The Complete Guide to Long Exposure Photography

Once you learn to take basic photographs, it is time to try some more creative techniques.

Long exposure photography is a technique where you use slow shutter speeds to create cool effects. This technique can be used to create a wide variety of images, whether landscapes, cityscapes, star photographs, or more.

If you are ready to take your photographs to the next level, check out this complete guide. To understand the basics, get tips, and be creatively inspired, keep reading.

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Basics

What Is Long Exposure Photography and How to Get Started

Have you ever seen a picture of the sea and wondered how the water looks so smooth and soft?

Long exposure photography is a simple way to add some drama to your images without post-processing. It can make gushing water look smooth or transform speeding cars into red and yellow lines.

Continue reading to learn how to master this technique and take your photos to the next level.

35 Stunning Examples of Long Exposure Photography

The best thing about long exposure photography is that it can be used for many different types of photographs. Long exposure photography usually falls into the following categories:

water, astrophotography, light painting, light trails from cars, abstract photography, architecture, and sports.

For some beautiful examples of long exposure photography click here.

Understanding Exposure

When you are taking a photo, you are capturing light. Hence, understanding exposure is the key to good photography.

3 factors affect exposure: shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.

It is important to understand these factors. If you want to be a good photographer, you need to know how they can positively and negatively affect a photograph. Then you can play around with the settings to get the result you want.

How To Shoot Long Exposure iPhone or Smartphone Photos

If you are not ready to start with long exposure on a camera, you can use your iPhone or smartphone. Earlier, smartphone cameras used to be very limited. They had great Auto functions but no Manual Mode. That didn’t let you take creative shots like long exposures.

The good news is, you can do that now!

Equipment

Photography Equipment for Long Exposure Shots: What You Really Need

Some equipment is essential for long exposure photography. To find everything you may need, check out this article.

Photo by Shivkumar Dharmoji from Pexels

A Complete Guide to Neutral Density Filters

Many times a photo won’t be perfect due to too much light. This is where an ND filter comes in.

There are different types of ND filters you can use. To understand exactly what an ND filter is and how to use it, read this article.

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How to Use an ND Filter to Remove People from Long Exposure Shots

We have all seen those perfect pictures of famous landmarks. But when you go to take your own shots, tourists crowd into your frame, ruining your images. So how can you take the perfect photograph without people in it?

If you are shooting a famous tourist spot or want to capture a lonely beach, but people are ruining your photograph, don’t worry. There is a way to remove people from your photos, without post-processing. All you need to do is capture a long exposure with an ND filter.

To understand how to make people magically disappear from your photos, read this article.

How to Shoot a Long Exposure Without ND Filter

What if you want to take a long-exposure shot in the daytime, but you don’t have an ND filter? You can still get the results you want by using a technique called photo stacking. Read this article to understand the two ways of doing this in detail.

Photo by Ian Beckley from Pexels

What Is a CPL Filter? How, When and Why to Use One

Every landscape photographer should have a polariser as part of their photography equipment. There are two types of CPL filters: linear and circular.

Read this article to understand how and why CPL filters are so helpful.

10 Best Travel Tripod Options 2020

A tripod is a must in long exposure photography. Hence, it is important to consider all aspects of a tripod before purchasing the right one for you. We have rounded up the best tripods for you that are sturdy, budget-friendly, and portable.

Settings, Techniques

How To Get Creative Photos Using a Slow Shutter Speed

You can use a slow shutter speed to create many interesting effects in your photos. For example, you can capture motion blur, light trails, water and cloud movement, and much more. Read this article for 7 creative photos you can take with a slow shutter speed.

Photo by Ian Panelo from Pexels

How to Use Bulb Mode: 6 Tips for Better Long Exposures

Sometimes creative long exposures need shutter speeds as slow as minutes or hours. How can you get such a slow shutter speed if the slowest setting your camera allows is 30 or 60 seconds? The answer lies in bulb mode. In this setting, the shutter will stay open as long as you press the shutter release button.

