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“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
— Aaron Siskind
— Aaron Siskind
Long Exposure Photography
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Long exposure photography can produce stunning photos. Nighttime shots can bring out unexpected detail and create amazing light effects. Daytime long exposure can create images with haunting moods and ethereal imagery. None of this is actually hard to achieve, but it does take a little thought and preparation. Here are some tips to ease you into long exposure photography.
Long exposures work well for certain types of subjects like seascapes, landscapes and cityscapes. The key to getting a successful long exposure image is to have something in your image that is perfectly still and something that is moving. Water, clouds and trees blowing in the wind all work well if the rest of the scene is stationary. This difference between the elements in the scene will create drama and will add significant value to your image. The viewer will be seeing something that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The reason why long exposure images are so compelling is that they warp time. Water looks like a soft mist, trees look like a dull blur and clouds become long and streaky. This is what makes a familiar scene more compelling.
Long exposures are ideally shot on Manual mode. If you are not sure how to shoot in Manual mode, you can use one of the other semi-manual modes such as Aperture priority or Shutter priority. Here are some quick pointers on the settings:
- Shutter speed – depending on the light in your scene, your shutter time will need to be at least a 10 to 15 seconds, or longer if necessary. If you are doing a seascape and the water is moving quickly, then a few seconds may be long enough to make the water look misty.
- Aperture – you will want to have your aperture set at anywhere between f/8 and f/16. This again, will be determined by how much light is in the scene and how long you want to expose for.
- ISO – keep your ISO settings as low as possible, ISO 100 is what I use for long exposures.
