Most iPhones can take photos like these, but you have to know the trick.
The iPhone 11 Pro’s triple camera array takes some of the best images you can get from a phone, and even the iPhone SE ‘s single camera captures amazing images that belie its affordable price. But hidden inside these phones, specifically ones launched after the iPhone 6, is a creative trick that lets you transform your everyday images into dreamy long exposure shots.
Get more out of your tech
A long exposure photograph is any image where the shutter has been intentionally left open long enough to blur the motion in the image. Look up pictures of waterfalls and you’ll undoubtedly see images where the raging torrent of water has been smoothed out into this otherworldly flow — that’s a long exposure image.
To take this sort of image with a DSLR camera, you usually need a tripod to keep the camera steady and a filter that blocks out light. This is often required because leaving the shutter open for a second or more can let in too much light that the image becomes too bright.
A standard image taken with the iPhone 11 Pro (left) and the same image, with the long exposure mode enabled (right).
The iPhone uses a different and much more cunning technique, however, that doesn’t require extra equipment. It uses Live Photos, a feature that turns a still image into a short animation by recording a few seconds of video when you fire the shutter.
By analyzing which objects are moving, the iPhone captures the movement and blurs it. It’s also able to recognize what isn’t moving (a rock or a wall, for example) and attempts to keep those objects sharp and in focus. It’s a brilliant method because it lets you capture long exposure images in even bright mid-day sun without using a tripod or filter. Take that, DSLRs.
Here’s how you can get started.
The rushing water makes for an attractive blurred subject, while the rocks remain static and sharp.
Know what makes a good long exposure shot
Not everything works as a long exposure image. A close-up of a flower blowing in the breeze will just become a blurry mess, while a picture of a static car will just remain, well, static.
What you need is a scene where there are both static and moving elements. Waterfalls are common subjects as the rushing water will be blurred while the rocks all around will remain solid. Any body of water, really, would be a good subject to experiment with.
The standard shot (left) looks like any old, forgettable snap from a Disney park. But a long exposure (right) transforms it into an ethereal image that really shows off the movement in the scene.
You can also try busy city streets (remember your social distancing!). The long exposure effect would keep the buildings and roads sharp and fixed in the image, but the people walking all around will be blurred into ghostly figures, which would look atmospheric and dramatic.
Turn on Live Photos
Getting a long exposure image requires the movement that’s recorded in a Live Photo, so it’s critical that the mode is activated when shooting. It’s located in the top right of the screen in the camera (when held in portrait orientation) or the top left (in landscape orientation). You’ll see an icon of two circles surrounded by a third dotted circle. If there’s no line through it, then Live Photos is activated. If there’s a line through it, tap the icon and you’ll see the message “Live” appear on-screen in a little yellow box.
Make sure this icon doesn’t have a line through it.
Keep steady
Although the iPhone doesn’t require a tripod to get a good long exposure image, you’ll get the best results if you keep the phone as steady as possible while it’s taking the Live image. I suggest resting the phone against a wall or some other fixed surface while shooting. If you have to hold the phone in your hand, I find that tucking my elbows in toward my body and holding my breath helps decrease motion blur while taking the shot.
It’s a good idea to take multiple shots too, hammering the shutter button while you hold the position. This way you’ll increase your chances of capturing at least one image that’s stable enough to produce an attractive long exposure.
Swipe up on your Live Photo in the gallery and activate the ‘Long Exposure’ effect.
Create the long exposure
Once you captured your Live Images, it’s time to transform it into the actual long exposure. Open the image you’ve settled on in your gallery and swipe up. This will bring up a panel called “Effects” where you can loop the motion in the video into gifs. Swipe to the end of the effects panel though and you’ll see one called Long Exposure. Tap it.
It’ll take a second or two, but you’ll quickly see how any motion in your shot has been blurred into the dreamy effect you’re after. You can then zoom in to check that it’s still nice and sharp. Feel free to apply the same effect to others photos you took of the same scene, just in case they worked out better.
I didn’t intend to make this shot a long exposure when I first took it, but because it was a Live Photo, I was able to go back later and turn the long exposure mode on.