Check out this article for tips on how to take really long exposures using bulb mode.

How to Calculate Long Exposure Time

If you are shooting with an ND filter, it can get complicated calculating the right shutter speed to use. You can use apps that will calculate it for you. Or, you can also do this manually, using this formula:

TND = T0 X 2^ND

Where:

• ND = F-Stop reduction in light from filter
• tND = Final exposure time in seconds
• t0 = Correct exposure time without ND filter

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels

How to Reduce Noise in Long Exposure Photography

In Bulb Mode, the sensor remains exposed to capture light for as long as you decide. This prolonged exposure time will produce digital noise.
A small trick to get the cleanest raw files to edit in post-production is to apply long exposure noise reduction in camera. To understand more about this setting and how it helps reduce noise, check out this article.

Photo by zhang kaiyv from Pexels

How To Use Intentional Camera Movement in Photography

You may come across a lot of tutorials on how to keep your photos sharp during long exposures. However, sometimes photographers intentionally incorporate blurred movement in photographs. This can make their images more dynamic.

There are many ways to use this technique to make your photographs more creative.

How to Use Panning to Easily Capture Movement

Panning is the most popular technique to get movement in your image. Panning is commonly used in taking panoramas, but it is also used in timelaspes, hyperlapses, and long exposures. In this technique, you use an exposure of around 1/20th of a second and follow a moving object.

The idea is that you capture a moving object while moving your camera along with it, preferably at the same speed. This will give you a clear subject in front of a blurred background. This article will take you through everything you need to know about using this technique in your images.

How to Shoot Daytime Long Exposure Photography

Taking long exposure photos in the day requires a lot of technique. You can face many issues with long exposure photography in the daytime. This includes false light, camera shake, etc.

To get some specific tips on daytime long exposure photography, check out this article.

Photo by Daniel Jurin from Pexels

Photo Stacking: Awesome Daytime Long-Exposure Photography

With all the issues of long exposure in the daytime, you can waste a lot of time trying to get the perfect shot. A more efficient way of this is photo stacking.

Factors like too much light, wind, or the risk of camera shake make it worthwhile to use photo stacking for your daytime long-exposure photos.

How to Capture Great Photos in Low Light

Shooting low light can be challenging, but with some camera settings, extra gear, and techniques, you can capture great photos. This article goes through all the settings, gear, and tips that you need to capture great photos in low light.

12 Essential Tips to Mastering Creative Night Photography

If you want to take your low light photography to the next level, it is time to try night photography. Night photography produces some of the most stunning images. But it can be exceptionally frustrating to capture if you don’t know what you’re doing.

How to Use the 500 Rule to Capture Better Night Sky Photography

If you want to capture the beauty of a starry night, use the 500 Rule to estimate the slowest possible shutter speed to avoid star trails.

This rule is one of the many that were created to help photographers before digital cameras. The rules helped photographers determine the right settings and get their shot right without wasting film. We now don’t need to wait for photos to be developed to see if we got it right, but learning these rules can help us shoot more efficiently.

Some of the famous photography rules are the sunny-16, overcast-8 and sunset-4 rules. These deal with finding the right settings for specific daylight conditions. For night time photography, the looney-11 rule will help you correctly expose the Moon.

For night sky photography, learn the 500 Rule in this article.

Made from 10 light frames (captured with a SONY camera) by Starry Landscape Stacker 1.5.1.

Landscape

12 Tips for Long Exposure Landscape Photography

Landscape photography can lend itself to stunning images even without much creativity. However, using long exposures to capture landscapes can take your images to the next level. Here are 12 tips to help you take better landscape photos using long exposures.

6 Tips for Taking Breathtaking Pictures of Waterfalls

Waterfalls are one of the quintessential subjects for long exposure photography. If you do it right, capturing silky smooth water can result in breathtaking photos. However, there are a few things to know before you head to a waterfall to shoot long exposures.

