What is long exposure photography ? How does it work ?

Answer 1

To understand this concept, we have to start with the pre-digital photography age - film camera. Film is a light-sensitive material. And for now, just take film speed (ISO) out of the equation.
To control your exposture, you adjust your aperture (aka. f/stop) and your shutter speed. Your aperture control how much light is going in, and the shutter speed control how long the light is hitting your film.
In a low light condition, you can either open your aperture to 1.6, 2.8, 3.5, 4 or 5.6. You can also use a slower shutter speed like 30, 15 or slower to let the film expose longer. 15 is one-fifteenth of a second, shutter speed 1 second and slower is indicated as 1", 2", 3" so and so on.
Long exposure means using a slow shutter speed, 1/30, 1/15, up to seconds or even hours for some arty photography works. There are three main reasons why you need to do a long exposure:
-Low light and you don’t want to use a Flash or you don’t have one.
-You want both the foreground and the background to be in focus. To do that, set your f/stop at 16 or higher to increase the depth of view (that will be another lesson!). Since you are letting very little light through the lenses, you need to expose the file to light longer to compensate.
-When even the widest aperture is used, there is still not enough light. For example, a night shot of city lights. For 1/15 or slower, a tripod is highly recommended to stabilize the camera.

Of course, here are other artistic and creative reasons to do long exposure: create motion blur, writing your name with a torch light or a bright light source, or shooting outdoor at night with very very low light for hours to create a day-time effect. There are endless possibilities if you have a creative mind. Grab your camera, your tripod and have fun!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Long exposure photography allows effects such as car lights at night looking like bands of lights rather than pinpoints. Star trails where you point your camera at the sky and lock the shutter open for hours is another effect. If you use a slow film, small aperture and neutral density filters you can set your camera up in a busy area and take a long exposure shot where all the people passing through the scene won't even be recorded. Film or even a digital sensor requires a certain amount of light striking it to form an image. You can play with this fact in innumerable ways. From making flowing water, or ocean waves looking like a mist. Film works best for this type of photography

Answer 4

I don't know where you read such a thing as the Diana being for beginners. NONE of the lomo cameras of this type are for beginners. If you do not have a good background and understanding of using a film camera and understand exposure, you will get lots of terrible results with these cameras. The lomo cameras such as the Diana and Holga are dirt simple, but that is what in reality makes them complicated to get good, consistent results from. The camera does NOTHING to help you get a good photo, and you can learn NOTHING about photography from these cameras. For instance, on a normal fully adjustable 35mm SLR camera, a long exposure means you can set in shutter speed settings PRECISELY from a few seconds to 1/10 second. These are considered long exposures primarily because the shutter is working too slow to be able to hand hold the camera without blur. With a Diana, however, you have NO ability to make any actual shutter speed or aperture settings. For a long exposure on these cameras, you put it in B (bulb) mode. You then have to manually count to yourself the number of seconds you want to keep the shutter open. You have to use a cable to hold the shutter open to prevent blur. The camera has to be tripod mounted of course. How do you know how long to keep the shutter open? Again, this is where skill and experience come into play. You either use an external hand held light meter, (the Diana has no meter), or you use a low light exposure chart, or you have a good understanding of how to use the sunny 16 rule to determine exposure. Most "lomo" cameras are bought by people with no where near the experience and knowledge needed to get proper use from it. The user ends up frustrated and tired of throwing away money on film and processing for terrible results. The worse part is that a totally incorrect assumption is made against film, ... thinking all film cameras are like these toy cameras, which they most certainly are not. Save yourself the money and aggravation of this type of camera. Get a used 35mm SLR. With such a camera you can actually learn about photography and APPLY what you learn. You can do neither with the Diana. All you will do with the Diana is walk around like plenty of other clueless kids wasting money and getting maybe 3 decent shots per roll of film. Get the Diana if you want, but don't say you were not warned when what I have said proves true. steve (58 years old and have been using film cameras since I was a kid)

Answer 5

Check here a good photography course online:
http://photography-course.info

You can be like the masses of humanity and buy a camera you can afford that has auto this and that for worry free picture taking. And learn through trial and error how to use something like aperture or shutter priority auto modes or even attempt to use the thing on full manual mode.
You seem to know already there is some thinking to using a camera and to take pictures. A good place to start is by reading the owners manual that comes with a camera. Read the information and look at the illustrations with part names and look at the real camera. Handle the camera and take pictures. Let me rephrase that. Take pictures to learn how to use the camera and maybe even to keep some. Don't start with important stuff you cannot photograph over again such as birthdays, a toddlers first steps. That puts picture taking out of the learning phase and puts the pressure and emphasis to taking pictures for real and to keep.
These first pictures are for you to learn how to use your camera. And you have learned how to use your camera when you can take pictures with it and can teach others how to use it. Honest. You can also go to a college in your area and take a beginning photography course. There you will be taught the basics even a pro must learn and do in their work. Camera handling and use, taking exposures with film and/or digital cameras, and maybe even some photo assignments to get some real time learning. In this learning do not take serious pictures you must keep as that detracts from the learning aspect of the class. Do so only if you have mastered the use of your camera before class is over.
It's like growing up in a way. And I am happy you know there is a way to learn how to use a camera and take pictures. It's like learning how to drive I suppose. Someone can teach you or you can get taught at a driving school. Both will get you a drivers liscense. One though will really teach you the fundamentals you can use for the rest of your driving career.

Answer 6

I learned it on a pier in a Navy base and set my camera on a piling and took pictures of the other ships in the harbor at night. They have lights on them, so when I took the pictures, I would set the camera on B and with an extension shutter release, I would push down the button and screw it so it would not open. Often I took pictures at 10 seconds, but I also took them for up to 30 seconds. What I got was a light picture of the ship, but the lights on the ship reflected into the water and I got those reflections also.

If you are lucky, you have a camera with a mirror lock on it to decrease vibrations from the mirror, which will move, and thus the picture is without virgrations. You can do the same thing taking pictures of oncoming traffic off a bridge, get on a hill and take a picture of a city at night, or if you want, take a picture of the moon. It is best to open your lense to the widest aperture, say 1.8, 1.4, or with a lens that only goes to 3.5or so, set it there.

Those make some interesting photographs, butyou have to remember that there can be no other light close by, like street lamps, houses that are lit up, or cars going by. If you were in Tennessee or Georgia, I could tell you some quick places to go to do just that.

Answer 7

How Does Photography Work

Answer 8

With standard film that most people are familiar with, such as 35mm, exposure times range somewhere between 1/30th and 1/1000th of a second depending on factors suh as film speed, lighting, and aperature size. In situations where there is low light for instance, exposures can be as long as several seconds, minutes,or hours. This is accomplished by holding the shutter open on the camera either manually or with a plunger that locks.

Answer 9

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By the end of this course you will have developed an instinctive skill-for-life that will enable you to capture truly stunning photos that not only amaze your friends and family... but could also open the doors to a brand new career.

Answer 10

you take long exposure shot whenever the light around the object is minimum (e.g. night shot)

if you take a shot longer than you should then too many light captured by your sensor/film, this make the object blurred (especially when it moves, or when you move/shake) or even worst burn the picture to nothing but white

the blur effect thing sometime wanted to be captured though