Long exposure photography is often associated with art photography one of the types " visual arts”Because it allows photographers to achieve surreal and unearthly effects, often from rather commonplace phenomena. Most cameras are not specifically designed for long exposure photography, but you can get great results with just about any camera with the right exposure and focus.
Wide angle lens with a focal length of 16mm on a full-frame DSLR, f / 10 was used for adequate depth of field. Exposure time 13 sec. ISO 800 value. A tripod helped pull off this 13 second exposure. Long-term exposure blurs all water movements, giving a creamy appearance to the water surface. Urban lighting adds a warm tone that matches the colors of the fireworks. Mounting the camera on a tripod allows much slower shutter speeds than is possible for handheld photography, even if the lens and body are stabilized.
Another important advantage that a tripod provides is the ability to set the shutter speed on your camera to a value of more than a minute (preferably at least 30 seconds or longer).
Camera requirements for long exposure photography
Long exposure photography does not require any special lenses, and it doesn't matter if your camera has the ability to attach interchangeable lenses. The two most important requirements are the ability to shoot at shutter speeds longer than one minute and the ability to shutter without camera shake (remote shutter release, timer photography).
Most cameras are equipped with self-timers that delay the start of the exposure by two, five, or 10 seconds, allowing the camera to stabilize before the shutter opens. The longer the delay, the more likely the camera is stable.
An alternative is remote control which can be either wireless or wired. Wireless remotes are preferable as they do not have physical contact with the camera, and the cable can become snapped. A blocking remote is required for very long exposures. You can also use a smartphone with special software for remote shutter release if your camera has wi-fi.
Better if the camera supports shutter speeds of B (Bulb) and, or, T (Time).
B (Bulb) Freehand or manual shutter speed is the camera shutter operation mode, in which the frame window opens when the shutter release button is pressed and closes when it is released. In this case, the shutter speed is set manually. In modern equipment, it is denoted Latin letter"B".
Traditionally, the B setting holds the shutter open when the shutter (or remote) button is held down, while the T setting opens the shutter the first time the shutter is pressed and closes the second.
However, many camera manufacturers are making changes to the exposure controls. Some people limit the exposure length for Bulb or Time, often limiting the exposure to less than 30 minutes, which is not ideal for astrophotography, for example. Check out your camera manual for all the features.
Many different phenomena can be photographed with long exposures; you need to decide whether you want to capture the moving subject itself in sharp focus or blur and blur the motion. If this is the first option, you will be looking for interesting lighting. The second case manifests itself in blurry effects.
Photo of tourists around the fire. This 10 second exposure at ISO 400, taken with a small sensor digital camera, shows some motion blur as well as traces of image noise.
Popular long exposure scenes that contain motion include astrophotography and light trails from passing traffic, blurry clouds or swaying grass in landscapes and blurry waves in seascapes, photographs of streams or rivers, or ethereal effects with waterfalls. In the city, long-term exhibitions can be used to make crowds of people disappear on the street or ghostly images of passers-by to appear.
Image was taken with a 10mm lens on an APS-C DSLR camera, using ISO 100 to minimize noise and f / 5.6 aperture. This 10 minute exposure showing the trails of the stars would have been impossible without a tripod.
It helps to scout the locations ahead of time, so you have good idea where you can set up your tripod. Huge lighting can be fleeting and you want to be ready to shoot when it appears.
Check the weather forecast before leaving the house, you need to know if it will rain or wind and when. you can use weather in photographs or avoid them. In any case, when planning a photo shoot, you should know what to expect. Check high tide or low tide times if you are photographing seascapes.
Exposure options for long exposure photography
: First turn off flash, image stabilization and select manual shooting mode. Mount the camera on a tripod and focus on the area you want to capture. Smaller lens apertures allow longer exposure times and use the widest depth of field. They are ideal for scenes captured with wide-angle lenses.
Long exposure photography of fireworks and fireworks. A tripod was used for this shot. 1.6 second shutter speed at ISO 1600 at f / 16. M - mode. The exposure for photographing fireworks should not be too long, but it is generally longer than the real ability to keep the camera still even with stabilization.
Mounting the camera on a tripod allows you to use the lowest sensitivity settings to minimize noise in your photo. Reducing noise when shooting with the camera's processor can in some cases soften the image slightly, but should reduce the frequency of the noise.
Determining the timing of long exposures can be tricky because some camera metering systems do not work under very high low levels illumination, and the brightness ranges of the subject are often wider than the dynamic range of the camera sensor. When this is the case, it is best to choose the exposure empirically - by trial and error, and be prepared to take a few shots when different parameters exposure. When the camera is mounted on a tripod, images can be combined to create correct via software for editing images by creating panoramas.
A shutter speed of 20 seconds at ISO 200 is required to properly expose the sky. This results in the foreground being underexposed to the point that it appears as a silhouette and no detail can be extracted in post-processing. The way out of the situation may be a second shot with a longer exposure and a slightly higher sensitivity for the correct exposure of the foreground, which can then be combined with the first in Photoshop.
Unless your camera has special settings for astrophotography, an exposure of at least 30 minutes must be provided to capture the star trail lines. The most impressive photographs require longer exposures, often several hours.