Check your library
Before you dash out to find your nearest waterfall, have a look through your library to see if you already have images that would work. The great thing about using the iPhone’s long exposure tool is that you don’t need to use it while you’re shooting. You can go back and apply it to any long exposure image you’ve taken up until now.
Perhaps you visited Niagara falls or Havasu Falls in Arizona a few years ago and you happened to have Live Photos activated when taking your shots. You can swipe up and activate long exposure on any of those shots. You can even go into your “Live Photos” album in your gallery to see all the shots you’ve got on your phone that can be transformed into long exposures. My advice? Put a good podcast on, settle into a comfy chair and see what dreamy shots you can dig out of your library.
@HarryGuinness
Jun 8, 2018, 8:00 am EST | 4 min read
In long exposure photography, you take a picture with a slow shutter speed—generally somewhere between five and sixty seconds—so that any movement in the scene gets blurred. It’s a way to show the passage of time in a single image. Let’s look at how to do them right.
Long exposure photography is all about showing movement and time passing in a single photo; it’s one of the ways you can show motion in still images. While you can use long exposure times to take photos of subjects that you want to stay still—such as the night sky—these aren’t strictly long exposure images because, unless you’re deliberately shooting star trails, they don’t show motion.
The classic examples—and some of the most popular long exposure subjects—are photos of bodies of water like the sea or waterfalls. Look at the long exposure image below. I’ve used a shutter speed of 10 seconds to blur and smooth the water and clouds, giving them an ethereal quality. This is the long exposure look.
I took the next shot about ten minutes later. I’ve used a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second here, and you can see that the water and clouds look very different from the long exposure shot above.
The Technical Stuff
For a long exposure image, you’re really only after one thing: a slow shutter speed. You’ll start to get the long exposure look at around half a second for fast moving subjects, but generally, you’ll want a shutter speed of between ten and thirty seconds. For some photos, you might even want to go much longer. Every other decision you make will be in service to this goal.
A tripod is essential. Without one, you won’t be able to get sharp pictures at slow shutter speeds. So don’t leave home without your tripod.
Unless you have a compelling reason not to, always set your ISO to the camera’s native setting. For almost all cameras, that’s 100. This gives you the slowest shutter speeds and the highest quality images.
Aperture is a little trickier to set. With most lenses, you’ll start to see a drop in image quality after around f/18. Around f/16 is normally considered to offer the best balance between a slow shutter speed and a sharp image so it’s the best starting place for long exposure images. You normally want a large depth of field anyway.
If you’ve set your ISO to 100 and the aperture to f/16 and you still aren’t getting a slow enough shutter speed for the shot you want, you should consider using a neutral density filter instead of a tighter aperture or low ISO mode. Neutral density filters go in front of the lens and block between one and ten stops of light from entering the camera. For example, if you get a proper exposure with a shutter speed of one second without a ND filter, adding a three stop filter will take the shutter speed needed for a proper exposure to eight seconds; a six stop filter will take it to 64 seconds.
Most cameras have a maximum shutter speed of thirty seconds. If you want to go beyond this, you’ll need to use Bulb mode and time the exposure yourself.
Other Tips and Tricks
The best time to take long exposure photos are in the hours around sunrise and sunset. Not only do you get great light, but since there’s less of it, it’s easier to have slower shutter speeds. You can take long exposure shots at midday, but you’ll need to stack the ND filters.
The longer the exposure time, the more things will blur and the less texture and definition you’ll have in the moving areas of the image. You always need to find the right balance for the look you’re after. One day last year, I went to shoot waves breaking over a local pier. I originally started with a shutter speed of eight seconds and this was the result. It’s not great.
I was dramatically over estimating how long a shutter speed I wanted for the image I had in mind. Here’s a shot I took at 1/5th of a second. Much better.
Play around with different subjects. Water is one of the simplest and can lead to stunning results, but anything that moves can work. Bright objects that move at night—like cars or ferris wheels—are another easy starting place that look great.
Long exposure images work best when you have something moving contrasted with something totally stationary. This is why they’re so popular with landscape photographers. While the water looks cool in all the photos in this article, if it wasn’t for the rocks or landscapes, it would just look like a blurry mess.
