Long exposure photography is an exciting field of photography that opens up many new possibilities for you. Even when traveling, there are always opportunities for pictures that seem particularly fascinating and sometimes completely unreal.
Long Exposure - Everything You Need To Know!
Soft running water.
Impressive skyline shots at night.
Rush hour traffic on a highway.
Star trails in the sky.
With long exposures you can make processes such as the rotation of the earth visible that otherwise remain hidden to the eye. Long exposures allow bright day pictures at night. You can also capture thunderstorms, fireworks or northern lights with a long exposure.
We'll tell you how you can take really good long exposures and what you need for them!
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| Long exposures often appear mystical |
What are long exposures?
A long exposure is a camera shutter speed of several seconds up to hours (specifically: as long as your battery lasts). Light falls on the sensor over the entire exposure time, so the image is much brighter than your eyes perceive the environment.
Since, depending on the focal length, you can only expose an exposure time of about 1/30 of a second by hand without blurring, you need a tripod for long exposures so that the images do not blur.
Photographers use long exposures when there is only a weak light source (e.g. at night) or when they want to show movement sequences (e.g. moving cars or running water).
Usually, you freeze for a brief moment with a photo. With a long exposure, on the other hand, you show the motif over a longer period of time and depict its movements. These blur and give the picture its specialty.
The camera
You can take long exposures with all cameras that allow manual setting of the exposure time, i.e. with all SLR cameras and also with many compact cameras.
⇨ Which camera should I buy?
You should be able to operate your camera manually and know about the interplay between ISO, aperture and shutter speed. In our e-book we explain this in a simple and practical way and give you many more tips for great travel photos:
In 9 steps to a breathtaking long exposure
1. Choose an impressive perspective and a good cut
As always in photography, for a great picture you should not only consider the subject, but also the perspective and the cut.
Since the long exposure takes more time than taking photos by hand, it is particularly annoying here if, after half an hour it took you to take your picture, you notice that you have cut off the top of the church tower or that your perspective is boring. So invest enough time in finding the best location and a beautiful composition.
2. Use a good tripod
Even the slightest shake can ruin your picture. Use a good, sturdy tripod to capture the movements of the subject, but not those of the camera. We use this from Sirui with this tripod head.
If you don't have a tripod, you can alternatively place your camera on a stable surface (e.g. a wall), preferably on a surface such as a bean bag. The disadvantage here is that this severely restricts the perspective and the image section.
A good tripod is essential for long exposures
3. Switch off the image stabilizer (IS or OS) for long exposures
If your lens has an image stabilizer, turn it off for long exposures. It can lead to blurring of the image as it falsely tries to compensate for minimal movements that do not even exist.
4. Use a remote release or the camera's self-timer
To avoid blurring your picture when the shutter is released, you should use a remote release. Alternatively, you can also use the self-timer on your camera.
If you want to expose for longer than 30 seconds, you need a camera with a bulb function and ideally a remote release with a timer (intervalometer) (see point 9).
5. Shoot in RAW format
As always, you should also shoot in RAW format for long exposures. This opens up many options for you in image editing. With long exposures, a subsequent correction of the white balance is usually necessary, which you can do in RAW format without loss.
In this article we will show you what the RAW format is exactly and what big improvements you can achieve with it compared to JPG images:
⇨ 9 compelling reasons why you should shoot in RAW format
6. Focus properly
The autofocus works poorly or not at all in the dark. To help you focus with long exposures, either use a flashlight to illuminate your subject until the camera has focused, or use manual focus. The latter requires a lot of practice, so train manual focusing beforehand in light.
It can help to switch to live view mode, enlarge the view and focus manually at a glance. In absolute darkness, however, this no longer works and you have to rely on a more closed aperture (more depth of field) and set the focus ring just before infinity.
7. Choose a low ISO value
Since long exposures increase the noise in the image, make sure to use the lowest possible ISO value. If your picture idea allows it and you don't need more light intensity for shorter exposure times, use an ISO value of 100 or 200.
8. Start with exposure times of around 2-3 seconds
It may not be easy at first to find the right exposure time. It depends a lot on what you want to photograph and how dark it is. Motion blur of a moving car ("moving lights") can be achieved with an exposure time of 2 seconds, for stars moving circles in the night sky you need hours.
Start with an exposure time of 2 or 3 seconds and see the result. If it's way too dark, you can try increasing the exposure to 20 or 30 seconds. Try out different exposure times and compare the results.