Light trails from moving vehicles usually require much shorter exposures. In a place loaded with cars, a 30-second exposure should show a decent effect. Mount the camera on a tripod and use an aperture of f / 11 or faster for maximum depth of field.
Blurry shots of water can be achieved with exposure times of five to 30 seconds - or a few minutes. The longer the exposure, the more foggy the water becomes.
Photos containing the moon are difficult to record due to the differences in brightness between the moon and the rest of the composition. Best results are achieved when the moon is close to the horizon, where its brightness is dimmed by the atmosphere, especially when there is any haze in the air or when it is cloudy.
Sydney Harbor on New Years Eve, photographed with 75mm lens, full frame DSLR. A shutter speed of 8 seconds blurs boat movements in the bay at ISO 800 with an aperture of f / 8.
Light painting and long exposure photography
Sometimes the light is too bright for the main subject to appear as anything other than a silhouette. In such cases, it is easy to add lighting effects to the object without resorting to a flash, "drawing" it with the light from a flashlight or laser pointer. An example of light painting in the video below
Light painting requires very long exposures, usually at least 30 seconds, as you need time to reproduce the light pattern on the subject. Move the light carefully to ensure an even exposure. The best light painting technique is to move a spot of light from one side of an object to the other so that the light covers it from top to bottom.
The two-second exposure of the carousel in motion creates a powerful impression of speed. Photo taken Samsung camera NX1 at ISO 100 with 16mm focal length and f / 22 aperture for maximum depth of field.
When capturing a light path, use shutter priority mode and start with the camera's lowest camera setting and exposure between two and five seconds. Check the result, and if the trail is too short and / or the scene as a whole is under-exposed, double the exposure time. Continue shooting and checking the result, lengthening the exposure time, until you get the desired effect.
Scenes in which water is the main subject of photography are usually best photographed immediately after the sun has risen. This ensures that there is enough light in the sky for reflections in still water to be sharp and clear, and to preserve dawn highlights.
Choosing a tripod for long exposure photography
The choice of tripod depends on how much weight you can carry and your preference for adjusting the tripod head holding the camera. If you can customize your equipment with a car (or other vehicle), you have a great opportunity to use a heavy, rigid tripod. For really long exposures (minutes to an hour or more) a sturdier tripod is better.
Travelers and photographers who must carry their equipment for a mile or more will likely prefer a lightweight tripod. This forces a choice between weight, stability and cost, and this can limit the height at which the camera can be positioned. Carbon fiber tripods provide the best combination light weight and reliability. But they usually cost two to four times more than a comparable aluminum tripod.
Cheaper tripods can be used for exposures of less than 30 seconds, for photography in calm conditions. But make sure the tripod legs are well placed on the ground. If there is a light breeze, attach a heavy weight to the center post to prevent possible vibrations.
There are several types of tripods: pan and ball heads are the most popular, but gear heads provide more precise settings and are preferred for architectural photographers. Ball heads are more compact than tilt heads, but the latter are easier to adjust.
Long exposure photography is one of my favorite things to do. This allows you to capture something different from 99% of the photographs on the Internet, as well as requiring skill and the right equipment.
To work with this kind of photographs, you need to deliberately overestimate the exposure time. While a fast shutter speed captures the moment, a slow shutter speed blur the motion, creating different effects depending on the subject.
It may seem complicated at first. Most frequent question that newbies come up with: "Why are my long exposure photos come out white?" Fortunately, this problem is very easy to fix. The first step is to get a better understanding of the exposure triangle. If you want to read in detail, click on the link, and within the framework of the article I will give a very short review... The exposure of a photograph (that is, how bright or dark it is) is determined by three characteristics: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.
The shutter speed is responsible for how long the shutter remains open. For most common photographs, shutter speeds range from 1/60 to 1/500, while we (depending on the subject) need values from 1/10 of a second to 5 seconds or even 20 minutes. (Many cameras cannot operate at shutter speeds slower than 30 seconds without Bulb mode, so you will have to use the external shutter button). More light will enter the sensor, resulting in a brighter image. Leaving the shutter open for too long will result in just a white canvas. The first step in solving the problem is to adjust the other two vertices of the exposure triangle.
ISO adjusts the sensor's sensitivity to light. Although the technical side is difficult to explain, it is enough to know that higher ISO values mean a brighter image. Therefore, when shooting at slow shutter speeds, try to set the lowest ISO. The threshold level for most cameras is 100. Some models can even work with ISO 64, and Fuji cameras do not allow you to select a value below 200.
The third side of the exposure triangle is the aperture. Its value is responsible for the diameter of the hole that allows light to pass through. How more value the diaphragm, the wider the opening. However, it is known that the relative aperture of the lens is indicated in fractional form. That is, f / 8 actually means 1/8. Thus, if the f-number k larger, then the relative aperture becomes smaller, because 1/16 is several times smaller than 1/4. If your photos come out white when using slow shutter speeds, try narrowing the relative aperture by setting a smaller aperture. A good starting point is f / 16 and minimum ISO. Also keep in mind that a smaller aperture means more sharpness. If you want a shallow depth of field, you will have to resort to some other method.
Okay, you followed these tips, but you still haven't received an answer to your question. If you are shooting at the lowest ISO and small aperture and the pictures are still bright, you will need to resort to one of the following options.