Since you have to slow down anyway to take long exposure images, they’re a great time to put serious thought into composition. You can also use them as an opportunity to play around with limited color palettes.
Long exposure images are incredibly rewarding. They’re one of the few areas of photography where smartphone cameras just can’t compete. Most long exposure images are also landscapes, so be sure to check out our guide to great landscape photos as well.
.
Long exposure photography has become very popular in the last couple of years, getting a lot of coverage in landscape photography magazines and on photo sharing websites.
With the ever-increasing number of options for 10-stop neutral density (ND) filters on the market, there has never been a better time to give it a go.
However, taking photographs when using such high-density filters gives rise to a set of problems that you may not have previously considered, so this article is intended to give a few useful tips that I have picked up since starting my journey learning about long exposure photography.
First, a bit of Background…
Pitstone Windmill at sunset (ISO100, f/18, 118 s)
A fairly common 2-stop filter (often referred to as ‘ND4’) reduces the amount of light hitting the sensor by a factor of 4. A 3-stop (‘ND8’) filter by a factor of 8 and so on, until you get to 10-stops, when the light is being reduced by a factor of 1024, meaning that the shutter needs to be open for over 1000x longer than without the filter.
Whilst this is the reason that you get silky smooth water or clouds rushing across the sky, it is also the reason why your workflow will need to be adapted to overcome issues as a result of the huge reduction in light.
Derwent Water, Lake District, UK (ISO100, f/16, 67 s)
On to the Long Exposure Photography Tips…
Tip 1: Whilst a tripod is considered a baseline requirement for many landscape photographers, it is even more important when shooting with a 10-stop filter. Exposures can easily extend to greater than a couple of minutes, so it is vital that your tripod is as sturdy as can be. This typically means ensuring that the legs are stood on firm ground, the centre column is not extended and the strap is secured so not to catch the wind.
You will often read that people recommend hanging your camera bag from the tripod to add ballast weight, however I think that it can often act as a large sail and cause greater instability if windy, so I instead tend to place a beanbag (full of uncooked rice) on top of the camera to add extra weight, without significant additional surface area.
Tip 2: Given that the filter is incredibly dense, unless the conditions are really bright, there will not be enough light getting through to allow the autofocus to function. Therefore, it is best to compose and focus your shot without the filter, switch to manual focus and then carefully attach the filter. This way the lens will not hunt for focus when you press the shutter.
Tip 3: It is important to close the viewfinder shutter, or at least cover the viewfinder, to ensure accurate light metering (if shooting in an automatic exposure mode, such as aperture priority) and to prevent stray light from sneaking in during the exposure. I’m not sure how critical the second point is but given how much the auto-metering is affected by the open viewfinder, I no longer take the chance so ensure it is closed before taking my shot.
Tip 4: For exposures in excess of 60 seconds, you’ll need to be able to locate the ‘BULB’ mode of your camera. Switching to BULB enables you to open the shutter for as long as you choose, enabling really long exposures, meaning:
- You will most likely need a remote shutter release cable so that you can lock the shutter open for a given period of time (it’s a good idea to attach the remote release to the tripod using Velcro during the exposure, again to stop it from catching the wind and swinging around).
- You will most likely need a way of calculating how long to leave the shutter open for. In some cases, the maths is trivial (for example, if an exposure without the filter is ¼ s, when using a 10-stop filter it becomes 0.25 s x
1000 = 250 s, 250 s / 60 =
4 minutes) but in others it can be more difficult, and as the light conditions can change pretty quickly, a phone app (such as NDCalc for android/iOS) can come in very handy.
Tip 5: Choose the right conditions. Ideal conditions for long exposure photography are when there is dappled cloud and a strong wind (see Tip 1). If there are no clouds, or no wind, there will be nothing to add movement. I prefer to shoot around sunrise/sunset, as then the sun is low in the sky, increasing the contrast in the clouds, resulting in an exaggerated streaking effect in the final image.
Sunrise over the limestone pavement (ISO160, f/13, 50 s)
Tip 6: Even at low ISO, super long exposures can introduce noise in the form of hot pixels. You may not be able to see these when viewing the results on the LCD screen of your camera, but when viewed at 100 % on your computer monitor, you may find a number of bright red/green/blue pixels in your image.
