today I'm going to show you how to get into long exposure photography without a filter
now although this technique won't give you those classic daytime long exposure
shots it's a way to understand the process all you need is a camera and a
tripod and a safe place where you can shoot from about an hour before sunset
to an hour afterwards one thing to think about is the further you are from the
equator the longer it'll take with long exposure photography the clues in the
name so your shutter is gonna be open for a
long time if you have cars moving through the shot with headlights on the
lights will streak if you have clouds moving through the shot they will start
to blur as will water head out about an hour before sunset to where you've
planned to shoot you're gonna shoot through sunset and into the blue hour
then through until it's officially nighttime if you're not sure of these
times have a look online or even better still download the app photo pills this
will give you an accurate time for the exact location that you're at so these
are the steps put the camera into aperture priority and at ISO 100 with
the exposure compensation set to zero set your focus and then switch it to
manual switch to self timer mode with a two-second delay if you're shooting with
a DSLR find the lock up mirror mode and set it to lock up
this'll basically flip the mirror up at the start of the two second self timer
and then take the shot and flip it down at the end this minimizes any movement
in the camera if it's windy take off your camera strap or make sure it's
tired up securely if it's really windy maybe hang your bag off the bottom of
the camera to really hold it down switch your camera to shoot in RAW turn off the
noise reduction process otherwise you'll have to wait a long time between shots
set the aperture to f/8 and then take a shot make a note of the shutter speed at
this point if there are any overexposed parts to your image or parts of the
images that look really white use your exposure compensation and dial it down
base take it to the negative figures this
will decrease the exposure in your camera then continue to do this through
sunset through the blue hour until it's nighttime
the full list guiding you through this exercise is available on my website
there you'll find a downloadable PDF that you can print and take with you
into the field
notice how the shutter speed drops as the camera compensates for the dropping
light
any moving people in the shot become blurs and they'll even disappear if the
shutter speed is long enough headlights will streak water smoothes out and
clouds become blurred and streaky as you're an aperture priority you can use
exposure compensation to tweak and tune your image so if it looks underexposed
click it towards the plus figures if it looks overexposed
click it towards the minus figures one of the other great things about this
exercise is it'll teach you when to get the best images around sunset I've
actually got some of my best images after sunset in what is known as the
blue hour you get some lovely colors in the sky you might even get the Sun
catching the bottom of the clouds so stick around until it gets dark and
that's about it I hope you gained some insight into long exposure photography
from this video if you have any ideas hints or tips about shooting long
exposure photos leave a comment below or drop me an email it'll be great to hear
your ideas as always if you liked what you see give us a thumbs up if you
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