Quick Long Exposure Photography Calculation Trick

Long Exposure Photography Calculation Trick

Long Exposures look great but can be a little tricky to get the correct exposure. Sure there are Apps and charts to help out, but, what if there was an easier way?

A way that doesn’t require an App, doesn’t require a chart and most importantly doesn’t require taking your filters off to calculate the exposure length.

The easy way to perfectly calculate the exposure time for your long exposures every time!

Let’s get into it.

  1. Frame up your shot
  2. Place the filters you wish to use into your filter holder and onto the camera, ready to shoot
  3. Set your ISO to 6400
  4. Test shoot at ISO 6400 until you have the perfect Histogram
  5. Once you have the perfect histogram, take note of the exposure length.
  6. Set your camera back to ISO 100
  7. And now how many seconds exposure at ISO 6400 now equal minutes at ISO 100

Basically, with all your filters in place and your camera set to ISO 6400, if the perfect exposure was 1 second, once you switch back to ISO 100 your perfect Exposure will be 1 minute.

2.5 secs = 2.5 minutes
10 secs = 10 minutes

Once you have the perfect exposure at ISO 6400, you have the perfect exposure at ISO 100.

ISO 6400 Seconds = ISO 100 Minutes

Why? Basically, it comes down to ratios.

60 seconds in 1 minute = 64 ISO 100s in ISO 6400 – roughly the same ratio’s.

I guarantee this technique works perfectly in constant light. Go out at midday with your 10 stop filter and try out the ISO 6400 technique. I bet it works every time!

Just make sure you remember to switch back to ISO 100 before taking the Long Exposure!

Oh and remember to calculate the ISO 6400 seconds with your filters in place.

Long Exposure Tips

  • Make sure when you are shooting LE’s that you cover up your rear viewfinder, a little light can sneak in there and ruin your Long Exposures.
  • LE’s can be really tricky when the light is rapidly changing, like Sunset/Sunrise. My rule of thumb here is if you are shooting LE’s as the light is changing, you need to 1/2 your exposure time as the light is increasing at Sunrise and Double it as the light fades at Sunset.
  • Use Bulb Mode to shoot LE’s longer than 30 seconds

The most likely time to damage or break your neutral density filters is taking them on and off your camera. Rather than take your filters off to calculate your exposure time, leave them on and use this simple super fast technique.

Some Thoughts on Composition

When we talk about composition it’s all about the elements that make up the picture – the light, where it falls, how it falls, when it falls, from which vantage point you take the picture, the point of central focus, color, balance, etc. – and how they all interact. Aperture, shutter speed and ISO ratings are the technical basis of a photograph, but the actual composition of all the elements that we’re including in the photograph, and how they interact, is vital.

Early morning light on the small chateau.

We can’t control natural light but we can use it. With correct positioning (crouching, lying down, perhaps even crawling!) you can “move” the sun and light up the statue. Kneeling down with a tripod can also give a different aspect.

The trees make a natural frame for the dam and help to counteract what’s actually harsh mid-day light.

There are rules for composition, but there are also no rules! I prefer to call them tools. They can be very useful, and it’s well worth knowing them before deciding to break them. Good photographs come from experimenting and trying new approaches, with personal taste and subject matter guiding a lot of our responses to a photograph.

But there are two crucial elements – composition and light.

Some of the other important elements in composition are balance, symmetry, asymmetry, shape, form, pattern, texture and so on, but light is necessary to make the image. In its own right, light is also an essential compositional tool considering its direction, intensity, cloudiness, haziness, and color.

Soft early morning light – the sunlight, coming from low over the horizon, throws all the seaside rocks into relief.

Early mornings can bring wonderful light. It’s a magical time of day and so few people make use of it. You can be the only person, let alone photographer, on the beach!

Continuing the feel of morning light, we have the early sunlight catching the mountains giving beautiful reflections in the dam.

Early morning often has the added advantage of no wind, giving a mirror like surface to water. The morning sun also often produces a delightful sky, and using this as a back light can give a dramatic silhouette. Morning sunlight is a swiftly passing phase – plan and be in position to use it.

