Long Exposure Photography Tips

Long exposure photography can add a mystical aspect to your photos, as some parts of the image are blurred, while others are tack sharp. This can give your photos an impressionistic look, and it can also help you tell a story about moving subjects like waterfalls, busy crowds, and wind-blown clouds.

The process of taking long exposure photos requires patience — quite literally, as everything takes longer. Since you can't easily predict the results of long exposure photography, it requires a lot of trial and error. However, it's definitely worth it when you get it right. Watch the video above to learn all about long exposure photography, and keep reading to learn even more practical long exposure photography tips and to see some inspiring examples.

Don't forget the exposure triangle!

My first piece of advice when doing long exposure photography is that you can't just set your camera to do long exposures and expect good results. I've seen photographers set their exposure time to 30 seconds and be baffled when their resulting images are completely blown out. Remember the exposure triangle? Any adjustment to shutter speed, ISO, or aperture will change your exposure value. Actually, the exposure triangle is really an exposure square because the brightness of the ambient light is another variable. You can't just change one variable — shutter speed — while leaving everything else the same and expect your exposure value to stay the same.

So, let's say that you want to do long exposure photography on a sunny day. You've got your aperture and ISO set, and with those chosen settings, a shutter speed of 1/100 second gives you a proper exposure. If you change your shutter speed to 30 seconds without changing anything else, you're letting in a lot more light, with dramatic overexposure being the result. To get a longer shutter speed and maintain the same correct exposure value, you need to also adjust your ISO, aperture, and/or the brightness of the ambient light in the opposite direction: that is, you need to reduce the light hitting the sensor an equal amount to the extra light you are letting in by using a longer exposure.

So, if you want that 30 second exposure, you need to use a smaller aperture, lower your ISO, or wait for it to get darker or otherwise reduce the light coming into the lens (or some combination of these things).

Gear for long exposure photography

When taking long exposure photos, you want to make sure that your photos aren't completely blurred or overexposed. To do this, you need two things:

Tripod - a sturdy tripod will keep the camera steady so that anything that isn't moving during your long exposure will stay sharp. Note that a tripod isn't necessary if you are doing intentional camera movement (which involves moving the camera during the long exposure).

Neutral density filters (ND filters) - these are gray filters that reduce the transmission of light coming in through the lens. These help solve the exposure problem identified above, allowing you to take long exposure photos even in bright conditions.

Neutral density filters have different strengths expressed in stops. Each stop requires you to double your exposure time to get the same exposure value; for example, a 3-stop filter requires you to double your exposure time three times. If your base exposure is 1 second, your resulting exposure with the filter needs to be 8 seconds long.

Sometimes, the strength of ND filters is expressed using a more confusing number system, so you might see filters described as 0.3, 1.2, etc. Each 0.3 is one stop, so a 1.2 ND filter reduces light by 4 stops. Some neutral density filters are variable, allowing you to dial in the exact amount of neutral density filtration that you want. Whether using fixed or variable ND filters, the different strengths allow you to get exactly the shutter speed that you want.

Weaker ND filters (such as up to 3 stops) are useful when only slight adjustments are needed. For example, I find that a 2 or 3 stop filter works great when photographing waterfalls or coasts in overcast conditions or at sunrise and sunset, when it is a bit darker but maybe not quite dark enough to easily get the 1/2 or 1 second shutter speed that I'm aiming for. Stronger filters, such as 8 or 10 stop (or more) are typically used to achieve long exposures even during the brightest times of the day.

Just be careful when buying ND filters. Cheap filters can create unflattering color casts. The best filters will deliver truly neutral results, like the ones made by Breakthrough Photography.

Best times for long exposure photography

Long exposure photography isn't limited to a specific time of day, but it might work better at certain times than others. For example, it's easier to get long exposures when it's relatively dark, so night, twilight, sunrise, and sunset are great times for trying long exposure photography, especially if you don't have any ND filters. With ND filters, you can take long exposures anytime, even when it is bright and sunny, but the light might be more harsh and contrasty during those times. Because of this, the final results might not be as pleasing.

Make sure something is moving!