First, shorten your shutter speed. Not every shot takes 20 seconds to expose. The desired effect can be obtained from 1/2 or even 1/8 s. However, this does not work for every situation. Sometimes there is too much light in the frame, but if you look at the examples below, you can see that some of them were taken with relatively fast (as for this type of shooting) shutter speed.
If too much light is a problem, find a way to reduce it. For example, just try to photograph the same landscape in more dark time days. Instead of trying to capture your shot at noon, shoot it at sunset or even on a cloudy day. This is one of the reasons cloudy days are ideal for shooting waterfalls when you need to slow down a little.
After all, there is a very useful tool for this kind of photography - the ND filter. These are ordinary Sunglasses for your lens. Different ND filters have different densities. My personal choice is the 10 stop filter, which allows the shutter speed to be increased by 10 stops. Typical afternoon photography requires a shutter speed of 1/30 s, ISO 100 and f / 16. With this filter I can take the same photo at 30 s. The most commonly available 6- and 3-stop filters are available. If you need one or two extra stops, you can use a circular polarizer.
Once you figured out how to shoot slow shutter speeds and bought an ND filter, the great amount interesting ways take advantage of this. Here are a few of my favorite types of photography.
Dreamy ocean landscapes
Have you seen pictures of the coastline, the waves of which have been turned into a mystical fog? While a fast shutter speed will stop the waves, a long shutter speed will blur their motion. The choice of the shutter speed depends on the amount of light, the frequency of the waves and the depth of the water. A good starting point is ISO 100, f / 16 and 15 sec.
Lakes
Ripples in the water often spoil the pictures of lakes. This problem can be easily solved by resorting to a slow shutter speed, which completely softens the surface. My ND filter often saved me from ripples in the water or boring sunsets. The exposure here depends entirely on how strong the waves are. The photo was taken at ISO 200 (minimum threshold for Fuji cameras), f / 16 and shutter speed 90 s.
The water was much calmer in the photo below, so I used a faster shutter speed. These are the camera settings I chose: ISO 200, f / 18, 5 sec. If you look closely, you will notice another difficulty when working with long exposure - the tree on the left side has become blurry due to the wind.
Waterfalls
Perhaps it was the waterfalls that initially inspired me to try long exposure photography. I looked endlessly at pictures of silky smooth waterfalls and really wanted to understand how this is done. A big plus is that when shooting waterfalls, you don't need too long exposure. But it's important to determine how much of the movement you want to convey. It's very easy to get a waterfall that has no context whatsoever. Sometimes this is useful, but usually I still try to make the waterfall not quite blurry.
I wanted to leave most the movement of the Panther Creek Falls, so I set the following settings: ISO 200, f / 18, 1/8 s.
Due to the darkness of this canyon, I had no choice, so I had to sacrifice the expressiveness of the waterfall and photograph it at ISO 800, f / 11, 8 sec.
In the example below, I deliberately dropped the harshness to give the waterfall the appearance of a long silk cascade. The camera settings were as follows: ISO 200, f / 16, 5 sec.
Streaks of light
Another favorite example of mine. Streaks of light are red or yellow / white lines that appear in the photo from the headlights of passing cars. Here, the exposure length is determined by how fast the cars are going. This is quite easy to do if a certain light source passes through the frame and you just need to calculate the time it takes to do it. However, when in the frame more cars and light sources, things get more complicated. Below I have provided a few examples showing the camera settings.
It took a lot of patience here, as the two streams of cars were moving in different directions. It was necessary to capture the end of one light source and the beginning of another. ISO 200, f / 18, 15 sec.
When shooting Brandenburg Gate I was lucky because the traffic was moving at the same time. I took this photo at ISO 200, f / 16 and 2.5s.
The photo below was not easy to capture, as there are many traffic lines in the frame that needed to be captured. ISO 200, f / 16, 45 sec.
If you need more inspiration, there are other ways to work with long exposure. Search the internet for examples and see how you can get awesome clouds, how to work with camera wiring, and more.
Many aspiring photographers think that fast shutter speeds are the secret to good shots. The most literate people know that it should be no less than one divided by the focal length of the lens with which you are shooting. But in fact, there are a number of plots and technical solutions that allow you to create interesting and unusual pictures using slow shutter speeds. As an underwater and cave photographer, I quite often have to work in low light conditions, and this makes me twist in one way or another and get an image when it is impossible to simply fix the moment with the camera. So I have a whole arsenal of techniques to shoot where most people cannot. And this gives me a certain professional advantage.
Wiring
The simplest and most obvious long exposure example taught in photography schools is wiring. You aim at an object moving in the frame and start moving the camera without changing the position of this object in the viewfinder. So you can shoot wildlife, sport, when something moves past you, and you "see off" it. This technique is used when there is no way to get close to the subject in order to freeze it with a flash, you cannot set a shutter speed fast enough so that the subject is not blurred, or, on the contrary, you need to enhance the effect of movement. In this case, set a slower shutter speed (about ¼ or 1 second) and try to post. This is a technically challenging technique that requires training. The easiest way to train is by going outside and filming passing cars. Over time, you will learn how to move the camera at such a speed that it matches linear velocity the vehicle and the object remained sharp, and the entire the world smeared until completely unrecognizable. Thus, you can shoot animals to show the speed of movement, dynamics.
