Last Updated on January 23, 2022

Exposure For Beginner

Perhaps the most difficult part of learning photography is understanding how a camera works.

Long Exposure Tips for Beginners

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Exposure Triangle – The combination of three factors, which make a photograph. These are Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO rating. They all work together, so when one of these factors is changed, the other two factors will be affected.

Aperture – The size of the lens opening, measured in f-stops. A wide aperture will allow lots of light into the camera. A narrow aperture will only let a little light into the camera.

If your camera has a Mode Dial, switch to the A or AV symbol. This ‘aperture priority’ mode is great for most genres of photography, particularly landscapes and portraits, and when you wish to control how much of a scene is in focus.

NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY – 10 Tips For Long Exposure Photography Light Trails

One of the most fun things you can do at night is to shoot traffic trails, where you deliberately focus on a busy road and allow car head and tails lamps to record as streaks during an exposure anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds.

Try to include the backs of cars as well as the fronts, so that you capture both red and white streaks.

Top Tips

Take a tripod
Use the lowest ISO you can, select RAW mode
Shoot at dusk, when there is still some colour in the sky
Stop down to f/8 or f/11 and keep exposure 10-60 seconds if possible
Try shooting traffic trails, fairgrounds and fireworks, for great motion effects.

Long Exposure Tips for Beginners

The tips are many including what kind of aperture and shutter speed to use. What ISO settings are best. How to stabilize your camera with a tripod.

Shooting more than just light trails by being aware of the background meaning taking the typical highway overpass picture is okay but why not head into the city and use the buildings and other structures to add interesting backdrops to create beautiful images.

One could also create truly abstract photography art as well.
Learn night photography camera settings and various night photography techniques with this inspiring video.

Whether you say it as photographing light trails, light trails photography or anything else, this fun form of photography can be for everyone.

My 6 Best Tips to Make Awesome Long Exposure Photographs at Night By- Serge Ramelli

In this episode I show you my 6 best tips for taking great long exposure photographs during the night:

1. Shoot without using an ND filter after sunset. ND filters (LEE Filters) alter the colour of your photos and when you already have nice colours you don’t want that 🙂
2. A 25 second exposure time is a good time to have nice water and clouds and this can be achieved without a remote.
3. Shoot 3 different exposures with the timer at 8, 15 and 25 seconds and decide which you like best.
4. Shoot after sunset in the direction where the sun went below the horizon, you will get a nicer sky.
5. Make sure you have clouds and water in your photo, this will make the DRAMA!
6. Be in the position where the wind is pushing the clouds toward you, I know it is not easy, but the result is cool!

Don’t wait until it is dark

Dusk is the best time to shoot, when there is still enough ambient light in the sky to fill in the unlit parts of the buildings, and reduce the contrast between those parts and the areas bathed in the spotlight. A navy blue dusk sky also helps to highlight the outline of the buildings.

Set the camera to RAW mode, and the lowest ISO you can (ISO 100), put the camera on the tripod, stop down to f/8 or f/11 and see what exposure time the meter gives you. It may be anything from 10 seconds to more than a minute.

Try to avoid exposures much longer than this, as it will increase the noise levels in the image. Wait for a gap in traffic before shooting, though fast-moving people will probably not record on the image during long exposures.

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