To capture images of stars or landscapes, long-exposure photography can be a fun and creative way. But it can be tricky to get the technique right if you're new to it!
We've put together an ultimate step-by-step guide to help you take the best long-exposure photos. Follow this guide, and you'll capture excellent long exposures in no time!
Shutter speed is when the camera shutter remains open to let light into the lens and then onto the sensor. It's a critical element of long-exposure photography, as it can drastically impact your final image. Fast shutter speeds freeze the motion of a subject or object in a photo, making it static. This gives photographers the almost magical ability to put a single moment in a time capsule.
Slower shutter speeds allow a photographer to introduce an element of blur in the subject or in the background, which can add a sense of movement to a photo. This can be especially useful when photographing something as fast-moving as a race car or an athlete's feet. The right combination of settings - shutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity - will ensure that your long-exposure photos are bright and contrasty, with good levels of detail in the most critical areas.
The aperture is a hole in your lens that opens and closes to let in more or less light. Depending on what you're shooting, this can affect your photo's exposure, depth of field, and overall quality.
Apertures range in fractions of a millimeter, just like shutter speeds do, and are typically displayed as a number with a quotation mark after it. In some cameras, faster shutter speeds appear as a fraction, but they're usually displayed as the denominator of their speed (for example, a three-second exposure will be displayed as 3").
The main reason to use a long shutter speed is to create a sense of time passing. It's also great for creating dramatic effects and highlighting elements that move. For example, traffic head and tail lights give an excellent effect, making light trails on water or mountains.
ISO is a standard for exposure, light sensitivity, and film speed developed by the International Organization for Standardization. It is often used to represent a camera's digital sensor's response to light. Still, it also means a variety of things, including the ISO film speed standard (which was initially introduced in 1934), an optical disk image file extension, and a range of other terms that refer to the different levels of sensitivity found on both film and digital cameras.
However, despite this wide-ranging definition, there are still some things that need to be clarified about ISO that can make it difficult to understand how it works and affects your photography.
One of the most common myths is that ISO "acts like" your camera's sensor sensitivity, which is false. Instead, it is more accurate to say that ISO "maps" a camera's output exposure to the input exposure to achieve a bright, noise-free result.
Focus is one of the most important factors when taking long exposures. It's the key to ensuring your photos look as sharp as possible. Choosing the right type of music can also help you focus better since upbeat "happy" tunes encourage brain activity more than slower, minor-key songs. It's also a good idea to practice empowering rituals like meditation, which are proven to increase focus and self-control.
Another factor that can affect your long-exposure photography is your shutter speed. Slower shutter speeds to freeze motion in place, which is great for action shots. When shooting longer shutter speeds, make sure you have a tripod or a remote shutter release. These accessories help keep your camera still, which reduces the risk of unwanted blur.
