Hello! I hope you have been well. Today I wanted to talk about a style of photography that I have not practised before but always wanted to try. It is known as long exposure photography and that will be the topic of today's discussion. So what is long exposure photography?
Remember how I talked about shutter speed in my basics article and how it controls the amount of light let into the camera and into a picture? Well that is the base for long exposure photography. Long exposure photography basically involves having a really slow shutter speed, which allows more light and action to be captured in an image. I've never practised it before and if I do soon, I will be posting the pictures I clicked in this style on my portfolio.
It allows moving objects with illuminating light like cars to become blurred coloured lines and stable subjects like buildings to be captured normally, like the image above. It always creates this environment where it seems everything is moving really quickly, conveying this emotion of time passing by really fast. There are so many works on the internet by photographers in this field that are just amazing to admire.
There are some things I have learned over the years though, gathering information through browsing and surfing through many sources. Something I've always read about is always having a tripod to click pictures like these. This allows for stabilisation and allows stable subjects to actually be stable in the picture. A tripod is something basic and reliable a photographer should invest in after gaining some experience clicking decent pictures.
Also, most cameras should have a shutter speed priority mode on their mode dial. I have it on my camera and it's called "Tv" on my mode dial. The shutter speed priority allows one to go as far as 30 seconds as the shutter speed, allowing for a really long exposure time. My camera allows for an exposure of as long as 15 seconds, I think. This will help especially while indulging in long exposure photography.
Something I've read everywhere about is using an ND filter during the day while doing long exposure photography. An ND filter stands for a "neutral density" filter. It is an attachment, a way of controlling the light into the camera more effectively when it is too bright in the day. An ND filter controls the light let into pictures but it is effective, because it does so without affecting the colours. ND filters come in different levels, blocking more and less light according to what level it is. I myself have never used an ND filter since my camera is not even a proper mirrorless camera and is just a compact camera. And, I am proud of the things I have captured with it. But nonetheless, do you guys think I should upgrade to mirrorless?
I didn't have much to say in this article, and if you have some feedback for me or want to see anything else, feel free to contact me or fill out the form! Thank you so much! My next article will be about iPhone photography tips which will come out on the 18th of September.
Works Cited
MasterClass. "8 Tips for Shooting Long Exposure Photography." MasterClass, 7 June 2021, www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-
shooting-long-exposure-photography. Accessed 11 Sept. 2023.
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