5 Tips to Improve Your Daytime Long Exposure Photography
The first day with my new camera I couldn’t wait to get out and start taking pictures of water. I absolutely love the mountains, but I have always been inexplicably drawn to water. One effect in the photos I admire is the use of long exposure photography to capture the different forms of water. Maybe the most interesting property of water is the force its movement exerts. It shapes the face of our planet, moves around and through every living thing, gives and takes life. Capturing that movement, capturing that force, that was what interested me. But how do I get there? Here are the five things I wish I had known before I started shooting long exposure photography.
Use an external shutter - Using an external shutter will allow you to depress the shutter button via a remote which eliminates camera shake. Believe it or not, just the act of pressing the shutter can cause shake and blur on long exposure shots because the camera is more sensitive to the movement. To get technical, when the shutter speed is slower, the shutter is open and letting light in for longer, therefore capturing any minute movement. You want to eliminate any chance of this, and with how cheap and easy external shutters are to pick up this one is a no brainer to always have in your camera bag.
Use neutral density filters - This is one I had NO idea about when I first started out. I had seen all of these amazing images of silky waterfalls, and what looked like in-motion waves sweeping out from the beach, and I could not understand why when I closed my aperture as small as possible, and had my ISO as low as possible, I still couldn’t get to an image of smooth water before it was completely overexposed. Some research revealed what I knew to be true - I was missing something, and that something was a neutral density filter. Essentially, ND filters allow you to stop down your exposure by different amounts depending on the filter, so that you can take long exposure images at different apertures during the daytime without overexposing your images. The ones I use the most often are an ND64 and ND 1000 for smoothing water to varying degrees, and ND10000 for smoothing clouds (can also be used for solar imaging).
Use a tripod - A tripod is probably the most obvious one here, but if you need an external shutter to avoid camera shake, you’re definitely going to need a tripod. I’m not a pro, so I’m sure there is an argument for the massively expensive ones out there, but I got one off of Amazon for under $100 and I’ve been able to use it in and around the ocean, on mountain sides, and everything in between with no issue. A few things I looked for specifically were sturdiness, size, and weight, since I knew I would be hiking and traveling with mine a lot. The best tripod is the one you’ll bring with you, not the most expensive one you can find.
Be prepared for luck to play a part - Planning is one of the most important aspects of photography. It allows you to set yourself up for the best possible position and scenario…so that you can be there when luck strikes. There is just no way of knowing exactly what the clouds will look like and if they will be exactly where you want them to, or how the water will cooperate with you that day, or how intense the sunrise or sunsets will end up being. These days you can plan ahead with a greater degree of precision than ever before, there are tools like Photopills that help with this. But there will just be some days where nature doesn’t cooperate, and that’s okay too. Days like those are usually the ones that stretch my creativity in new and interesting ways, so don’t discount the days you’re ready to write off.
Don’t be afraid to use different shutter speeds - One mistake I used to make when I first started shooting was I would find a shutter speed I thought looked great when reviewing my images on screen, and then I would get back home and not actually love the shutter speed I had shot EVERY SHOT at. What’s worked for me is finding the composition and then playing with different shutter speeds for each composition. I’m sure that a photographer with years under their belt knows what works for them, but if you are new to long exposure you will need to play around with things a bit until you know what works for you, your taste, and your style.
There they are - five tips I wish I’d known before I began shooting long exposure photography. I’m sure you will be aware of most, if not all of of these, if you are a seasoned photographer, but these are the things I wish someone had told me when I was first starting and hopefully they help you too!