Statue silhouette with a colorful sky background.

During the middle of the day the light can be extremely harsh, and common wisdom is to not take pictures at this time. However, if you’re not coming back just take the picture. With some thought and planning it can be well worth it.

Back lighting can be wonderful at any time of day, as can muted mist.

Evening light is ever changing and can vary dramatically.

There are always opportunities at any time of day. Be flexible. If the weather and lighting aren’t what you planned, change your approach. Evening light can be particularly beautiful. Make the effort to get out at what can be an inconvenient time!

Make use of the surrounding scenery as props to add something extra to your photographs.

As the sky darkens it’s always a good idea to take your pictures while there’s still a hint of blue in the sky. Once that disappears, the whole character of your photograph will change.

Remember that there’s no such thing as “bad light”.
How often have you heard photographers saying – “I went out, and was there really early, but the light was bad so I had to come home” – or some such comment? What a waste of an opportunity. We’re photographers and we should take every opportunity to experiment.

There’s only light, and what we do with it is up to us!

Aperture, shutter speed and ISO ratings are the technical basis of a photograph, but the composition of all the elements that we’re including in the photograph is vital.
Above all, composition is about your way of making other people see what you’re seeing. A snapshot taken by your camera shows other people what your camera is seeing.

When you actually make the effort of composing your image, you direct others to see what you saw.

Diagonal Lines in Landscape Photography

Today’s landscape photo tip involves diagonal lines. In a landscape photo, portrait photo, still life or any other kind of photo, the first major task of the photographer is to draw the viewer’s eye to the most important aspects of the shot and keep it there!

We want our photo to send some sort of message. If not, we shouldn’t be taking the shot. So we want to be certain that our viewer’s attention is focused in the right area. By the way, the message we’re sending could be as simple as wanting them to see an attractive cloud formation or some pretty colors in a rainbow—whatever.

We’re taking the shot because something in that scene attracted us and we want the viewer to see it, too.

This is actually the whole point to the photo composition rules. To make sure the viewer sees what we want them to see in the scene.

First, let’s consider how a person looks at a photo. Obviously it’s not a hard and fast rule. After all, people are individuals. But eye tracking studies have shown that people tend to start off in the lower left of the frame and let their eye travel up toward the upper right. Add to that the tendency of a viewer’s eye to follow natural lines in a photo and you have the genesis of a pretty powerful compositional tool.

In photography, diagonal lines starting at the lower left and traveling toward the upper right are very powerful.

Why does the viewer’s eye typically go from left to right? For many of us, it’s because we’re accustomed to reading from left to right. We tend to look at all text and photos in that way.

Keep this in mind… I haven’t seen any studies to support this, but I suspect that in countries where people read from right to left, the viewer’s eye will travel from right to left. In that case, design your diagonals to lead them into the photo from right to left.

Keep your potential viewers in mind when you’re designing your photography composition.

When you’re trying to determine where to place your diagonals, try not to start or end right in the corner. Photography diagonal lines that split the composition in half are no more interesting than placing the main subject in the bulls eye position.

Your diagonal lines don’t have to be an actual line. It could be a fence drawing a viewer’s eye, the horizon (if you’re shooting at some funky angle)—anything!

Try this: have diagonal lines coming from both right and left and converging at the subect of your photo.

While vertical and horizontal leading lines are nice compositional elements, diagonal lines are more dynamic and will impart more strength and verve to your shot.

Your assignment for today is to get out there with your camera and find ten different ways to add diagonal lines to your photos. This landscape photo tip—while it seems simple—is one of the big photo composition rules. Master it!

10- Pro Tips for Christmas Light Photography

At this time of year, many of the world’s cultures and religions celebrate holidays that involve lights. While the use of lights and candles is often explained in terms of the rites of the particular culture, most scholars agree that the lights came first; the explanations followed. After all, since humans gained control of fire, light has been used to illuminate the darkness – especially, during the depths of winter – rather than curse it.