NIKON D3S / 16.0 mm f / 2.8 SETTINGS: ISO 400, F13, 1/4 s, 16.0 mm equiv.Once we filmed dolphins. The mother and cub swam very quickly, and the flashes could not be used, since the animals were afraid of them. The lighting was too dim to afford a fast shutter speed. Therefore, I increased the shutter speed to ¼ s and did the posting of the passing animals. So I not only took pictures of the dolphins, but also showed the dynamics of their movement. While there is a tendency to shoot with shutter speeds as fast as possible, wiring remains one of the favorite techniques of sports photographers and animalists to produce more varied and dynamic images.
A little more complicated is the technique of combining wiring with a flash. You set the syncronization of flash firing on the rear curtain, do the wiring, and the flash captures the moment the movement ends. As a result, you will have a sharp "frozen" image. last phase movements, while all the previous ones will be underexposed and blurred. These shots are very dynamic.
For example, in this shot with a dolphin, thanks to the flash, the baby has a sharp, happy face. And around him, at a long exposure, everything moves, there is a feeling of irrepressible life, a dolphin world in which everything happens very quickly.
Static camera
Now let's look at the technique when the camera is fixed, and objects in the frame are moving and blurred. A typical subject of such a shoot is water element: sea surf or waves running on the sea, jets of a fountain or waterfall, which are smeared and give the feeling of a stream. For example, a plot like this:
It can be snow, rain, or cars leaving tracks of lights. In the frame is the House of the Government of Azerbaijan, known as the House of a Thousand Rooms.
If I were shooting this photo of Baku at night at a short exposure (which the camera allowed), then in the foreground I would have a lot of cars that would distract from the main subject of photography. And on a long exposure they are gone - they disappeared, leaving only tracks of size lights and brake lights. This is how they shoot night cities, mountain serpentines, and they look very impressive. You can control the influence of a moving object on the composition of the frame: change it, make it minimal, or remove it altogether.
Weak light source
The next case is low light and stationary objects. Instead of agonizing and inventing ways to illuminate them, all you have to do is put the camera on a tripod, open the shutter and expose the frame the way you want. This simple technique allows you to turn a trivial subject into an unusual shot that looks attractive and fresh.
AF NIKKOR 35mm f / 2D lens
NIKON D700 SETTINGS: ISO 800, F7.1, 30 s, 35.0 mm equiv.This photo of the Blue Lake dive center was taken at night with a 30 second exposure. It doesn't seem to be nocturnal due to the long exposure, but it looks interesting with unusual colors.
Focal length 50 mm
AF NIKKOR 50mm f / 1.4D lens
This is the parking lot of our diving ship RK-311 at an abandoned floating dock for repairing submarines on the Powerful Island. It was shot late in the evening at a shutter speed of 2.5 seconds. The light of the sunset dyed everything in dark blue tones, and the yellow light of the incandescent lamps put the emphasis on the ship.
The main thing is not to be afraid, wait until darkness, put the camera on a tripod and open the shutter. And the result will be absolutely amazing.
Light painting
This is a legendary cave exploration technique. You put the camera on a tripod, open the shutter to infinity (labeled Bulb on Nikon cameras). And then walk around and illuminate the stage with a flashlight. V pure form light painting is done in absolute darkness: where you shine, a piece of the picture appears, and so you paint with a light brush until the entire image appears completely.
This technique is also very often used to shoot still lifes. But light painting can be used in many other genres: travel, landscape, and even reportage photography. The main thing is that you have time to experiment. Light painting takes an enormous amount of time: each frame takes thirty seconds, plus the camera's processor renders thirty seconds, and you need a certain number of takes to get the desired picture. But the result will be very unusual. You can create conflicting, unnatural lighting designs that will appear strange to the viewer and draw attention to your photograph. It is not at all clear where the light is coming from, from what sources? As, for example, in the photo of the mining machine above. The exposure of this frame is 62 seconds, everything is drawn here with one small flashlight.
At the same time, people in the frame should not embarrass you. And that's why. When you shine a flashlight, you only illuminate a small part of the frame. In the meantime, your model can do whatever. For example, a photograph with an exposure time of less than 13 seconds. No person can stand still for so long. But since this is light painting, your model is free to move until you point the flashlight at it. To illuminate a person with a flashlight is a matter of a second. For a second, a person can remain motionless. Your goal is to explain to the model that you need to freeze when you draw it in this scene.
Recently I tried to apply light painting in underwater photography, which no one has done before. This frame was taken with a shutter speed of 30 seconds: the camera was on a tripod, and I was swimming with a flashlight, illuminating the scene.
