Are you addicted to long exposure photos like I am?

[Cutter]

I salivate whenever I am presented with an opportunity to shoot a long exposure photograph. Fireworks, waterfalls, tail lights of a car, anything.. I love it.
Heres what I'm talk'n about:

http://www.chrisfullilove.com/landscape/rmnp_cascades1.jpg

http://www.chrisfullilove.com/landscape/rmnp_fern_falls.jpg

http://www.chrisfullilove.com/fireworks/4th_July_Firework_5.jpg

http://www.lan-lord.com/~chris/pool_contest5.jpg

Post up some of your long exposure shots

[BillLovesFishin]

Those are beautiful. Did ya take tem with a digital camera? If so, can you give me some pointers?

Billy

[Newt]

I'm not addicted. However long exposure shots certainly have their place. I'm sort of handicapped now. As my tripod cratered on me.

[Cutter]

Hey Bill,
Yeah I took those with a digital. Taking a long exposure photo is pretty easy. You have to use a tripod. Also, your camera has to have a shutter priority setting. Shooting in low light is easiest. Basically dial your camera's shutter setting to be open for a couple seconds, and then capture the photo. Usually it will take a couple shots to get the proper amount of light. In other words, it the photo is too dark, leave the shutter open longer, if the photo is too bright, leave the shutter open a shorter period of time.

If you want a long exposure during the middle of the day (like the waterfall shots), you have to do a couple tricks because leaving the shutter open for a long period of time will gather too much light and overexpose the photo. You will have to reduce the amount of light coming into the lens so that you can leave the shutter open longer. (that is what gives that silky look in the water). In order to reduce the amount of light, I use an ND+8 filter. This is basically a grey filter that allows less light coming in, and allows me to leave the shutter open longer without over exposing the photo.

The above photos had the following settings (all shot in shutter priority mode):
1.) 4 seconds, f8 (used ND+8 filter)
2.) 4 seconds, f8 (used ND+8 filter)
3.) 4 seconds, f8
4.) 30 seconds, f8 (stacked ND+8, ND+4, polarizer)

[BillLovesFishin]

Thanks Cutter. When I get home this evening I'm gonna give it a try. If I get any good pics I'll post them tomorrow. First I'll have to figure out how to change my shutter speeds. I've had my camera for 2 years and I just use the auto settings.

[bill]

Is your website whitetail photography? There are some very nice shots there, I went over and had a look this morning. Good instructions and images.

[Cutter]

yeah, http://www.whitetail-photography.com is my portfolio.

[pelican]

Ditto on the nice site, Cutter. I'd seen it once before, but took some time today to read the tips. Like Newt, gotta get a tri or mono pod to get success on some of the pics I've tried ...

[bill]

I knew I had seen them somewhere just had to put two and two together. Again, very nice pic's.

[Farmer Jim]

Here's a sort of interesting one. I apologize for the quality, but it is scanned from a very old print. It was taken 37 years ago in Vietnam with a Petri 35mm placed on a sandbag and set with a 2 second exposure. It is a night time firefight about a mile and a half from our position. The bright illumination in the center is a flare dropped by a helicopter over the fightfight. The red lines coming from each side to the ground are bursts of tracer fire from helicopter gunships and the bright flashes on the ground are rocket impacts.

There is a kind of erie effect created by the reflection of the flare off of some abandoned buildings on the right of the photo. These were the terminal buildings of an old French airfield and they are between where I was and the firefight, only about 1/4 mile away.

[seawings]

Farmer Jim:

Cool shot! I have some similar shots, night shots that is, of tracers coming in and bouncing off the ground during a training exercise (training in VN??..I know sounds crazy). These are all slides and I just purchased a scanner that will convert slides, however, I haven’t used it yet and not sure how to convert the slides. These slides were shot using a tripod, I would just open the lens and see what I would get. Now I have to dig through those boxes of slides and see if I can find them.

[Cutter]

FJ, that photo is awesome. Also, thanks for the first hand explanation and your service.