An effective way to remove them is to take an exposure of identical length, at the same ISO, with the lens cap on. The hot pixels will be identical in all shots, almost like a finger print of your sensor, so by replicating the exposure with the lens cap on, you will generate an entirely black image, with the same hot pixels, to subtract away from your chosen image during post-processing.
Tip 7: Some brands of filter are known to leave more of a colour cast on the final image. This is a great reason (one of many) to shoot in RAW, as the colour casts can often be corrected during post-processing. Sometimes, for particularly long exposures, it may just irreversibly compromise an image and, in those instances, a black and white conversion is often the best way to overcome it.
Tip 8: A long exposure does not make up for poor composition. In fact, the you will probably be even more frustrated at the resulting photograph given the additional effort required to take and process it.
To Conclude…
Whilst I have discussed quite a few additional points to consider when taking long exposures with high-density ND filters, you soon learn to adapt them into your own work pattern that becomes routine. I find that taking long exposures often requires more planning, thought and processing than with my other photography, however the results can be breathtaking and are often worth it.
If you have any additional tips or issues that I haven’t mentioned here, I’d love to hear them in the comments.
.
In the past few years, thanks to the diffusion of useful accessories and photographic filters with good quality and low prices, the technique of long exposure has become increasingly popular among photography enthusiasts. Even if this technique can be used both in the studio and in an urban environment, the perfect playground for long exposures is landscape photography.
Unfortunately, it often happens that the result we get is far from our expectations, and we end up classifying the long exposure as an impossible technique. However, following this step-by-step guide to long exposure photography, you’ll see how easy it is to get a good result on the first attempt (or almost!).
Step One: Study the weather
A day with a cloudless sky is a good day to drink a beer with friends, not to make long exposures. Likewise, it cannot rain forever, so do not resign yourself to an afternoon with your PlayStation. You should study satellite images rather than the meteorological sites, trying to figure out if there is an incoming storm, or if the downpour is about to end.
Step Two: Visit the location well in advance
Scout the location ahead of time, as you need a lot of time to find the perfect composition, or at least more than the time needed for a “short exposure”. In fact, in a long exposure, the world is completely different from how you see it with your own eyes. You have to try to see it with your mind, looking for a harmonious composition that includes moving subjects, trying to predict the direction of the clouds or the force of the sea.
Try not to put the sun into the composition, because its movement will ruin the shot and it will create an area of overexposure that is not recoverable. If you cannot avoid the sun, wait for it to hide behind a cloud.
Step Three: Use a tripod
Mount your camera on a tripod and install all the accessories such as the remote shutter release and the filter holder (if you are using drop-in filters). However, wait to actually install the filters. This is very important!
Step Four: Compose the image and lock focus
Refine your composition, focus on the subject, and lock the focus. If you are using manual focus, go ahead and turn the lens’s focus ring.
If you are using your camera’s autofocus mode, you should focus by half-pressing the shutter button, and once the focus has been made, while still holding down the shutter button halfway, push the lever from Auto Focus to Manual. In this way, your camera will maintain the focus (alternately, you could use back-button focus).
Step Five: Set the exposure
Now set your camera to Manual (M) mode or Aperture Priority (A/Av) mode. Then set the aperture to an appropriate value for the scene (for landscapes I suggest between f/8 and f/11) and take a “test shot.”
The test is complete when you get a correct exposure. To determine if the exposure is correct, check the histogram (do not trust your display, it is too bright). It is true that there is no universally correct result on the histogram, but there are histograms that are universally incorrect, namely moved completely to the right or left side (the image is respectively overexposed or underexposed).
Once the test shot is successful, write down the shutter speed you used for that shot.
Step Six: Add your filter
Now add your Neutral Density (ND) filter. If the filter is very strong (10 stops, for example), you will not be able to see through the viewfinder or the Live View. Do not worry, because if you have followed the guide up to this point you will notice that we have already made the composition and the focus too. You are blind, but your camera will see everything perfectly.