Combined light
Most difficult case when in one frame you have a stationary poorly exposed subject and moving objects. Then you have to use a combined light in order to freeze moving objects with flashes, and at a long exposure to expose those that cannot be illuminated with flashes. For example, this frame with our ship:
AF NIKKOR 20mm f / 2.8D lens
NIKON D3S SETTINGS: ISO 4000, F4.5, 15 s, 20.0 mm equiv.I wanted to capture how he floats under the starry sky. But if you just put the camera on a tripod, then the ship in the picture will turn out to be black, nothing will be visible. And if you turn on the lights on the ship, the waves will blur the silhouette of the ship at long exposure. Therefore, I had to use a combination light. I stood on the dam and put the camera on a tripod so that the stars would appear and the Perseid meteorites were drawn, the stream of which was just crossing our planet. It was also necessary to illuminate the ship from the side, so on the second pier I put a flash with a tube on a tripod to give a directed light to the ship. And the last - to illuminate the ship from the inside, while the constant light was not good, I have already explained why. So in the wheelhouse and cabins I also had to put flashes with radio synchronizers and send them to the windows.
Light painting can become a great solution for scenes that cannot be filmed during the day. For example, in the canyons. These are narrow gorges, the sun cannot get there. Therefore, it is much better to take everything into your own hands and shoot at night with the black and white pattern that you have in mind. Here's an example above: exposure 6 seconds, a person seems to be exploring the canyon. This is a light painting with two lights, one of which is in front of the model, and the other holds the light behind her.
AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f / 2.8G ED Lens
NIKON D700 INSTALLATION: ISO 1600, F2.8, 20 s, 14.0 mm equiv.
Frame "I Can't Hear You": combined light from 7 flashes, two lamps and light painting. There is a large enough space here, as well as a waterfall and a lake, and it was difficult to illuminate everything. Therefore, I put three underwater flashes in the water, froze people with land flashes, the walls of the canyon were illuminated by lanterns, plus I corrected the light pattern of the waterfall with light painting. For everything about everything 1.6 seconds.
Also, the blended light allows you to separate the plans, as in this photo. Here the foreground is highlighted in flashes with cold temperature glow, and the rear - with a warm halogen lamp installed on the mining harvester. But this flashlight is not strong enough to compete with the flashes, so the shutter speed must be long enough. Only then will the background render well enough. Overlay different light revealed the patterns of the rock on the ceiling, on which the golden reflections of the lantern lay.
Prometheus cave. Here the combined light was needed for another reason. A large pile of objects did not allow the cave to be illuminated normally - flashes would inevitably give harsh shadows from all objects. Or there had to be a lot of them in order to highlight such a composition well. I applied the following scheme: a person is frozen by a flash, and stalactites and stalagmites are illuminated with light painting.
Light painting by itself and combined lighting- the most interesting and little-studied areas of photography, which require a lot of time and physical effort, but the return is very high. This is what you want to do.
How to shoot long exposures
When shooting at long exposures, you cannot do without a stable tripod and a cable release with the ability to lock the shutter button. To reduce the shaking when the shutter is released, I recommend using the mirror pre-raise mode. But if you suddenly find yourself somewhere without a tripod, and want to shoot at a long exposure, then the correct stand and the ability to lean on something with your elbows or lean the camera against something will help you. Possible knee or elbow support. Professional cameras allow you to shoot handheld at slower shutter speeds because they are heavier and more grippy. I shot handheld with the D3S and D4S at up to half a second. You need to understand that if you are shooting handheld, then the longer the shutter speed, the more takes you will have to do.
Date of publication:
Victor Lyagushkin's projects:
2010 - Orda cave. Cognition
2011 - Princess of whales
2011 - Ural Caves
2012 - Cherek-Kel. Jug of gin
2012 - Mistress of the Horde
2013 - Ice Dungeon
2013 - Baltic. Secrets of sunken ships
2014 - Being a Dolphin
2015 - Aliens on Baikal
Greetings to all amateur photographers! Today in the heading "Theory of photography" we will take a closer look at one of the components of exposure, namely shutter speed, find out what it can be, what it affects in photography and what effects can be achieved if the settings are adjusted correctly.
We also want to draw your attention to the fact that the material below can be useful when creating a photo for a project.
So let's get down to studying.
A camera shutter is like a shutter that opens to allow light exposure to begin and then closes to complete it. As a consequence, the snapshot does not display a moment, but a certain interval of time. The term is used to describe this interval "excerpt"(exposure duration).
The shutter speed is calculated in fractions of a second: for example, 1/30 s, 1/60 s, 1/125 s, 1/250 s. Only the denominator is displayed on the screen of many cameras - "60", "125", "250". Often, long exposures are displayed as a number with quotation marks - 0 "8, 2" 5. There is also a standard set of excerpts. 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000 s ... For slower shutter speeds, the camera has a Bulb option — the shutter remains open for as long as the shutter button is pressed.
Short(1/250 sec and faster) shutter speed as if "freezes" any movement, and the photo is clear, without the slightest blur.
In general, shutter speeds of the order of 1/250 - 1/500 are sufficient to capture the movement of a person, but for close-up or extremely fast subjects, shooting may take 1/1000 or 1/4000 of a second.
Fast moving cars or animals: 1/1000 s;
Waves: 1/250 sec.
Long shutter speed makes it possible to normally expose the frame, especially when there is not enough lighting - at dusk, at night. It also allows you to remove many interesting stories... Since at a slow shutter speed there is a possibility of “wiggling” and blurring, it is advisable to use stabilization if it is in the camera or lens. In cases like this good helper will turn out to be a tripod. Turn stabilization off when mounting the camera on a tripod.
Depending on which shutter speed we use when shooting, fast or slow, you can get completely different effects in your photo.
