Long exposures

Pinkbikerbabe

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Mandy
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I would like to try my hand at some long exposures when I get the chance my camera will be my 600d. I would be very thankful if anyone could point me in the right direction settings wise and if there are any tutorials I can watch or print out and read.
 
I would like to try my hand at some long exposures when I get the chance my camera will be my 600d. I would be very thankful if anyone could point me in the right direction settings wise and if there are any tutorials I can watch or print out and read.

Depends on they type of long exposure you want to do Mandy, simplest thing to do is stick the camera in bulb, dial in f/16 and ISO100 and just play around for a bit, you'll soon get an idea on how long that will let you run then start changing settings to either increase or decrease your exposure or change or DoF etc...it's a lot of fun

Four of the main long exposure at night genres are in my signature in the form of guides but you've also got daylight exposures with the use of dark filters...

Ask your questions if I can help I will :)
 
If doing long exposures in daylight, make sure you use the viewfinder blind/cover.
This was deliberately shot to see the effect of sunlight falling on an open VF window during a 10s exposure.

leakage
by gpn63, on Flickr
 
Smoothing the water out is an effect that personally I love but some loath :lol: your ND will really help you in the day time but in the early evening you can often get enough movement without any filters...the key thing for me is not to loose details in the bright/highlights that you naturally tend to get in this type of photo, often I'll tend to expose for the bright bits and then pull out the shadow/darker areas in post
 
Smoothing the water out is an effect that personally I love but some loath :lol: your ND will really help you in the day time but in the early evening you can often get enough movement without any filters...the key thing for me is not to loose details in the bright/highlights that you naturally tend to get in this type of photo, often I'll tend to expose for the bright bits and then pull out the shadow/darker areas in post

Thanks for that I have taken the liberty of printing out your star trails and light trail guides on here, so I am going to have a go at that at some point. I plan to be going here there and everywhere in the warmer weather, so I am planning to get ahead off my self by getting to grips with settings now.
 
Thanks for that I have taken the liberty of printing out your star trails and light trail guides on here, so I am going to have a go at that at some point. I plan to be going here there and everywhere in the warmer weather, so I am planning to get ahead off my self by getting to grips with settings now.

Hey that is what they're there for :thumbs: I've been really out of action this year not being able to do nearly as much shooting as I'd have like to have done :sulk: so I'm glad your making your plans :)
 
Hey that is what they're there for :thumbs: I've been really out of action this year not being able to do nearly as much shooting as I'd have like to have done :sulk: so I'm glad your making your plans :)

Yes I have found the two I printed out very useful, I wanted to be out today but my bikes low on fuel. Plus I had a mammoth task in going through my images and renaming files on my external as I only have one external so had to free up some space. Task completed my Lightroom now looks much tidier, so I have spent the afternoon reading up on things. I don't want to wait till I get to a venue and starting then and heading home with images only fit for the recycling bin.
 
Hi, It depends on how slow you want to go, when the light is not so good towards the end of the day then F22 may get you what you want but to slow water sea/tap or river you really IMO need an ND filter, not necessarily 9 or 10 stop type although the attached photos where taken with the B&W 9 stop filter a ND .9 will do the job for you, will give you 3 stops extra and will flatten out water well.
With the 600D you have also the advantage of using live view, this will give you the option to view via your screen on the back of the camera without having to remove the filter from the lens for composition.
But be aware there is catch as you can see in photo No2 "NOISE" due to the long exposure especially in the sky.
Russ
View attachment 1634 View attachment 1635
 
A few pointers. One of the main things to watch out for is movement of any kind. You want to lock your mirror to reduce vibration. On the 600 (my first dslr) the easy way to do this is to set it to live mode. You also want to use a cable release to make sure you are not touching the camera during exposure. I use manual focus for these shots. I will pick my focus spot and magnify the screen so that I get a good view of that spot and can focus clearly. I like to take multiple shots adding and taking away light because a lot if the time the one that I end up liking is not the one "properly" exposed. I'm sure there is more but I'm drawing a blank right now. I need to go out for some night shots.
 
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