How to shoot long exposures

Thought I would share some basic tips on how and what you need to shoot long exposure photography. I love to show motion in my photography and its fun to shoot long exposures because you never quite know what the image is going to look like until its completed.

In the video below I go over some tips and tricks to get you started


Here's a few examples of using this technique with shutter ranges of between 1/4th of a second to 30 seconds and right down to 5 minutes with the help of very dark ND filters.


Things you need for long exposure photography
(Links below are all to the items I recommend on Amazon.com. Using these links also helps my business and won't cost you anything extra!)

Obviously a camera that the shutter can be set manually.

A nice solid tripod. I use the Induro carbon fiber tripod. You can find it and others and this Amazon link http://tinyurl.com/p2qnt8r

Neutral Density filter (ND filter) I use filters with various "darkness" levels or "stops" ranging from ND2, ND4, ND8 which will allow you to get shutter speeds in the range of around 30th/second to around 1 second on cloudy days. For super long 30 second or so exposures or so you will need to get a super dark 10 stop filter like this one from B+W a very good filter company.  http://tinyurl.com/o86xhun

Cable release. A cable release is a good accessory to have for your landscape photography even if your not shooting long exposures as it allows you to trigger the shutter without having to touch the camera and risk camera shake. But the main advantage of a cable release is that you can lock the shutter open and make exposures in excess of 30 seconds.
Here's the one I use for Canon http://tinyurl.com/mznar26 
Or for Nikon here http://tinyurl.com/lj7qh7b

Another point you want to keep in mind is covering the viewfinder if shooting in daylight. Light can leak in through the viewfinder and effect your exposure so you want to block it with your hand, a hat or some camera straps come with a little eyepiece cover attached to them just for this purpose.

Get out there and experiment with various moving subjects and have some fun!