Step Seven: Change to Bulb mode
Set the shooting mode to Bulb (B) in order to discard the thirty-second limit of the camera. Do not change any of the other settings (ISO and aperture) used in the test shot.
Step Eight: Take your long exposure shot
It is finally time to take our long exposure shot.
But how long will you need to leave the shutter open? It is less difficult than you might expect. First of all, recollect the shutter speed that you noted down from the “test shot” you did in Step Five above. Now you must compensate by the number of stops introduced by the filter.
For example, if your test shot was 1/15th of a second, adding 10 stops will get a shutter speed of approximately 60 seconds. Now you have your shutter speed!
(No need to get stuck in the mathematics: On the internet you can easily find conversion tables and applications for your smartphone that will do the conversion for you.)
Step Nine: Check the histogram again
Once you’ve taken the shot with the calculated shutter speed, check the histogram. If the new histogram is approximately equal to the histogram of the test shot, mission accomplished. If it is shifted too far to the right or to the left, repeat the shot again correcting the shutter speed.
Easy, isn’t it? Now fill your backpack with your camera and filters and go to practice in the field!
Take Your Night Photography to the Next Level!
A useful technique in night photography is the long exposure.
The effects that can be captured with a long exposure are stunning and have an ethereal quality.
The most important tool that you will need is a sturdy tripod, along with a DSLR camera that allows for long exposures.
Photographing the Ferris Wheel
To photograph a Ferris wheel at night, move close and use a wide-angle lens to get as much detail as possible. Place your camera on a tripod and frame the image.
Because we want all the elements to be sharp, choose a small aperture between f/11-f/32. Set your camera to either Manual or TV (Shutter Priority) mode and select a shutter speed according to the speed of the lighted Ferris wheel, and the style you are after (anywhere between 1-30 seconds).
You should take the image using the camera’s self timer or a cable release so that you avoid touching and jiggling the camera. The image captured will be full of light trails against a black sky, yet the center beams that hold the wheel will be sharp.
Making Star Trails
A long exposure on a starry night can produce beautiful light trails created by the stars and the rotation of the earth.
The best way to frame the image is to include an element of interest such as an old tree in the foreground. Place your camera on a tripod and focus the lens to infinity. You’ll want to use a cable release to eliminate camera shake of any kind, as it will RUIN your photo.
Set the camera to B “Bulb” shooting mode and set your aperture between f/2.8 – f/4 for optimal results. Depress the remote to open the shutter. You should keep your ISO at 100 to keep the digital noise at a minimum. To complete the photo after your desired elapsed time, depress the remote again, and release the shutter. These exposures can be 15 minutes to several hours long.
Stunning Light Trails
Traffic head light and tail light trails give a stunning effect and are a great way to get acquainted with long exposure times.
Select a busy road that has lots of traffic at night. Use a sturdy tripod and position the camera so that it has an overview of the area. Use a small aperture of f/16 or smaller for a greater depth of field, making most of the image in focus.
The longer the exposure, the more lines will appear and the longer they will look.
Blurry Sea Waters
To capture that dramatic look of the ocean and the sky, you should utilize the fantastic light of “the golden hour,” the last hour before the sun sets.
Follow the basics of night photography – place the camera on a tripod, use a wide-angle lens with the smallest aperture possible, and focus to infinity. Turn the camera’s mode dial to Manual or Bulb shooting mode and use a slow shutter speed (5-30 seconds) for a longer exposure. The longer the exposure, the mistier the water appears.
Use your camera’s self-timer or a cable release to take the photo with absolutely no blurring. Don’t use flash because it could ruin the effect in the image.
Determining Exposure
The exposure of your night time image will vary depending on certain factors. If there is a lot of ambient light, then the shutter speed will be shorter. If you are shooting somewhere very dark, then the shutter speed will need to be longer.
To capture the effects of light trails you need a shutter speed of at least 1/15th of a second, which means you must use a tripod. The image of the Houses of Parliament required a 6 second shutter speed, which is slow enough to capture the traffic trails. The f/8 aperture allowed the building to be sharp.
The more you practice, the more you will become tuned to the exposure you need for the effect you want.