Christians explain the candles, tree lights, and Yule log in terms of the birth of Christ and the Star of Bethlehem. The impact of these lights – if not the explanation – is so powerful that even modern-day Buddhist and Shinto Japan is ablaze with lights and decorations at “Christmas time.” And, in the same dark days of the winter solstice, Hanukkah is the “Festival of Lights” celebrated by Jews around the world.

Years ago, taking great photographs of holiday lights was difficult because the films of yesteryear weren’t very sensitive. They had difficulty recording an image in the low-light of a candle, for example.

This is no longer the case as technology has solved these problems. Many DSLRs or Mirrorless cameras can be set to ISO 800, 1600 and even higher settings with little noise.

In addition, most photographers today rely on auto-exposure with their point-and-shoots or SLRs. Unlike the light meters of old, which were often “fooled” by low-light situations, today’s meters in auto-exposure cameras are able to give good readings even in low light.

This is an important point because holiday lights usually look their best when shot without added light. In fact, this is Rule One when it comes to getting good pictures of lights: Turn off your flash. Let’s repeat that: For most pictures of holiday lights, turn off your flash!

Note that we said “most.” There are a few occasions when you will want to add light, but usually you won’t. So this brings us to the question: When should you use your flash, and when should you avoid it?

Now, let’s remember one important point if you’re taking a picture without flash: You’re probably going to need a slow shutter speed. This means you may need to mount your camera on a solid unmoving surface to avoid camera-shake. A tripod is best.

When else might you want to use your flash? Let’s say the subject of your picture is your kids under the tree. How are you going to light their faces? On the one hand, you may find that the Christmas-tree lights are sufficient and give a very soft glow to their cherubic expressions. Or maybe it is Christmas morning, and they are lighted by window-light that is streaming into the room. In these cases, you don’t need your flash. But, on the other hand, maybe you don’t have enough light to really see their faces. Then you may have to use your flash. How do you know which way to go?

One approach is to shoot both ways, then select the better image. We think a better way is to plan ahead and meter your subject. Remember that Guideline One of the Three NYI Guidelines for Great Pictures is to decide on your subject before you do anything else. You can learn this at the photography school. In this case, you’ve decided that the subject is the faces of the kids. Guideline Two is to draw attention to your subject. One method of drawing attention is to make sure your subject is well-exposed. So meter the light that falls on their faces from the lighted tree. Get in close and meter just the faces! If there’s enough available light for a well-exposed picture, shoot it. If not, use your flash.

Now let’s move outdoors. Outdoor photo subjects include elaborate lighting and decoration on houses, stores, and streets. Again, if you want to capture the lights themselves, don’t use your flash. One other tip for outdoor lights – you’ll get the best results when you shoot at twilight. That way, you’ll capture some color in the sky, rather than the pitch-black tone that will be recorded on film later at night. But what if you want to take a picture of your friend in front of a brightly lit display?

You want to capture both the bright lights and your friend. If you use flash, you get your friend, but you’re in danger of minimizing the bright lights behind. On the other hand, if you don’t use flash, you get better detail of the lights but your friend is reduced to a silhouette.

There’s an answer. Many of today’s point-and-shoot cameras both film and digital have a funny-looking setting that looks like a person with a star in the background.

This setting tells the camera that you want the flash to fire (which will light your friend in the foreground), but that you also want the lens to stay open long enough to record the lights in the background. In fact, the symbol for this setting on many cameras is sort of a hieroglyph that tries to indicate “person at night in front of lights.” Your solution to getting light on your friend’s face and capturing the light display is to use this setting. The flash exposes the face. The long exposure captures the lights.

But, again, watch out here. The long exposure – typically, one-quarter of a second long – requires that you steady your camera to avoid camera shake. Once again, we advise you to use a tripod.

So, to take great holiday photos in this season of lights, we offer you these four tips we explore in our photography classes:

  • Turn off your flash unless you have a very good reason to use it.
  • Use a fast ISO – we suggest ISO 800.
  • Avoid camera shake.
  • Use a tripod…or, at least, brace the camera. Trust your camera’s built-in meter.

