[matthew]

A snapshot steals life that it cannot return. A long exposure [creates] a form that never existed.
- Dieter Appelt

A photograph is remarkable for how it handles time. Photography is alone in the arts for being able to stop a moment of time that is otherwise imperceptible. A fleeting glance, a chance arrangement: the "decisive moment" has been the subject of more photographer's soliloquies than any other.

But there is another aspect to a photographs' abilities to stop time. It can be poetic instead of petrifying.

For the next two weeks, look for situations and subjects that can be captured in a long exposure. I'd define "long" as something that allows motion to blur, but everyone is encouraged to use their own ideas.

(I don't usually choose assignments based on what I'm already experimenting with, so in this case I hope you'll forgive me.)

[Banded Drake]

I took this shot in Costa Rica , and played around with HDR . I thought i would share this with yall . I hope i havent already , if so i can post another as i love to play with long exposures .

Sorry i havent posted much , seems that the real work has caught up to me :/










.... Shawn

[Keith Alan]

This photo has been posted before, but is one of my best examples of why a long exposure can be the way to go.
A fast shutter that freezes the action will give you a picture of the waterwheel that's precise and shows you what it looks like when it's not spinning, but by using ND filters to allow a longer exposure I was able to capture the true essence of the wheel as it does it's job.
One of the reasons to always have a tripod with you.

[matthew]

Shawn, I like the fountain. I'd never thought about the possibilities of using HDR with long exposures. It looks intriguing. And I'd love to see more of any photos you have - there's no limit in assignments.

Keith, could you remind us about how your waterwheel was taken?

Here's a photo from last night:



It's me writing out this assignment. It's almost a five-minute exposure, at f2.8 and iso800, that was still underexposed by at least one stop. (Accidentally. I didn't want to re-shoot it.) I used a polarizer to cut the light from my computer monitor so that it wouldn't burn out, but got too aggressive and blacked it out too effectively. Again, I wasn't sufficiently motivated to re-shoot it. Perhaps tonight... but probably not.

[Keith Alan]

Cool photo, Matthew.

For the waterwheel I just added an ND4 filter or two and used about a 1/5th second shutter with a small aperture--enough to catch motion-blur at just the right amount, hopefully. (My minimum aperture is f8--DSLR users probably wouldn't need filters).
Taken in the shadowed daylight, a tripod was essential.
The photo looks just like what you see with the eye, so to me it's more honest than a faster exposure would have been.
Besides it's obvious uses at night or in a dim room, sometimes a longer exposure is the best way to capture a more accurate version of things that move. It's been my main photographic goal for a few months now, like my playground shots.

[matthew]

(My minimum aperture is f8--DSLR users probably wouldn't need filters).

While DSLRs could probably hit that slow a shutter speed without filters (an ND4 is equivalent to two stops, so that would be f/16 for one or f/32 for two) but I can start to see my image quality start to drop at f/16. Shooting at f/8 with an ND4 filter would give the same shutter speed but better resolution, at the expense of a little depth of field, which isn't really needed in the scene you have. As long as the filter doesn't reduce the sharpness of the lens, doing it your way would still give better results.

...but maybe I overthink things sometimes.

[Keith Alan]

Here's one from a few nights ago--the sharp focus on the rock combined with the very blurry water gives a semi-3D effect, or so I've been told.

[Wedding Shooter]

Very 3D Keith. Still really love the water wheel shot.

[matthew]

Indoors it may not take any extra equipment to have a long exposure. My building has the typical high-rise exit stairs, with decor that lacks any real charm. Those people who do use it do it as quickly as possible. To capture that, I simply put the camera down and walked past, pausing for a few seconds where I wanted my image to register. I didn't even need the self timer.

[Keith Alan]

Matthew, your photo reminds us that indoor lighting is really quite weak so all manner of things that aren't so easy to accomplish in bright daylight become simpler inside.
Keeping iso low (100-200) is key to these types of photos, or you'll lose valuable shutter duration.

[matthew]

My take on a couple of classic (read: cliched) photos from yesterday.


60 seconds, f/5.6, iso200


30 seconds, f/5.6, iso200

[Irma]

They are beautiful Matt! I specially like the first one as I love reflections... it looks like a painting..

The second one is also very interesting like kind of abstract... very nice pp btw...

[matthew]

Thanks. I was experimenting with a duotone in Lightroom for the second one, and like the effect. This was using two colours, a blue for the dark tones and a slightly greener hue for the light tones. Changing the balance gives subtle shifts in the effect until I find a setting that I like.

I hadn't yet applied "Matthew's Manipulation Moderation" to it yet, which is a rule that says 'apply enough post-processing to create the desired effect, and then cut it in half.' The toned-down result is this one:



I usually grow to like the more subtle version, but it takes a while.