Recommended Settings
The main thing to keep in mind while deciding on the correct exposure is how to capture both the shadows as well as the highlights.
If you are successful in obtaining the right shadows, you will be able to produce an excellent night scene that will win you compliments. When taking long exposures, the key is to keep the shutter open only long enough for the desired effect. If you keep the shutter open too long, you’ll lose the details in whatever light source is illuminating your subject, and you might even lose the ability to identify what the subject is.
When trying to create a light trail, the shutter should be open for at least 1 second, and therefore requires a tripod. Use shutter priority mode and start with 1 second shutter speed and see what the result is; if the trail is too short, add 2 seconds, and then keep adding 2 seconds until you get the lighting effect that you want (the beauty of digital photography is that you’ll know immediately). If you have too much blurring, then your shutter was open too long, and you need to dial it back down maybe a full second.
Recommended Equipment
In addition to your digital camera, you need a sturdy tripod to take good night photographs. This will ensure you stabilize your camera firmly, thereby avoiding blurriness in your pictures.
We recommend the AmazonBasics 60-inch Portable Tripod as an excellent entry-level option for taking long exposure captures.
Conclusion
Taking long exposure images at night can be perfected with practice and by learning to recognize the lighting conditions and how to adjust the camera to meet those conditions.
Depending on what you have to work with, your shutter speed can be anything from 1/60th of a second to several minutes.
What makes long exposure images unique is that each image is unique, since light trails move in unusual ways, and with practice, you should have a collection of photos that are truly one of a kind.
(Pocket-lint) – If you’ve ever looked at photos of your friends painting their name with light Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, or any other social network feed. Or if they’ve managed to shoot a starry night sky that actually looks good, and wondered how to do it yourself, the answer is long exposure photos. And it’s actually quite simple, once you know where to find the settings, and have the right equipment.
Long exposure on smartphone: What you need
Before you get started with the process of taking long exposure shots on your smartphone there are some essential pieces of kit you should have, because it doesn’t matter how steady your hands are, even the smallest vibration will be enough to ruin the photo. In short, you need something to mount your phone on, to keep it still.
A mount – if you have a tripod already:
A tripod – If you don’t have one already:
- Joby GripTight GorillaPod Stand – £19.99 from Amazon.co.uk or $19.95 from Amazon.com
- Manfrotto PIXI Mini Tripod – £17.95 from Amazon.co.uk or $15.99 from Amazon.com
- Manfrotto BeFree carbon (light/easy to carry around) – £198 from Amazon.co.uk
A memory card – if you need extra storage space:
Why take long exposures on your smartphone?
For those who look at the phrase “long exposure” and think it’s some photographer jargon, it basically means holding the shutter open for longer than usual. It enables the kinds of effects you can’t get by just pointing and shooting at something, and means you can take better photographs in extremely low light situations.
You can create light trails, cool cloud-like effects shooting moving water, create your own “ghost” photos, or just shoot really great photos of the night sky laden with stars.
Long exposures on smartphone: The method
1. Find your manual mode
A lot of modern Android smartphones now have manual controls built into their camera apps. Whether you go with something from Huawei, OnePlus, Samsung, LG or others, there are plenty out there already capable of taking a long exposure photograph. Head to your default camera app, look through the camera modes and see if there’s one named “manual” or “pro”.
2. Locate shutter speed
We’ve been using the LG G6, Huawei P10 and OnePlus 3T in our testing, among other cameras. Once manual mode is activated, you’ll see a number of options. The most important to take note of are the ISO and Shutter Speed settings. Shutter Speed is normally indicated using a shutter icon (circle formed of interlocking segments), or an “S”.
Once you tap on the shutter speed icon you’ll get a list of speeds, ranging from fractions of seconds as fast as 1/3200 of a second, all the way up to 30 seconds. Needless to say, the longer the exposure you choose, the more time the sensor is exposed to light.
3. Adjust ISO
This is why it’s also important to adjust the ISO, which defines how sensitive the sensor is to light – it’s a hangover from the days of film. With a really high ISO, you not only run the risk of over-exposing/having too much light and ending up with a bright white image, with no detail, but also you will increase how much noise appears. For any long exposure, it’s good to take the ISO relatively low. For most of ours with the G6 we selected one of the two lowest options: 50 or 100.