Some Special Considerations

Digital ISO

Amplifying a digital signal is like turning the volume up on your radio as loud as it will go. At the maximum volume every hiss, pop, and scratch is heard and, depending on the quality of the equipment, quality is diminished. The same thing happens in a digital camera. When the ISO setting is increased, every image artifact and defect is magnified.

To achieve the best image quality, you might try working with a slower ISO setting to start. If you are having trouble getting a good exposure, increase the ISO as needed. You might even try using the Auto ISO setting and see how the camera chooses to handle exposure.

Digital Noise

Regardless of the ISO setting chosen, most inexpensive digital cameras produce “noise” during long exposures. Noise is caused by the small electrical disturbances that are present in every electrical system. In order to capture a weak light signal, such as a subject in low-light, longer exposures are usually needed. The longer a digital camera shutter is open, the more electrical noise is recorded as well.

So, it seems we have a double-edged sword.

  • Increase the ISO to achieve faster shutter speeds and you will amplify noise and other image problems.
  • Reduce the ISO and shutter speeds are slower. As a result, you will record inherent noise that might not be seen in a “normal” exposure.

Limited Dynamic Range

To make things worse, digital cameras have a limited dynamic range. Image sensors are only sensitive to a specific range of brightness. Anything outside of that range is recorded as pure white or pure black. This can result in an image without shadow or highlight detail.

Solutions

Here are a few ways to solve these problems. Noise can be reduced with software. In fact some cameras offer in-camera noise reduction features. Proprietary software is used exclusively, yielding uneven results. Test your camera’s capabilities before committing to this feature. There are many noise reduction software products on the market today, some as stand-alone applications and others which are plug-ins that work in conjunction with your favorite image editor. This means you can select a camera with noise reduction or address any problems later in the digital “darkroom.”

Timing is Everything

As we noted earlier in this article, when shooting holiday lights outside, I find that the best exposures can be made at twilight. Twilight is after the sun has set but before the dark of night. This fleeting balance of light and shadow will yield the brilliance of the lights while maintaining details in the shadow. Don’t underestimate shadow detail to help establish your composition. Consult your camera’s manual for details on your white balance options and how to adjust them. In the finished photo the viewer will perceive the twilight photo to be taken at night.

When shooting holiday lights inside, try turning on lights in the room to increase the ambient light, rather than using a flash. Flash can produce a harsh, high-contrast quality that obliterates the brilliance of the light. A carefully positioned incandescent light can increase the ambient light without overpowering your holiday lights.

Shoot Two Exposures

One way to extend the tonal range of a digital image is by making two exposures of a scene. Shooting in Manual mode, make one exposure configured to capture the best highlight detail. Make a second exposure to capture the best shadow detail. Then combine the two exposures in Photoshop as separate Layers. Using the Eraser tool remove poorly exposed areas to reveal detail and take advantage of the best parts of each Layer/exposure. Using this technique you could extend the tonal range well beyond the possibility of any single exposure made with the same camera. Of course this requires a strong tripod to ensure both compositions match perfectly. Consider using a remote control to reduce the possibility of camera movement.

Accomplished photographers may also create two separate images’- one favoring highlights, the other shadows’ – from a single RAW file.

Turn Off Automatic White Balance

In many photographic situations white balance is a godsend. By automatically neutralizing extreme color casts, believable digital color is rendered without breaking a sweat. It is important to remember, not all photos require white balance. Tone down the rich, saturated colors of a sunset and you’re left with nothing. Attempt to white balance a fireworks display and you end up with dull lifeless, de-saturated bursts and streaks of light. Holiday lights should be treated similarly. By turning off the auto white balance feature you are sure to capture the exaggerated colors the holidays have to offer.

You could try turning off white balance altogether or even experiment with any of the other manual settings to find a color balance that suits your visual needs. Either way is a better bet than giving the decision to the camera.