Read this article to be prepared and take mind-blowing photos.

11 Tips for Photographing Cliffs and Coastlines

We have all drooled over those dramatic images of cliffs and coastlines that amazing travel photographers post on Instagram or publish in magazines. Although the photographs look spectacular, they are not so difficult to shoot.

Check out these eleven tips that will help you start shooting gorgeous photos of coastlines and cliffs. Some of these tips can also be used in general landscapes, seascapes, and ocean photography.

How to Photograph Star Trails at Night | From Landscape to Cityscape

Intentional camera movement, like panning, and long exposures that capture star trails can add magic to your photography. To get star trails in your photographs, all you need to do is take a long exposure of the sky.

Here are all the necessary camera settings, gear, accessories and techniques that you will need to take your own star trail photographs.

How to Take Great Photos of Clouds

Taking photos of moving clouds is another way of capturing movement in your photographs. Different types of clouds can evoke different moods in your image.

Check out this article for everything you need to know to take amazing photos of clouds. You will find types of clouds, long exposure settings for clouds, and many more tips.

Creative

How to Shoot Fantastic Light Trails

At night, cities light up with an array of colour, providing the perfect opportunity to capture light trails. With long shutter speeds, you can capture luminous light trails. To learn how to add that wow factor to your urban night photography with light trails, read this article.

Photo by Vishal Shah from Pexels

How to Photograph Fireworks in 8 Easy Steps

Fireworks are dazzling affairs, but to capture them requires the right knowledge and gear. If you don’t have the right technique, you will end up with blurry shots or overexposed shots. It takes patience and understanding the technique to get the splendid firework shots you see online. To learn how to take the perfect firework photograph, check out these 8 tips.

How To do Steel Wool Photography

Steel wool photography is a variation of  light painting that uses a material called steel wool. Experiment with this type of photography to create very interesting and unique photographs. The best part about this technique is that it does not require expensive gear, and can create very interesting photographs.

Spiral Light Painting: Cool Photography Ideas to Try Today

Spiral light painting photography is a great way to create cool and colourful photographs. While it creates very unique photos, it is not a technical process. Here we show you exactly how to use this easy technique to take fun and interesting shots.

How LED Light Sticks Are Taking Light Painting Photography to a New Level

Light painting is a technique that uses long exposures to capture moving light as streaks. Earlier people used flashlights. But, flashlights did not have variety in color.

A great way to try light painting photography is to use LED light sticks. They are a colourful and easy tool to use in light painting photography.

Photo by Ali atiabi from Pexels

How to Create Impressive Light Graffiti

Light graffiti is very similar to light painting. You can do this with a torch, a sparkler, a fire, or even a still light source by moving your camera. To read more about light graffiti, check out this article.

50 Stunning Examples of Motion Blur Photography

Daily life is full of movement. Hence, movement is a great subject to create thoughtful and slightly abstract photographs. Here are 50 different ways you can capture the stories that motion tells.

How to Use Your Smartphone to Create Stunning Light Painting Photography

You don’t always need fancy equipment to be creative. Once of the most creative types of photography is light painting. Although there are various techniques, one of the simplest is using your smartphone. Here are various tricks on how you can use your smartphone in light painting photography. You can either use it as the camera to take light painting photographs, or you can use it as a light painting tool.

In this photo you can see the Japanese wooden doll is lit up using a smartphone’s flashlight. 

The background is painted using the smart phone’s screen.

How to Take Long Exposure Time Lapse

Shooting a time lapse in the daytime can be difficult. As the shutter stays open during the time lapse, light will keep pouring in, leaving your photo very overexposed. If you want to find out how to shoot a long exposure timelapse in the daytime, check out this article.

Photo by Zach Inglis on Unsplash

How to Shoot Long Exposure Portraits

You can create very unique portraits with the light painting technique. The combination of light and a human face creates abstract and surreal photos.