Whenever moving objects appear in the frame, the choice of the shutter speed determines whether the movement will be frozen or cause blur. However, you cannot change the shutter speed by itself without affecting exposure or image quality.
1. When reducing the shutter speed, you need:
Increase ISO speed (possible side effect: visual noise in the photo)
Close aperture (side effect: depth of field may decrease)
2. With increasing exposure, you need:
Decrease ISO speed (side effect: tripod is indispensable)
Open the aperture wider (side effect: reduced sharpness)
It is very good to have a bulb mode in the camera. In this mode, you can manually set the time for which the shutter will be open. Bulb mode will be useful for night photography of celestial objects, for scientific photography, when the process is filmed slow in time. If you shoot, for example, a night landscape with starry sky on a moonless night with a shutter speed of several hours (with an average aperture value), then the image will show traces of rotation of stars, arcs relative to the North Star. But again, be aware of noise in digital cameras, especially at high ISO values.
To get the correct exposure in the picture, you need to take all this into account and select the values of three values (ISO, aperture, shutter speed), depending on each specific scene, situation.
What should be the exposure for different situations.. Let's look at some examples.
Five classic camera shutter speeds:
1. Freeze motion, or shoot 1/250 s or faster.
The faster the subject moves, the faster the shutter speed should be. For instance:
Fast moving cars or animals: 1/1000 s;
Mountain bikes or running people: 1/500 s;
Waves: 1/250 sec.
Remember that parts of an object can move very quickly. A striking example similar - a helicopter. The fuselage itself can be frozen at a shutter speed of 1/250, but for the blades, 1/2000 may not be enough. Or, for example, when photographing a girl waving her hair to freeze the ends of her hair, it is also necessary to use shutter speeds of the order of 1/1000 or even less, while the model itself moves relatively slowly.
Using a fast shutter speed helps to get a frame that is sufficiently balanced in sharpness, but it makes the picture too static. Any movement in the frame will be frozen.
You can fix this by trying to slightly tilt the camera to get a more dynamic photo composition. But the best way- use the shooting technique with wiring, which will be discussed below.
2. Shooting with wiring.
Shooting with "wiring" is a technique that gives the effect of movement in the picture, while the subject is sharp against a blurred background.
And here the excerpt plays a very important role... It should be between 1/15 s and 1/250 s. If you shoot at faster shutter speeds, 1 / 500-1 / 1000, the effect of movement will diminish or disappear altogether. Since a fast shutter speed will give the background and the subject equally sharp. Compare these two photos.
|
|
For example, some of the values most commonly used by photographers:
Fast moving cars, motorcycles or birds: 1/125 s;
Mountain bikes close to the camera: 1/60 s;
Mountain bikes, animal movement or human work: 1/30 p.
3. Creative Blur - Shutter speed from 1/15 s to 1 s.
For instance, fast flow waterfall: 1/8 s; people walking near the shooting point; waves; slow motion of water: 1/4 s.
In bright light conditions (on a sunny day) it can be difficult to obtain the required shutter speed (below 1/8 s), even by changing the aperture or low values ISO. To reduce the amount of light, a neutral gray (ND) filter is used, which is exactly what is intended for this. The tripod should not be forgotten here either.
The exposure set also affects the transmission of weather in the picture. You can convey rain in solid lines using shutter speeds of 1/4 s and slower. If you want to "freeze", stop individual snowflakes in flight, set the shutter speed to 1/125 s.
Adding flash to a photo with blur will freeze certain subjects, which means you can move the camera to achieve an artistic effect.
Slow shutter speeds combined with the movement of a small constant light source add graffiti to the image.
4. Photo with exposure from 1 s to 30 s.
There are processes that take long time, and shutter speed up to 1 second is no longer enough. These processes differ not only in time, they differ in perception. At shutter speeds from 1 to 30 seconds, all processes that proceed quickly are erased in the frame, only statics remains ... soft statics. There is a feeling that the world is frozen. Motion disappears again. Only if at shutter speeds of 1/1000 the movement disappears, but a person sees an object that could move, then at a 30-second shutter speed they do not remain. This effect can only be obtained when using a tripod.
Many aspiring photographers think the secret is good photos in short exposure. The most literate people know that it should be no less than one divided by the focal length of the lens with which you are shooting. But in fact, there are a number of subjects and technical solutions that allow you to create interesting and unusual pictures using long exposure. As an underwater and cave photographer, I quite often have to work in low light conditions, and this makes me twist in one way or another and get an image when it is impossible to simply fix the moment with the camera. Therefore, I have a large arsenal of techniques to shoot where most people cannot. And this gives me a certain professional advantage.
Wiring
The simplest and most obvious long exposure example taught in photography school is wiring. When you have an object that moves in the frame, you aim at it and start moving the camera without changing the position of that object in the viewfinder. So you can shoot wildlife, sports, when something moves past you, and you "see off" it. This technique is used when you cannot get close to the subject in order to freeze it with a flash, and there is no way to set a shutter speed fast enough so that the subject is not blurred, or, on the contrary, you need to enhance the effect of movement - then set a slower shutter speed, about ¼ or 1 second and try to wire. This is a technically difficult trick that requires training. The easiest way to train is by going outside and filming passing cars. Then, in some time, you will learn to move the camera at such a speed that it coincides with the linear speed of the car, and the object would remain sharp, and the entire surrounding world would be blurred until completely unrecognizable. Thus, you can shoot animals to show the speed of movement, the dynamics of a moving object.
