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Long exposure photography
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Hi to all, up to 12months or so ago I had never taken a photograph in my life but was encouraged to try it and now I’m totally addicted to it.I use two bridge cameras at present a fuji s5700 and a fuji s9500 my problem is that I really like long exposure photography but the longest exposure I can get from both cameras is 30 seconds with the s9500.Having attended the Tony Worobiec lecture in Mallow recently 30sec seems along way away form the 40 minute exposures he’s using.Is film or digital better for long exposures? Any advice on what camreas and gear I need to be looking at would be gratefully recieved. Thanks.
I am using a fuji s8000 and have a maximum exp of 4 seconds. I can’t speak for film but After some research, reading this forum and chatting to a friend who is a professional photographer, I have just ordered the Canon EOS 500D twin lense package. Digital SLR. BUT as everyone has said you must go into the shop and handle the cameras and try them out to get a feel for them. I hated the feel of the sony ones and found the canon just fitted my hands beautifully. There is quite a difference in weight with lenses added, but have far far more settings to have more fun with. Make sure it can take RAW as well as j-peg as with raw files you can fix pretty much any errors with colour white balance etc in a photo editing software. Raw files however are alot larger than j pegs. I plan to shoot in j-peg until I am more familiar with the camera and settings. I also like the fact that I can take it out the box and shoot in auto mode. I dont plan/want to use it. however if I get overwhelmed it also means I can have some fun and introduce manual settings a bit at a time and not potentially ruin every pic I take until I master it Thus not losing heart. lol
I too want to do long exposure, I love the idea of pointing at the North star and leaving it for 40 minutes or longer to capture the rotations. From what I can gather most if not all DSLR’s can do that. But I am positive more experienced members will advise on this and also correct any info I may have got wrong :DThanks for your insight Connie,you’re right about handling a camera before buying that’s how i picked the s5700 because I’ve got issues with being able to grip things with my hands, I couldn’t hold onto a compact camera.I to have looked at the canon 500d but haven’t held one,there seems to be good value to be had in the secondhand market but I’ve been a little scared to dive in as I wouldn’t know if all the cameras features were working or not.To date most of my long exposures have been light trails and photos of my son messing with a flashlight and I think the results are reasonable, well for me anyway. I’ve tried to do lighthouses etc but they always seem to have alot of noise in them, that’s why I wondered about film a subject I definately know nothing about.
Almost all of the newer DSLR cameras have “bulb” mode, which allows you to leave the shutter open for as long as you want.You should use a cable release for this to reduce camera shake.
I don’t know if there is any bridge camera with “bulb” mode on the market.Film may not work well… check out reciprocity and reciprocity failure –
http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorial_reciprocity_failure.htm” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
I don’t have a cable release or remote but was told to use the self timer to reduce/remove shake and judder. Handy wee tip that works for me with my bridge. I am sure there are settings that allow you to keep shutter open while having iso low to combat noise… someone here will help or google and there will be something to help. Still a bit over my head I am afraid.
As for second hand, yup I would have bought one if I knew how to check it properly etc. I plan on joining my local photography group and am sure there will also be a wealth of advice and help when buying second hand stuff :DYou can choose a film that has good reciprocity characteristics-
in b/w, Kodak’s TMax, or Fuji’s Neopan will allow several minutes without correction.Colour transparency films from Fuji are good too-
Not all film is created equal, and if you choose the right one, long exposure noise reduction isn’t an issue either-
Thanks to all for replies, my fuji s9500 has bulb mode but won’t go past 30 sec even in this mode,looking at it now film is way beyond me at the moment.The Tony Worobiec stuff really amazed me ,to think you could go to a beach at 12 o’clock at night in total darkness have an exposure of 40 minutes and get an image of the quality he gets is just blew me away.I know I need to upgrade but don’t get me wrong my fuji’s are vrey good camreas it’s just in low light that they suffer.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y4tVn9Oar1-udOOMLTrHkA?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
Here’s a shot of one of my light trails.That is really cool. :) this is my attempt. It was a cyclist heading up the street and I moved the camera around on the tripod and got this effect. Was well pleased with it. I think I may have to crop the top off to remove the street light though :? When I get my camera I will be looking for a very busy roundabout to try that style out :)
maybe crop the lamp out but I like it especially the way the trees are ghosted in the background,you have some really nice shots on your flickr page ,I really like the candles and that shot of the spider is outstanding.Do you find the water shots tricky I know i do it’s either too bright or too dark I find. :D
Yes they are tricky, I had to go out in low light and towards dusk as too much light was getting in and I was getting a white out. I was advised to get neutral density filters as they will allow me to take water shots during the day and still get motion and the milky effect. Next purchase to make lol
this thread gave me some good advice which helped to then get some motion in water. https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=36314 As it is a fuji you are using also you may be able to get filters for your one.The droplet shots on the plants were far easier, good solid tripod for those. alot of my macro shots are free hand but the drops are not lol
The spider pic was the one that made me sit up and take notice. It was all done on auto with super macro then zoomed and cropped in PS but I realised that I had a morbid fear of spiders yet I was trying to get as close as poss to capture a pattern. I am hoping he/she appears this year as in the past 3 months I have been using manual as much as poss so looking forward to compare how I have improved.Hi Connie, thanks for the link I will look into those filters as the days get longer and brighter it’s going to be hard to get the right light conditions without them. I have an adaptor ring that came with a teleconverter I bought but that was rubbish to be honest.I’ll try to post some shots I’ve taken of water but I wouldn’t hold my breath it took me most of yesterday to post the light trail shot and I’m not even sure how i did that.
Cheers.Here goes at trying to post a few photos,fingers crossed :(
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n83EnZEE0UdMiczT2RZiZA?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Zk47b5FMrBBZd7KP1cJ1YQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iWa-zLtGRFMZEj9u2BKZsA?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-KlS3tGuw2udotTtpyxuRg?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NXEmWP0TtH1ILBxxSHScgw?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Iiqt2rYqE_qA_TEAhOvkDQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yfzC-tLqcanXk3xamVYSPg?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y4tVn9Oar1-udOOMLTrHkA?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-LvtLwluTTuQE&feat=directlink” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
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