Long exposure help needed.

Grape7

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Colin
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Recently on here there was a long exposure photo of a watch that had all the 60 second hands showing.

I tried this but despite trying loads of settings it always came out white :(

What settings should I be using for this type of shot?

I was using a Canon 650D on a tripod with a Sigma 70-300 macro.

Thanks
 
From the sounds of it there were 60 shots taken and blended in software.

Nick.
 
You'll need to fire your flashgun once every second. But that will still have the second hand seem ghostly while over exposing the other parts of the watch.

Proper way is to take 60 shots and then combine them in post processing.
 
Hi Grape7,

I can not profess to give you to exact answer you are looking for as I have no first hand experience with this kind of photography however I can cast a line to give you an idea as to what you might need to do.

I am guessing that the photographer who took the initial shot you are trying to emulate may have taken a separate image every second and layered them together (in photoshop). If you try the technique above you may get blurred second hands as the movement will be tracked while the shutter is open.

If you do want to try exposing for 60 seconds try the solution below...

First of all, ensure you are taking the photograph in RAW and not JPEG - its easier to edit afterwards as there is a lot more photographic information in the file. And ensure you are taking the photograph in fully manual mode, this way you will have control of all the settings required.

secondly, if the image is coming out white, you need to compensate for the amount of light which is being let in to your camera. Your opening the shutter for a very long time, if there is even ambient lighting in the room the camera will soak up the light and over expose your image.

For instance, close the aperture to about F16/18 (you may need to play around with this setting depending on how much light you have in the room)

Turn off most of your lights and just have a very low (lower than ambient) light in the room, this way the 400d will be able to find a focusing point on the watch.


Give it a go and let me know what your results are.

I hope I have helped....

Colin
 
What watch was it?
Modern quarts timed electric watches, the second hand is times to complete one revolution per minute. It moves in a continiouse arc around the dial, not stoping at any one number.
Old clock-work watches have an escape mechanism; the second hand moves in a series of jerks, between each number increment, halting briefly between each latch of the escape mechanism, timed by the pendulum.
On cheap clockwork watches of antiquity, the escape mechanism, would latch every second, halting hand by each number. More expensive watches to give a smoother action, would increment in maybe 1/2 second latches, while Rolex were very proud that their perpetual, self winding watches has a secondhand that moved in 1/3 second increments.
I have a Jeager, and people keep telling me its stopped, becouse the 'second hand' goes round the dial once a month! (the outer dial is the date hand; seconds are measured on a small inset dial) :lol:
Anyhow.... after all that effort to make a mechanical watch second hand move smothly, like it wasn't being latched, being perfectly achieved by quartz timed electronic watches..... people grumbled that the perfectly smooth continiouse arc was a tell of a cheap watch... and wanted ones that had second hands that moved in jerks again! (good going Rolex!)
So, watch makers started using stepper motors, that did just that and halted the second hand briefly between increments.

So, the starting point is, does your watch actually stop every second or half second? Becouse if not.... the 60 pictures will be the only way to get the effect you want, as other wise the hand will merely define a blur accross the dial.

Next; may be easier to remove battery, or let spring wind down so that the watch is stopped, and move it on 1s a time to take each picture, rather the trying to catch 60 individual frames at exactly 1s intervals as the needle goes round! Read the instructions.... it may not even be possible..... or easily.

I seem to recall an ad photographer, explaining a prize shot for one of the watch makers explaining they had to remove the watch glass in order to photrograph it without reflections, and to be able to move the hands where wanted.

But, I have taken a 60 second sweep by long exposure of a small electric alarm clock.

Annoyingly my timing was off, and I never managed exactly 60 second... I got just under a full revolution, or just over a full revolution, never exactly a full revolution... and I got blur between the main increments, and a double ring, as the tail of the second hand was counterbalanced.... and I seem to recall removing the glass against reflections.

However, did 'work' give or take, the stopped hands, remaining over the numbers long enough to record an image.

Helped that the second hand was white, and the face black; exposing to get the second hand, I think I got an EV for a 1s exposure of the whole clock; estimated that the white hand would probably still record at 1/4 second, so stopped and filtered down to 1/4 of the original 1s EV, then held it on B the full 60 ish second.... I think. It was probably near twenty years ago I did it... and I cant find scans of the pics..

But those are the principles, and first thing is to know what the clock or watch is doing, mechanics wise, and whether the second hand will even stop to record an exposure by each number for you.
 
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