4. No manual mode? There’s an app for that
If you don’t have a manual mode, either because you have an iPhone or a lower-end Android, there are third party apps available.
- Manual Camera on Android (FREE – Play Store link) is compatible with a lot of phones.
- Slow Shutter Cam (£1.99 – App Store link) on iOS is designed specifically for these long exposures.
Pocket-lint
Long exposures: Starry Nights
Taking your tripod, pointing it up to a clear night sky and taking a picture without a long exposure normally means a grainy, noisy picture showing no discernible stars. Set the shutter speed to 20 or 30 seconds, tune down the ISO to its lowest settings and then be amazed as it uncovers stars you can’t even see with your eyes.
Long exposures: Ghosts
The technique for creating ghostly images (ie. semi transparent people) is the same as taking any other long exposure shot. The only difference being that you have to ask your subject to stand still for a few seconds, then get them to move away really quickly out of shot. If your subject is a child, that latter part can be a challenge.
With the photo above we set up a five second exposure, and got the subject to move away after three seconds. With a slightly slower moving child, as you can see, it creates ghostly, whispie trails which kinda add to the effect.
Long exposures: Light painting and light trails
Using the same combination of long exposure and low ISO, you can point a flashlight towards the camera and use it to paint your name in the air. Some phones, like Huawei phones for instance, have a light painting mode optimised for this, but it can be done manually.
- Special CES 2021 edition – Pocket-lint Podcast 86
The same technique can be applied to busy roads at night time, which will then give you those red and white light trails with “ghost” cars.
Long exposures: Cloudy/frosty water
Bodies of water, whether they be lakes, the sea, waterfalls, rivers or just running water from a tap can create a really eerie cloudy effect using a long exposure photo. Since it’s transparent, the movement can make the water seem cloudy or milky when a camera shutter is open for a few seconds.
The only tricky part is ensuring light levels aren’t too high. With a 2-3 second exposure you can often end up with a completely bleached image if you take it in the day time, even with the ISO set at 50. So your best bet is heading out at sunset or sunrise, when it’s not completely dark, but just enough light to capture something.
.
Long exposure photography is something that has the potential to create some amazing results. We’ve written on the topic numerous times (see links below) in our archives but to whet your appetite – here’s some great long exposure images.
photo by MumbleyJoe – exposure: 114 sec
Image by Matthew Fang – Exposure: 117.4 sec
image by Paulo Brandão – exposure time: 124 sec
photography by BUR?BLUE – Exposure: 656 sec
Image by Nrbelex – Exposure: Not Given
Photo by MumbleyJoe – Exposure: 20 sec
Image by Insight Imaging: John A Ryan Photography – Exposure: 30 sec
by MumbleyJoe – Exposure: 31.9 sec
Photography by Sara Heinrichs – Exposure: 20 sec
Image by [email protected] – Exposure: 60 minutes
Photo by Express Monorail (°O°Joe) – Exposure: 10.9 sec
by Andrew Stawarz – Exposure: Composite of 100 shots – each of 30 seconds
Photo by Thomas Anderson – Exposure: approximately 5 minutes
- 09 February 2016
- in:Article,Photography,Tips, Tricks & How-To
- Tags: editing, grading, how to, inspire, lesson, lightroom, long exposure, multirotorpodcast, New Technologies, night, P3P, phantom, photography, pro, school, tech support, tips, tutorial, uav, video, watch
- note:2 comments
Long exposure photography has always been primarily done with a tripod, but as the drone and gimbal stabilization tech evolves, it is now possible to get amazing long exposure shots even from small consumer and prosumer drones. Follow these five easy tips for great long exposure night shots your friends will love:
1. Pick a location – urban settings with active roads/highways are the most popular for long exposure night photography. Since flying over people is not advisable, find an open area (park, water) that you can safely fly over. Bridges are also a great subject for long exposure shots as they are often architecturally interesting, lit at night, and with ample room to fly around them while keeping your drone safely over water.
