I have been attending a class pretty much weekly now since early Jan. ; This week we were to go out and take long exposures. ; This is what I came up with. ; Anyone have any ideas for some long exposure shots? ; I froze pretty bad the other night taking the ones of the highway! [attachimg=1] [attachimg=2] [attachimg=3] [attachimg=4]
years ago I tried it with airplanes taking off. it looks pretty neat with the streaks going up. I am sure others will have plenty of ideas. I know running water like in water falls works well too. good work on your first attempt, have fun with it John I am on my own assignment now. shooting in manual mode. using autofocus only
Great shots! ; I like the light writing shot. ; The highway shots are cool too. ; I have always liked those type of photos.
My suggestion is to shot a bit earlier just after sunset so you get more color in the sky. It will add interest and impact.
Those are good choices for long exposure - the cars on the highway are a classic style with the streaky lights. ; Other ideas might be to try some daytime long exposures...do you have any ND filters, polarizers, etc? ; If so, you can stack those and push your aperture way down to F20+, and get some multi-second daylight exposures of cars streaking on a road or people walking. ; Those are always fun, and will usually stand out since everyone else is likely shooting in low light. ; Also, shots where YOU are the subject in motion with the camera, rather than the camera staying fixed and other things moving through the frame, can be very cool. ; Take a long exposure with the camera mounted or fixed in a car, where you expose the dashboard and view out the windshield, and have all the lights streaking by the windows. ; Or try some creative handheld streaking with a long exposure while moving the camera forward, or zooming a lens during the exposure.
I'll second Scott's suggestion of shooting just after sunset to get some blue in the sky. ; That will make a huge difference in the streak shots. ; I'll also suggest using a smaller aperture with a ND filter to give the same exposure length, but reduce the depth of field so the shadow of the fence disappears. ; Star trails also make interesting long exposures.
Might try using a ND filter and taking some daytime long exposures of the sky. ; I've not tried it yet but have seen some where the clouds look awesome.
also try to get some skyline/sunset long exposure work, vary the time frames, that'll help you get a feel for gauging the times on night stuff, when i do a skyline, i like to do exposures at 2,4,6,8,10 seconds, looking for the one that looks best, and then the 1 on each side longer and shorter, i find that one of those 3 is usually what i end up keeping when i see them on the big monitor, i use dead center 0 for ev, as i don't want any influence from that setting, i want all the variation from time differences
Thanks so much for all the suggestions! ; Now I just want to go out and try each one! ; If I could only find the time!