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Another facet of surreal photography: Long exposure

Love affair: the Moon and the Tree

Long exposure has become extremely popular with digital photography. The explanation: today everyone can visualize his pictures on the screen of his camera, whereas before the result of the exposure time could only be seen after printing. This gives us, on the internet, countless numbers of seaside pictures with stunning views of pebbles, looking very much alike.

Long exposure can be used to add a movement effect or, for instance, to make the public in a museum disappear.

The tree picture opposite was taken with long exposure in order to mask (with the moving clouds) the harsh light of the moon.

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A tripod (not required but useful).
A camera, with a SLR being the best option for "all manual".
A lens, preferably wide angle (14 to 50 mm).
A remote control will be a plus but is not essential.
A neutral density filter (ND).

Reminder on the coefficients of the ND filters:
ND2, exposure time multiplied by 2 or -1 diaphragm
ND4, exposure time multiplied by 4 or -2 diaphragms
ND8, exposure time multiplied by 8 or -3 diaphragms
ND400, exposure time multiplied by 512 or -9 diaphragms,
ND1000, exposure time multiplied by 1024 or -10 diaphragms.

Choose a location and weather conditions with a high potential for movement.

Attach the camera to the tripod (or to the selected stand). Choose the lens, frame and compose your shot, and focus.

Disengage the autofocus function and turn off the lens stabilization function.

Lower the ISO to the minimum allowed by your DSLR.

Switch to aperture priority mode and choose your aperture f/8 - f/16.

Take note of the current speed.

Mount the filter on the lens. If it is a screw-on filter, be careful not to change the focus.

You will now have to calculate the new exposure time. For this, apply the following formula: T (exposure time without filter) x coefficient (multiplying factor of your filter) = final exposure time. If the speed is 1/100s and the filter used ND1000, then: 1/100 x 1024 is approximately 10 seconds. See the coefficients in the Equipment section.

If the exposure time exceeds 30 seconds, it will be necessary to switch to "bulb" mode and time the shutter speed. If you do not have a remote control (wired or wireless), you will need to turn the camera off and on again between each picture.

To reduce vibrations to a minimum, take the picture with a remote control or with the "self-timer" function.

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30 seconds. Panning cloud motion and movement in the grass.

25 seconds. Description of the activity of the place.

5 seconds. Reduction of the crowd, movement of the marry-go-round.

4 seconds. Movement of the marry-go-round, creating an abstract image.

13 seconds. Diffuse rendering of the natural environment in contrast with human intervention.

8 seconds. Removal of the crowd, panning cloud motion.