If nothing is moving in the scene, a long exposure won't look any different from a short exposure. So, make sure there are some moving elements in that scene, like moving people, cars, or water.

Depending on your subject, wind might be an important factor for doing long exposure photography. If you're trying to artistically blur wind-blown waves or foliage, the windier it is, the more dramatic your final results will look. However, windy conditions come with an extra challenge; they can shake your tripod. Even a small shake can result in unwanted motion blur. If it's very windy, make sure to use a heavier tripod.

Some inspiring examples of long exposure photography

Check out the inspiring examples of long exposure photography by me and some of our favorite photographers featured on Photo Masters.

I took this self-portrait in front of Yasur Volcano in Vanuatu. I used an 8-second exposure to blur the erupting magma, turning it into colorful arcs of light. I was very careful to sit perfectly still during the exposure.

Coasts are perfect locations for long exposure photography, such as with this image taken by Kurt Budliger in Olympic National Park. Exposure times of 10 seconds or longer will completely blur moving water, giving it a misty look.

Erez Marom took this long exposure photo at the ice lagoon of Jokulsarlon in Iceland. The clouds were drifting across the sky from left to right, resulting in streaking. The soft twilight colors, and the mirror-still waters, create an impressionistic result.

Depending on the volume of water and the size of waves, it might take anywhere from ten seconds to several minutes to completely blur coastal water, like what Kurt Budliger did with the photo above taken in Acadia National Park.

For the photo above of a brown pelican in flight, I used a shutter speed of 1/30 second. I panned my camera to match the flight of the pelican. The shutter speed was long enough to blur the background and the pelican's wings, but short enough to render the head of the pelican as acceptably sharp.

You can often find eddy pools below small waterfalls and cascades, a favorite subject for Kurt Budliger. A long exposure of five to ten seconds will creating elegant spirals as foam and leaves spin in the swirling water. Longer exposures might be necessary with slower moving water or to get complete circles.

Erez Marom did a two second exposure to creatively blur the lava flowing out of Erte Ale Volcano in Ethiopia. A sturdy tripod is necessary for these types of images to ensure that non-moving elements remain sharp during the long exposure.

When clouds are moving towards you, reach for a wide-angle lens and your neutral density filters! Kurt Budliger captured this long exposure of a church in his home state of Vermont. Duing the exposure, the clouds created radial streaks as they passed overhead. An exposure time ranging from 30 seconds to several minutes might be necessary to achieve this effect, depending on how fast the clouds are moving.

For this image taken above the clouds in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I used a 30-second exposure to creatively blur the fast-moving clouds. I made this photo at twilight, so it was dark enough that I didn't need any neutral density filters. Since the clouds were in shadow, they took on the twilight blue color.

I often use long exposures when doing travel and street photography to creatively blur moving people. For this night scene from the Jemaa el-Fna Square in Marrakesh, I used a shutter speed of 1/6 second with my camera on a tripod. The woman in the orange robe was sitting completely still, so she is rendered as sharp (as are other non-moving elements in the scene). All of the passing people are rendered as creative, abstract blurs, lending the image a mysterious quality.

Moving water, such as with coastal scenes and waterfalls, is a favorite for long exposure photography, such as with this photo of the Drangonir Arch in the Faroe Islands by Mads Peter Iversen. An exposure time of 1/2 second or 1 second will typically give you the best shutter speed to creatively blur incoming and outgoing waves, although the ideal time will vary with the volume and speed of the water.

Finally, I used a 3-stop ND filter to achieve an exposure time of 2.5 seconds for this photo of spray rainbows beneath a waterfall in Iceland. It was bright and sunny out, so the ND filter on its own wasn't quite enough for me to blur the water, but I also used a polarizer filter to optimize the rainbows and reduce glare in the scene, which added another 2 stops of light reduction. Since polarizer filters block one or two stops of light, they can be used as ND filters in a pinch!

Conclusion

I hope you have found this article and the examples helpful and inspiring. Long exposure photography is easy to try, but it takes practice and experimentation to get it right. Once you figure out the ideal shutter speed to get the creative blur that you want, the results are well worth the effort!