2. Plan your shoot – scout your planned location beforehand, preferably in daylight. Choose your launch and landing spot, and note any obstacles (trees, wires) that you may have difficulties seeing at night. Check for proximity to any airports. Also, areas that may seem safe in daylight may take on a different personality at night, bringing a friend is always a good idea. Pick a calm night – while your drone may do a great job stabilizing the image, long shutter speeds used in long exposure photography may require the camera to stay steady for 2-4 seconds, which is really difficult in windy conditions.
3. Set your camera for night shots – switch your camera to manual setting, keep the ISO at 100 (200 max) to keep the image noise down. Then experiment with different shutter speeds from 1.5s – 4s. I find the car light trails to look the best at 2-2.5sec shutter speeds, but it really depends on the speed at which the cars are moving. The scene is mostly black, so your camera will likely tell you that it is under-exposed (by as much as 2 stops). You can ignore this warning and instead check your shots visually for proper exposure. White balance is also important. Your camera will likely make things seem too “hot” with white balance left in “auto”, you can set it manually to 2000-3000k, and then adjust as needed in post.
4. Take multiple shots and save them as DNG (RAW) – use DNG format if your camera supports it, this RAW format saves the most information for post-processing. Take multiple images as many of them will come out blurry. Ideally, only moving objects should leave light trails.
5. Experiment with post-processing to get the most out of your long exposure shots – the long exposure shots can really benefit from a little editing. Experiment with different white balance settings, bring out more detail in dark areas, remove low light image noise, and try selective color saturation to give your night shots a unique look. Check out our quick Long Exposure Drone Photo editing tutorial to learn how to edit your long exposure shots like a pro!
Connect & Comment below! We’d love to hear from you with questions, your own tips for long exposure photography, and your ideas and requests for future tutorials.
Yeah, neither do we, but it keeps the lights on. Get an ad-free experience, support The Outbound, and snag a bunch of other perks by subscribing for only $29.99/year.
We have all seen those epic shots of the ocean that show the movement of the water. Turns out capturing that scene is easier than you think! Here are 6 tips to help you get the shot.
1. Find a Rocky Beach.
The coolest part of taking a long exposure shot of the ocean is seeing the patterns of the current. These patterns are exacerbated by structures in the water. Look for beaches with piers, rocks, or anything else that can help funnel or facilitate that epic water movement!
2. Try for a Cloudy Day.
If you can, try and shoot your long exposure on an overcast day. Not only will this help ensure that your photo isn’t overexposed, but capturing the movement of the clouds makes for a truly epic shot. Not to mention, clouds tend to make sunsets even more beautiful.
3. Filters! Filters! Filters!
This is huge. Long exposure photography during daylight hours is frustrating and next to impossible. 99% of the time, without a filter, the photo comes out incredibly overexposed, since you have slowed the shutter speed down. Neutral Density (ND) Filters usually come in 2 to 10 stops. For my long exposure shots, I use an 8 stop ND filter.
As ND filters can make things pretty dark through the viewfinder, It is usually better to set up your shot before adding the filter. However, sometimes the surprise is worth it!
4. Stabilize Your Tripod in the Sand.
If you’re taking a long exposure of the ocean, chances are, there will be some wind. I like to bury my tripod legs in the sand a little, just to make sure that the tripod is stabilized.
5. Play with Your Shutter Speed!
Slowing down and speeding up your shutter speed can do some cool stuff with the ocean water!
- A long exposure (>10 seconds) will give you the flat serene seas. However, with longer shutter speeds you are going a higher ND filter (around 10 stops).
- A medium length exposure (2-9 seconds) gives you the movement of the water. I tend to keep my shutter speed in this range; the movement of the water is so cool to see.
Remember, to get the perfect shot with a long shutter speed, you are going to need to change your ISO and aperture. You are going to want a low ISO, usually 100, and a smaller aperture (I used f/11).
6. Use a wide angle lens
Although this is not required, for landscape/ocean photography wide angle lens simply captures more. Wide angle lenses also tend to add a sense of depth to the photo as they make the horizon seem further away than it really is. This makes for amazing ocean photos.
We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!
Do you love the outdoors?
Yep, us too. That’s why we send you the best local adventures, stories, and expert advice, right to your inbox.
