations.

These two were taken within minutes of each other, with a fairly similar angle.

short exposure (1/10 of a second w/ ND filter) allows for texture and crepuscular rays to be fairly evident
IMG_3858 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

long exposure minimizes crepuscular rays
IMG_3878 by christophercoxphoto, on Flickr

This sometimes helps because it smooths out the entire scene, but I might foray into doing overlays where the water is smooth, but the sky is kept frozen for added texture

 

[astroNikon]

In Time-Lapse the "recommended" method is to take longer shots so that clouds are not so detailed so that the time lapse isn't so "blocky" between photos. I like the cloud details myself but it is a smoother flow from each photo to take longer shots.
Faster shots though, you can see rotating cloud formations quite evidently in tornado storms.

 

[alykatcreative]

wow these are some amazing examples! thanks for sharing!

 

[alykatcreative]

thanks so much for all of the advice so far. for the most part my attempts at long exposure have been with water and with cars, i'll go ahead and post some examples later this afternoon. I purchased an ND filter, and it has helped, but I definitely still have a lot to learn and a lot to figure out.