Aperture - f / 13
Shutter speed - 1/4, ISO 400
Focal length - 16 mm
Camera - Nikon D3S
For example: we filmed dolphins. The mother and the calf swam very quickly, and the flashes could not be used, since the animals were afraid of them. The lighting was too dim to afford a fast shutter speed. So I increased the shutter speed to ¼ and walked the passing animals. Thus, I not only took pictures of the dolphins, but also showed the dynamics of their movement. While there is a tendency to shoot as fast as possible and cameras are improving in this direction, wiring remains one of the favorite techniques of sports and wildlife photographers, and allows for more varied and dynamic images.
Slightly more difficult is the technique of combining wiring with a flash. You set the flash sync on the rear curtain, do the posting, and the flash will fix the moment the movement ends - you will have a sharp frozen image of the last phase of the movement, while all the previous ones will be underexposed and blurred. These shots are very dynamic.
Aperture - f / 13
Shutter speed - 1/4, ISO 200
Focal length - 16 mm
Camera - Nikon D3S
Lens - AF Fisheye-NIKKOR 16mm f / 2.8D
For example, in this shot with a dolphin, thanks to the flash, the cub has a sharp, happy muzzle. And around him, at a long exposure, everything moves, there is a feeling of indefatigable dolphin life, a dolphin world in which everything happens very quickly.
Static camera
The next technique is to use a slow shutter speed when the camera is fixed and objects in the frame are moving and smeared. Typical subjects for such shooting are water: the surf or waves running along the sea, the jets of a fountain or waterfall, which are blurred and give the feeling of a stream. For example, here's a plot:
Aperture - f / 8
Exposure - 1/10, ISO 200
Focal length - 24 mm
Camera - Nikon Df
Aperture - f / 11
Exposure - 2.5, ISO 100
Focal length - 35 mm
Camera - Nikon D4S
Lens - AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f / 1.4G
It can be snow or rain, or cars leaving tracks of lights. This is the House of the Government of Azerbaijan, known as the House of a Thousand Rooms. If I took this photo of Baku at night at a short exposure (which the camera allowed), then in the foreground I would have a lot of cars that would distract from the main subject of photography. And on a long exposure they are gone - they disappeared, leaving only tracks of size lights and brake lights. This is how they shoot night cities, mountain serpentines, and they look very impressive. This way you can control the influence of a moving object on the composition of the frame: change it, make it minimal, or even remove it altogether.
Weak light source
The next case: low light and stationary objects. Instead of agonizing and inventing ways to illuminate them, all you have to do is put the camera on a tripod, open the shutter, and expose the frame just the way you want it. This simple technique allows you to turn a trivial subject into an interesting and unusual shot that will look attractive and fresh.
For example, this photo of the Blue Lake dive center was taken at night with a shutter speed of 30 seconds. It doesn't seem to be nocturnal due to the long exposure, but it looks interesting with unusual colors.
Aperture - f / 7.1
Exposure - 30, ISO 800
Focal length - 35 mm
Camera - Nikon D700
Lens - AF NIKKOR 35mm f / 2D
This is the parking lot of our diving ship RK-311 at an abandoned floating dock for repairing submarines on the Powerful Island. It was shot late in the evening at a shutter speed of 2.5 seconds. The light of the sunset dyed everything in dark blue tones, and the yellow light of the incandescent lamps put the accent on the ship.
The main thing is not to be afraid, wait until darkness, put the camera on a tripod and open the shutter. And the result will be absolutely amazing.
Aperture - f / 8.0
Exposure - 2.5, ISO 1600
Focal length - 50 mm
Camera - Nikon D3S
Lens - AF NIKKOR 50mm f / 1.4D
Light painting
This is a legendary cave exploration technique. You put the camera on a tripod, open the shutter to infinity (labeled "bulb" on Nikon cameras). And then walk around and illuminate the stage with a flashlight. In its pure form, light painting is done in absolute darkness: where you shone, a piece of the picture appears, and so you paint with a light brush until the entire image appears completely.
Aperture - f / 10
Exposure - 62, ISO 400
Focal length -16 mm
Camera - Nikon D3X
Lens - AF Fisheye-NIKKOR 16mm f / 2.8D
In addition to cave photography, still lifes are often filmed with this technique. But light painting can be used in many other genres: travel, landscape, and even reportage photography. The main thing is that you have time to experiment. Light painting takes an enormous amount of time: each frame takes thirty seconds, plus the camera's processor renders thirty seconds, and you need a certain number of takes to get the desired result. To fill your hand, roughly speaking. But the result will be very unusual. You can create controversial, unnatural light patterns that will be perceived as strange by the viewer, and this will draw attention to your photo, it will look extremely unusual. It is completely incomprehensible where the light is pouring from, from what sources? As, for example, in the photo of the mining machine above. The exposure of this frame is 62 seconds, everything is drawn here with one small flashlight.