Test, Test, Test

The immediate feedback of digital photography begs you to test your exposures to determine what works best. Take advantage of the metadata that most digital cameras embed inside every digital picture you make. Metadata can include camera make and model, exposure, flash, white balance and other important information that can help you to determine what works and what doesn’t work. This means you don’t even have to take notes! To access your digital image metadata, open a file in Adobe Photoshop.

Choose File > File Info. The File Info dialog box appears. Select the Camera Data option on the left side of the screen. The Camera Data screen reveals shutter speed, aperture, ISO settings, lens focal length, flash settings and even the metering modes. Holiday lights are usually around for more than a couple of days each year, take advantage of this by shooting early in the season and then re-shooting if you have too.

About the Author:
Chuck DeLaney has been a professional photographer for over 30 years. Since 1998 he has been the director of the NYIP, America’s oldest and largest photography school. DeLaney has taught photography classes in colleges, community programs and institutional settings. In addition to teaching, he has written two books about photography and written hundreds of magazine and Web articles also.

5 Photography Tips for Viewers to Connect With Your Photos

One of the best photography tips I can share is to think less about the technical aspects and more about the impact your photo has on the people who view it. While it’s important to understand the elements of exposure, those techniques won’t guarantee an emotional connection with your subject. Here are five ways to help you capture the moment that connects with your viewers.

1. Patience

What makes a photograph art instead of a snapshot? Patience! Just because you want a photograph right now doesn’t mean the subject is ready for your right now. You may have to wait for a sunrise or sunset. You may have to wait for a bird to land on a post in the water. You may have to wait for the perfect wave to crash. Maybe—just maybe—you have to wait for all of these elements to coincide to get a shot that no other photographer will get because they weren’t patient enough to let things happen. Maybe they weren’t patient enough to see what happened next. The world will unfold on its own schedule, so pick a good spot, be patient, and be ready to capture the moment.

2. Timing

Some photographers enjoy shooting rapid-fire to get an action shot—spray and pray—and hope they have something good when the action is over. That isn’t control, though. It’s trusting your fate to luck.

It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting wildlife, sports, or a model in a studio. There’s a concept known as the peak of action, and that’s the shot you want to capture. You may get it with spray and pray, or you may not. Rather than firing off a blast of shots, think about your subject. Put yourself in the subject’s position. Look for patterns, rhythms, or any clues that will help you predict when and where your subject will be at the optimum moment to capture the peak of action.

A big part of timing is knowing your subject. You need to know the optimum time for that subject to arrive in just the right place.

3. Intimacy

Your photos need to show a connection. Sometimes that means creating a connection between the subject and the view. In other cases, it means showing a connection with your subject and something important. That connection could be between people, such as a husband and wife or a mother and child. The connection could also be with a pet or a possession.

Imagine a body builder working with weights. You see that she’s strong. She’s intent. She’s focused. The story is about her, but the weights show a relationship that helps define her as the subject. She has a relationship with the weights she’s lifting. She needs them in order to be the woman she wants to be. Intimacy helps the viewer understand her story.

4. Light

Photographers know that light is both your enemy and your friend. Without it, there’s no photo. If you have too much light, there’s still no photo. That’s because an evenly lit photo is little more than a dull snapshot. Nothing stands out. Nothing is special because you see everything. There’s no mystery.

Shadows are crucial because they provide a sense of depth and dimension. Their sense of darkness give shape, form and a sense of importance to the part of the photo in the light.

There’s an old adage, “If you want to make something more interesting, don’t light all of it.”

5. Story

If you want to improve your photos, then they need to tell a story. A photo needs to say something to the viewer. It needs to draw them in and make them wonder. It needs to pique their interest. People look at images that are interesting. What makes them interesting? The photo communicates something to them.

Does your photo make you wonder about something in it?

Why is the girl in the water? Where is this relaxing scene? What is the surfer thinking before he enters the water? I wish I had her dedication. Why does this dangerous beast look so content?

There are stories for any emotion. If you can feel an emotion, then there’s a story to go with it. That’s what you need to capture and share with your viewers.