Photo by Tainá Bernard from Pexels

How to Shoot Night Cityscape Photos (Long Exposure)

Cities at night have a buzzing energy that makes fantastic images. You can take some amazing cityscapes using long exposures. This way, you will capture light trails, colours, and a lot of movement. In this article, find out exactly how you can take cool cityscapes at night.

You can use long exposure photography in almost every genre; landscapes, portraits, night or day. This technique allows you to experiment and create images that you would not be able to with a short shutter speed.

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My First Time Capturing Star Trails – Free Quick Guide

Download Your Free Guide Now →

In this guide, you will learn how photographer Lisa Cannon discovers the wonders of star trail photography while photographing an old grain mill at night.

 

 

8 Techniques for Capturing the Best Cloud Photography

Tags: Photography for Beginners Newbie Photography

By Chad Verzosa 

 

Many people think clouds are only important for landscape photos but this is not true. Clouds can be very effective at shaping the mood of your photo.

Whatever type of photography you’re into, here are eight techniques to shoot amazing cloud photography.

 

8. Look for Different Clouds for Different Moods

There are many types of clouds out there. Each has its own way of influencing how your photo appears.

If you want your photo to look vibrant,  shoot Cumulus clouds. They appear when the weather is good.

For a more serious vibe, consider the flat and grey Stratus clouds on overcast days.

If you’re after a more dramatic effect, then try the big and scary Cumulonimbus and Altostratus. They appear when a big storm is on the way.

7. Pay Attention to the Weather Forecast

Forecasts provide you with a lot of information if you’re interested in taking cloud photos. They’re very useful if you want to capture a location in a specific type of weather.

So if you were waiting for storm clouds to approach an area you have in mind, then you’ll know when to prepare.

If your location has a weather radar you can access online, take advantage of it. This shows real-time results in a more concentrated area. And it’s more accurate than the ones you see on national TV.

The radar map shows you where the clouds are and where they may be headed. In most cases, it has a scale that indicates the severity of the weather.

Green spots in the clouds mean there could be light rain. Purple spots represent severe storms.

But you shouldn’t worry even if you don’t have access to radar. You can still use the regular news forecast to help you guess what types of clouds to expect on the day of your shoot. Or just check The Weather Channel for accurate predictions.

If your local weatherman says there will be a thunderstorm, prepare for Cumulonimbus clouds.

6. Choose the Right Camera Settings

You don’t need deep technical knowledge when it comes to taking pictures of clouds. In fact, you can even get away with using auto settings on your camera in most cases.

But these tips will help you make the most out of those dramatic clouds.

First, set your ISO between 100 to 800. If it’s bright outside, then use 100. As it gets dark, you can use higher values until you reach 800. If you go any higher than that, you might end up with pictures that look noisy and grainy.

Next, set your aperture between f/11 to f/16. The deep focus produced by these f-numbers ensures that everything in your frame is sharp.

When it comes to shutter speed, you get to choose from a few options depending on what you want to achieve. In most cases, you can set your camera to Aperture Priority. Then let your device decide the shutter speed for you.

If you want to try long exposure photography, then you’ll need to use Manual Mode.

5. Get Creative with Long Exposure Cloud Photography

Long exposure photography is useful for capturing clouds at night. Using normal shutter speeds would result in underexposed images.

It works by opening the shutter for a long time so the sensor could gather more light to create a proper exposure.

As a consequence, anything in the frame that moves while the aperture is open will end up blurry. That sounds like bad news in most cases but it creates surreal effects when shooting clouds.

In fact, the longer you keep your shutter open, the fuzzier the clouds are going to look.

You’ll need to switch your camera to manual mode to create a long exposure. Once you’re on that mode, set your aperture somewhere between f/11 to f/16 depending on the lighting condition.