9. Exposure times over 30 seconds
The maximum exposure time is arbitrary and only limited by the stamina of your battery. Most cameras allow exposure times of up to 30 seconds in the standard settings. If you want to expose longer, select function B. This stands for bulb, as the cameras used to be triggered remotely with a bellows. Here you can determine how long the camera should expose.
Interesting motifs for long exposures
We have a few suggestions for you which motifs look particularly spectacular on long exposures.
Long exposures can not only appear calm and mystical, but also depict the hustle and bustle of a city
Water surfaces
Water is always moving. Long exposure creates soft fog effects that look mystical and beautiful.
water falls
You can ideally capture the sound of a waterfall with long exposures.
Waterfalls often offer many details that make the picture restless, as the viewer's gaze cannot rest on a subject. With a long exposure, you simplify the picture and draw attention to what is important.
The longer you expose, the foggy and surreal moving water looks.
Movement of clouds
If you expose for a minute or more, your photo shows the train of clouds. They appear soft and the sky is more even. The longer you expose, the less you see of the clouds in the end because they become more and more blurred.
Cities and Skylines
Long exposures of cities at night are beautiful. When you close the aperture (aperture value 11 or higher), pretty stars of light appear on the light sources, which give many night shots that certain something.
Running crowds
Many places are teeming with people. With a long exposure, you can depict the hustle and bustle of the square by depicting its movements.
Alternatively, you can make people disappear in pictures with long exposures. With exposure times in excess of 10 minutes, most people's movements become so blurry that they are no longer visible.
Traffic
Long-term exposed traffic at night depicts the hustle and bustle of a big city or a street. The longer you expose, the longer the streaks of light on the moving cars become. For example, take photos from an elevated point such as a viewing platform or a highway bridge. But you can also take impressive pictures in the middle of the city, for example at large intersections.
Fireworks
With the right long exposure, your New Year's Eve pictures will finally be really good. For fireworks, an exposure time of around 30 seconds with an appropriate aperture (try 8 or 11) is usually advisable.
Thunderstorm
Dramatic cloud formations and glaring lightning bolts look great in pictures. To increase the chance of getting a flash on the photo, you should also work with long exposures here. If lightning flashes from all sides, take a shorter exposure, also so that your picture doesn't get too bright. In general, you should assume an exposure time of 5-30 seconds. Trigger again and again "on good luck" so as not to miss any lightning bolts. Set the aperture to around 8.0 in order to have a large area of focus, but vary it depending on how light or dark your pictures are.
Ferris wheels and other rides
If you're in a place at night with a ferris wheel or other spinning amusement park, you can take particularly dynamic pictures with long exposure. Expose the ferris wheel for several seconds so that the rotation is visible in your picture. Due to the many lights, long-exposure pictures of rides look interesting and special.
starry sky
With a long exposure you can make the earth's rotation visible. You are probably familiar with the pictures of the “start trails” that show the light trails of the stars in the night sky.
To do this, aim a wide-angle lens at the sky, but as always make sure that the foreground is appealing.
To depict the star trails, you need exposure times of around 30 minutes to 3 hours. If you want the tracks to rotate around a center point in your image, point the camera exactly to the north.
Northern lights
Northern lights are our favorite reason for long exposures.
Extra tip: long exposures during the day
Classic long-term recordings are made at dusk or at night. But even during the day you can expose a picture for several seconds. So that it doesn't get too bright, the following will help:
Correct camera settings
Choose the smallest possible ISO value (usually 100) and an aperture that is as closed as possible (e.g. 22).
Long exposures also create great effects during the day
Filter
Photographing beginner mistakes
Darker than in reality: the ND filter looks like sunglasses
Use neutral density filters / ND filters for long exposures during the day. You screw this onto the front of your lens (make sure it is the right size for your lens diameter!). Alternatively, there are also plug-in systems that enable use on different lenses. When traveling we like to use the Cokin-Filter-P-Series Full ND Filter .
Like sunglasses for the camera, an ND filter darkens the image and allows you to use longer exposure times.
If you use a filter, the auto focus will no longer work. So focus manually or set all parameters of your image, such as focus and section, before you screw on the filter.
You should already know your camera well to take pictures with an ND filter, as it can be more difficult to determine the correct settings. In addition, it is necessary to work out the color cast in post-processing.
Long exposures travel photography
Have you already tried long-term recordings? What were your problems and what tips do you have for beginners in this field of photography? We look forward to your tips in the comments! As always, we answer all questions and help you with problems in this area.
Those were our "9 Professional Tips And Tricks For Better Long Exposure Photography". I hope you enjoyed and don't hesitate to leave us your comment. We would love to hear your questions!
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