At the same time, people in the frame should not embarrass you. And that's why. When you shine a flashlight, you only illuminate a small part of the frame. In the meantime, your model can do whatever. For example, a photograph with an exposure time of less than 13 seconds. No person can stand still for so long. But since this is a light painting, your model can move freely as long as you do not point the flashlight at it. Shining a flashlight on a person is a matter of a second. For a second, a person can remain motionless. Your goal is to explain to the model that you need to freeze when you draw it in this scene.
Aperture - f / 10
Exposure - 13, ISO 100
Focal length - 14 mm
Camera - Nikon D4S
Recently I tried to apply light painting in underwater photography, which no one has done before. For example, here is this photo with an exposure of 30 seconds: the camera was on a tripod, and I was swimming with a flashlight, illuminating this scene.
Aperture - f / 14
Exposure - 30, ISO 200
Focal length - 35 mm
Camera - Nikon D4S
Lens - AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
Combined light
The most difficult case is when in one frame you have a stationary poorly exposed object and moving objects. Then you have to use a combined light in order to freeze moving objects with flashes, and at a long exposure to expose those that cannot be illuminated with flashes. For example, this shot with RK-311, our ship.
Aperture - f / 4.5
Exposure - 15, ISO 4000
Focal length - 20 mm
Camera - Nikon D3S
Lens - AF NIKKOR 20mm f / 2.8D
I wanted to take a picture of him floating under the starry sky. But if you just put the camera on a tripod, then the ship in the picture will turn out to be black, and you will not be able to see anything. And if you turn on the lights on the ship, the waves will blur the silhouette of the ship at long exposure. Therefore, I had to use a combination light. I stood on the dam and put the camera on a tripod so that the stars would appear and the Perseid meteorites were drawn, the stream of which was just crossing our planet. Secondly, it was necessary to illuminate the ship from the side, so on the second pier I put a flash with a tube on a tripod to give a directional light to the ship. Thirdly, it was necessary to illuminate the ship from the inside, while the constant light was not good, as I already told you why. So in the wheelhouse and cabins I also had to put flashes with radio synchronizers and send them to the windows.
Aperture - f / 10
Exposure - 6, ISO 1600
Focal length - 14 mm
Camera - Nikon D4S
Lens - AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f / 2.8G ED
Light painting can be a great solution when it is impossible to shoot during the day. For example, in the canyons, due to the fact that this is a narrow gorge, the sun cannot get there and illuminate beautifully. Therefore, it is much better to take matters into your own hands and shoot at night with the black and white pattern that you have in mind. Here's an example above: exposure 6 seconds, a person seems to be exploring the canyon. This is a light painting with two lights, one of which is in front of the model, and the other holds the light behind her.
Aperture - f / 2.8
Exposure - 20, ISO 1600
Focal length - 14 mm
Camera - Nikon D700
Lens - AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f / 2.8G ED
Aperture - f / 13
Exposure - 1.6, ISO 800
Focal length - 20 mm
Camera - Nikon D4S
Photo titled "I Can't Hear You" - a combined light from 7 flashes, two lanterns and light painting. There is a large enough space here, as well as a waterfall and a lake, and it was difficult to illuminate everything. Therefore, I put three underwater flashes in the water, froze people with land flashes, the walls of the canyon were illuminated by lanterns, plus I corrected the light pattern of the waterfall with light painting. For everything about all 1.6 seconds.
Aperture - f / 6.3
Shutter speed - 1/4, ISO 400
Focal length - 24 mm
Camera - Nikon D3X
Lens - AF NIKKOR 24mm f / 2.8D
Also, the blended light allows you to separate the plans, as in this photo. Here, the foreground is illuminated in cold-temperature flashes, while the background is illuminated by a warm halogen flashlight mounted on the miner. But this light is not strong enough to compete with the flashes, so the shutter speed must be long enough for the background to be rendered sufficiently. The superposition of different light revealed the patterns of the rock on the ceiling, on which the golden reflections of the lantern lay.
Aperture - f / 5.6
Exposure - 1, ISO 200
Focal length - 20 mm
Camera - Nikon D4S
Lens - AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f / 1.8G ED
Work "Cave of Prometheus". Here the combined light was needed for another reason. A large pile of objects did not allow the cave to be illuminated normally - flashes would inevitably give harsh shadows from all objects. Or there had to be a lot of them in order to properly highlight such a composition. Therefore, I applied the following scheme: a person is frozen by a flash, and stalactites and stalagmites are illuminated with light painting in order to get a more even illumination.
Light painting in itself and combined lighting is the most interesting and poorly studied area of photography, which requires a lot of time and physical effort, but the return is very high. This is what you want to do.
How to shoot long exposures
For long exposure photography, you need a stable tripod and a cable release with the ability to lock the shutter button. To reduce shaking when the shutter is released, I recommend using the mirror pre-lift mode. But if you suddenly find yourself somewhere without a tripod, and want to shoot at a long exposure, then the correct stand and the ability to lean on something with your elbows or lean the camera against something will help you. Possible knee or elbow support. Professional cameras allow you to shoot handheld at slower shutter speeds because they are heavier and more grippy. I personally shot handheld with the D3s and D4s at up to half a second. You need to understand that if you are shooting handheld, the longer the shutter speed, the more takes you will have to do.
