Long Exposure Portrait tips?

michawolf3 · Mar 26, 2013

hey photo friends

I haven't been doing too well in my photo class and i REALLY wanna succeed for this one. I am trying to accomplish a long exposure portrait for my next project. i tested it out today and I got extrememly crappy photos! I even adjusted the aperture and ISO ... so crappy.

and yes, i use a tripod.

I'm trying to achieve images like the following...any tips? what do my models need to do (other than move around) to get a good image?
http://keithgreenough.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pinhole-portratis-version-2-1.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n206/Francis247_PSS/Flashlight Photography/DSC_27228x10.jpg

And then I want to do a long exposure laser light photo.
My concern is mostly the lighting. I won't be using lighting (except for in the studio) outside and I'll try to take some of these photos at night
I love the lighting in here ... how can i achieve it? And how can I achieve all those lines in the photo? Use bulb and have the subject stand as still as possible while i draw all of those out? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Light_Painting_2_-_Booyeembara_Park.jpg

cgipson1 · Mar 26, 2013

If you are taking a "photo class", and this is part of the assignment (or so I assume), why not ask your teacher? Where is this class at?

and that isn't a laser light photo... lol! Here.. try not to hurt yourself or burn down any forests:

Steel Wool Photography

Beware: Light Painting with Steel Wool Can Be Hazardous to Your Lens' Health

Derrel · Mar 27, 2013

The one of the girl was pretty good!

Tripod movement can often be a problem on long exposures...the 'pod can get bumped, or be vibrated by people walking, or by vehicular traffic on bridges and overpasses and such...wind can cause tripod movement...

Exactly "how" the camera is fired can determin how much vibration is introduced. Good practice involves using the self-timer on 10-second delay to trip the shutter...

One fairly easy way to get mutliple exposures is to work in a darkened area, and then "pop!" a flash to illuminate a person, then have them move to another area, then pop the flash on them a second, or third time.

I would search Flickr for examples. LOADS of them out there.

DO you have an instructor who can answer some questions?

michawolf3 · Mar 27, 2013

Hey guys ... yes, I have two instructors but they seem like they don't want anything to do with me. That's why I really want to impress them with this assignment. The first few classes I was extremely sick and started suffering from sleep deprivation. I have a 0 in the class

I've tried hard but yes, i just want to do well and impress them so they can see how much effort i'm trying to put here. I don't wantr them to think I'm BS'ing the class.

cynicaster · Mar 27, 2013

Derrel said:
One fairly easy way to get mutliple exposures is to work in a darkened area, and then "pop!" a flash to illuminate a person, then have them move to another area, then pop the flash on them a second, or third time.

^^ this is what I immediately thought of as well.

OP, do you have an external flash unit? You don't need anything fancy. I remember using an old Black's flash my dad got in 1970 or so to do stuff similar to this. I wouldn't dream of putting that thing on my DSLR, but I'd set a long exposure in a dark room, hand hold the flash, and manually fire it multiple times at a moving subject while the shutter was open. Each flash burst creates a "partial" exposure, the opacity of which depends on the flash power and aperture.

If you don't have an external flash unit you could still do this with other types of lights, but the results would be much more abstract, ghost-like, and less clearly defined. You'd probably have to go wide open on the lens, so be mindful of how that is affecting DoF (might not matter much for this application).

As for the link you posted for that photo of the Asian girl, I'm kind of wondering how that was done. Since her face is fairly sharp (at least for this type of shot), I'm assuming either a) she quickly whipped her arms from up to down while a flash did a rapid multi-burst over a fraction of a second to capture the individual arm positions, or b) a "sharp face" was composited into the motion blurred frame during post processing.

Mike_E · Mar 27, 2013

What Derrel said.

amolitor · Mar 27, 2013

The old dude with two heads is probably just "sit still for 60 seconds, move, sit still for 60 seconds" since the name of the thing has "pinhole" in it, and the photo has that sort of veiled look that you get from someone sitting as still as possible for a long time.

The girl, I am thinking that's a composite, yes. The arms could be done be blending an ambient light exposure of 10-30 seconds or so with multiple flash pops, but the face I am not buying.

There's a bunch of ways to do this kind of thing.

TheyCallMeRay · Apr 15, 2013

cynicaster said:
As for the link you posted for that photo of the Asian girl, I'm kind of wondering how that was done. Since her face is fairly sharp (at least for this type of shot), I'm assuming either a) she quickly whipped her arms from up to down while a flash did a rapid multi-burst over a fraction of a second to capture the individual arm positions, or b) a "sharp face" was composited into the motion blurred frame during post processing.

Hi all, I am new here.

The Asian girl. I have done shots like this and I am pretty sure this is how he did it. Long exposure, of course, used direct flash to freeze her face, then bounced or a much lower light flash to freeze the arms.
Ray