If it’s dark enough, f/11 will suffice. But if it’s still too bright out, then try f/16. Although most lenses have a minimum aperture size of f/22, we don’t recommend you using it due to diffraction.

When the aperture is too narrow, light struggles to go through, and that results in blurry photos.

Once you set your aperture, you can adjust your shutter speed up to 30 seconds. Take a test shot. If it’s over or underexposed, bump it up until you get the proper exposure.

If you want to create an exposure longer than 30 seconds, you can use Bulb mode instead. This function allows you to keep the shutter open as long as you have your finger on the button.

When shooting long exposures, don’t forget to bring a sturdy tripod and a remote trigger in your camera bag.

This process involves a lot of trial and error. But in general, all you have to do is to shorten the exposure if it’s overexposed and lengthen it if it’s underexposed.

Keep taking test shots until you end up with a properly exposed photo.

How to Stabilise Your Camera

It’s okay to handhold your camera while taking pictures of clouds. But there are situations when you’ll need a tripod.

The tripod is essential when you’re doing long exposure photography. It keeps the camera stable while the shutter stays open and is vulnerable to motion blur.

When shooting cloud photos at night, you should consider using a remote shutter. This will ensure stability. Touching your camera, even when it’s on a tripod, can introduce movement. This will make your photo look fuzzy.

You can fix this if your trigger your device without any wires.

4. Use an ND Filter for Unique Results

You can’t use long exposure photography when it’s not dark enough. When you leave the shutter open too long, and there’s too much light, your photo will be overexposed.

One way to enable you to shoot long exposure even in daylight is by using Neutral Density (ND) filters. Think of them as sunglasses for your lens. They limit the light that goes through the glass so you can use slower shutter speeds.

Each ND filter has an ND number representing the amount of light it limits. The higher the ND number, the more the f-stop reduction you get. For instance, if you use ND2, you get 1 f-stop reduction, with ND4 you get 2, with ND8 you get 3 and so on.

F-stop reduction is the number of stops that the filter trims off the regular exposure.

Say your shutter speed is at 1/4000 and can’t go any higher. Putting on an ND2 filter which has an f-stop reduction of 1 lowers it down to 1/3200 (1 stop).

Using different ND filters create different effects for creative cloud photography.

If you want blurry clouds, you can use ND16. This prevents a lot of light from coming through.

If you’d like the effect to be subtler, use ND2 or ND4. Their f-stop reduction is smaller.

You can always try out some CPL filters in case you don’t want any significant reduction in shutter speed.

Experiment with different options until you get the photo you like.

3. Try Cloud Photography During the Golden Hour

If you want to add dimension and colour to your photos, shoot during the golden hour. It’s the time after sunrise and before sunset when the sun casts a bright orange glow onto the clouds.

The sun is low on the horizon. This means that the golden hour produces shadows that highlight the shape of the clouds.

This way, they end up looking fuller and more realistic.

2. Include Landscapes in Your Images

Try photographing clouds over an impressive landscape. It will give your images some context and make them more relatable to people.

You can incorporate anything from trees to mountains. Even buildings work!

Capture bigger portions of the sky, even if you are not sure if you want to incorporate all of it. You can always crop it in post-processing.

1. Zoom in to Show More Detail

You’d be surprised how you can create different cloud images when you zoom in and out of the sky. If you’re doing nature photography, snap on a zoom lens. Use its wide range of focal ranges to your advantage.

By shooting tight shots and wide shots of the same cloud, you have two to six photos at your disposal.

And, if you move your frame a little bit and recompose your shot, you can achieve even more unique pictures.

You don’t have to be a master photographer to shoot cloud photos. What’s important is how you use cloud photography to create different moods in your pictures.

All you have to do is look up, and you’ll find something you can take photos of.

Keep your camera in hand because clouds move fast. If you encounter a beautiful cluster in the sky, better snap some cloud pictures before they’re gone.

Next time your landscape or cityscape image needs more impact, try adding clouds!

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