The Ultimate Guide to Long-Exposure Photography
What is Long-Exposure in Camera Terms
Long-exposure, time-exposure, or slow-shutter photography is a captivating technique that allows photographers to capture the passage of time in a single image. Whether you're capturing star trails, smoothing out water, or creating light trails in a busy city, long exposure can produce stunning, surreal images. In this guide, I'll explain what long exposure in camera terms means, the equipment needed to stabilize your camera during a long exposure, how to achieve this technique, what other equipment is useful or even mandatory, and when to use long exposure in photography for the best results.
Long exposure photography involves leaving the camera's shutter open for an extended period, allowing more light to reach the sensor. Besides letting in more light, the shutter speed also creates motion blur, resulting in light trails or making moving elements like water or clouds appear soft and smooth.
When to use Long-Exposure in Photography
Before diving into the exact camera settings and equipment needed, let’s explore common situations where long exposure photography is beneficial.
There are two main reasons to use long exposure photography: to capture as much light as possible in dark conditions without raising ISO too much, and to create motion blur, even with slow-moving objects like clouds.
Landscape Photography
In landscape photography, long exposure can smooth out clouds, water, and even shadows as the sun moves during the shot. This is a purely artistic decision.
Night Photography
This includes classic shots of busy streets at night, where each light source leaves a long trail through the frame - an artistic decision- and just exposing for longer, so we can keep our ISO low, to ensure the highest possible image quality.
Milky Way Photography
Capturing the dim light of the Milky Way can be challenging. For the best results, shoot in a rural area away from city lights.
There are two approaches in Milky Way photography: capturing sharp, dotted stars, or creating star trails.
For dotted stars, aim for an exposure of 20-30 seconds. The exact time depends on your focal length, so experiment to see what works best and use an app like Photopills.
For star trails, expose for several hours, again using an app like Photopills to calculate exact settings.
Timelapse Photography
Using the 180° Shutter Rule, long exposure can create natural motion blur in timelapse photography. For example, if you shoot one frame every 10 seconds, you would expose each shot for 5 seconds.
Useful Equipment to Stabilize your Camera during a Long-Exposure
One of the biggest challenges in long exposure photography is avoiding camera shake, which can result in blurry images. To ensure your shots are sharp, you'll need the right equipment to stabilize your camera. Here’s what you need:
Sturdy Tripod: Essential to keep your camera completely still during the exposure.
Extra Weight: In windy conditions, adding weight to your tripod can help. Many tripods have a hook at the center column where you can hang a backpack. Alternatively, you can add stones to the tripod's feet or push the legs deeper into the ground if you’re on soft terrain like grass, dirt, or sand.
Other Important Equipment for Long-Exposure Photography
ND Filter
These filters attach to the front of your lens, acting like sunglasses to reduce the incoming light by several stops, allowing for longer shutter speeds without overexposure.
Remote Shutter Release
For exposures longer than 30 seconds (called bulb mode) and for timelapses, you’ll need a remote shutter release. That’s a little remote with a cable, plugging into your camera. Some cameras like the newer Sony Alpha cameras have a feature called “Interval shooting” which can be used for timelapses. For the bulb mode, I haven’t found a workaround besides using a remote.
Photopills App
This app helps calculate settings based on the environment and shows the movement of the sun, moon, and stars throughout the day.
How to do a Long-Exposure in Camera
Most cameras have a self-timer, set it to 10 seconds to avoid shaking the camera when pressing the shutter button.
With your camera set up on a sturdy tripod, self-timer activated, and the scene ready, you’ll need to adjust your settings based on the environment. Here's a guide by situation:
Landscape Photography
Aperture: f/5.6 - f/11
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 15 seconds to 30 minutes
ND Filter: Use Photopills to calculate the necessary ND filter.
Night Shots
Aperture: f/1.4 - f/8
ISO: 100-3200
Shutter Speed: 1 second - 120 seconds
ND Filter: Not needed.
Milky Way (Dotted Stars)
Aperture: f/5.6 - f/11
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 20-30 seconds
ND Filter: Not needed.
Milky Way (Star Trails)
Aperture: f/5.6 - f/11
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 1-8 hours
ND Filter: Use Photopills to calculate the necessary ND filter.
Timelapse Photography
Aperture: f/5.6 - f/11
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: Using the 180° Shutter Rule, calculate the shutter speed by dividing the image interval by 2. For example, if you're shooting one frame every 10 seconds, expose each shot for 5 seconds.
ND Filter: Use Photopills to calculate the necessary ND filter.
Conclusion
Long-exposure photography is a versatile technique that allows you to create stunning, time-altered images, from smooth landscapes to star trails. By mastering the right settings and using the proper equipment to stabilize your camera, you can capture motion and light in ways that traditional photography cannot. Whether shooting at night or during the day, long exposure opens up endless creative possibilities for photographers of all skill levels. Mastering long-exposure photography takes time, so expose yourself to multiple sceneries, play around with the settings, and try to “copy” images you find online. This will help you get a feeling for the right settings in each situation.
Happy Creating,
Jonas
