So, as I already mentioned, long exposures are photos taken with the shutter open for an extended period of time. There is no set duration for a shutter to be left open for something to be called "long exposure." Really, it depends on your subject. For example, a long exposure of a snail moving across a surface may need to be 10 or more seconds, whereas a long exposure of a race car flying by may be 1/15 of a second. In general, though, most long exposures will be in excess of a second.

Given that the shutter is going on - with few exceptions (that I'll mention later) - you cannot hand hold your camera. There is no possible way to hand hold a camera, no matter how steady your hands are. Merely the beating of your heart will send vibrations to through the camera and cause the resulting image to by fuzzy or out-of-focus. As such, if you really get into taking long exposures, a tripod is an absolute must.

You also need muted light to obtain long exposures. It is technically possible to create long exposures in bright conditions, but it would require an extremely small aperture (large f-stop) and the stacking of multiple neutral density filters on your lens. Suffice it to say, not only is this a lot of work, it will degrade the image as well.


Photo mine
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The other requirement to be able to take long exposures is a camera capable of manually setting the shutter speed. Some point-and-shoot cameras can do this, others cannot. Reading your owner's manual should be able to tell you whether this is possible on your camera. If it isn't, take mental notes on all of this so you can use this knowledge when you get your next camera.

If you can control the shutter speed manually, chances are you can at a minimum choose shutter speed priority, meaning you can switch the camera settings to allow you to choose whatever shutter speed you want and the camera will then choose the appropriate aperture (f-stop) to go along with it. The other way to do it is with manual setting, but regardless the procedure is similar except that you, with the help of your camera, have to choose the correct aperture and shutter speed. If you choose a shutter speed in excess of 30 seconds, your camera will need a bulb setting, which allows the shutter to be held open for an indefinite period of time. In this case, you'll need a remote shutter switch that will allow you to open and close the shutter without actually touching the camera. The one I use is all of $7 USD, so it's a relatively cheap addition to your equipment.

So, what should your shutter speed be? Your initial thought might be that the longer it is, the better. There are several problems with that approach, though. For one, bright spots (e.g., lights and reflective surfaces) in your image will be "blown out" if the exposure is too long and become distracting. For another, sometimes objects around your subject are also moving (e.g., stars, animals, plants) and will be too distracting if the shutter speed is too long. Sometimes the shutter speed can even be too slow to capture the image you want. As a result, choosing the appropriate shutter speed will take trial and error, especially when you are first starting out. Chances are you will need to take multiple photos of the same subject with different shutter speeds until you get the photo you want.

Probably the best advice is to match your shutter speed to the subject you are photographing. For instance, if you are photographing a waterfall, a shutter speed of a few seconds may be all you need to blur the water and create a "lace veil" effect. However, if you want to photograph your dog running across the yard, half a second may be most appropriate or you risk photographing an unrecognizable blur. At the other end of the spectrum, if you are trying to create star trails, the shutter speed will be on the order of hours since the relative movement of the stars is inexorably slow.


Photo mine

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Photo courtesy Ben Scheele


Photo courtesy Edy Santosa

less

The other requirement to be able to take long exposures is a camera capable of manually setting the shutter speed. Some point-and-shoot cameras can do this, others cannot. Reading your owner's manual should be able to tell you whether this is possible on your camera. If it isn't, take mental notes on all of this so you can use this knowledge when you get your next camera.

If you can control the shutter speed manually, chances are you can at a minimum choose shutter speed priority, meaning you can switch the camera settings to allow you to choose whatever shutter speed you want and the camera will then choose the appropriate aperture (f-stop) to go along with it. The other way to do it is with manual setting, but regardless the procedure is similar except that you, with the help of your camera, have to choose the correct aperture and shutter speed. If you choose a shutter speed in excess of 30 seconds, your camera will need a bulb setting, which allows the shutter to be held open for an indefinite period of time. In this case, you'll need a remote shutter switch that will allow you to open and close the shutter without actually touching the camera. The one I use is all of $7 USD, so it's a relatively cheap addition to your equipment.

So, what should your shutter speed be? Your initial thought might be that the longer it is, the better. There are several problems with that approach, though. For one, bright spots (e.g., lights and reflective surfaces) in your image will be "blown out" if the exposure is too long and become distracting. For another, sometimes objects around your subject are also moving (e.g., stars, animals, plants) and will be too distracting if the shutter speed is too long. Sometimes the shutter speed can even be too slow to capture the image you want. As a result, choosing the appropriate shutter speed will take trial and error, especially when you are first starting out. Chances are you will need to take multiple photos of the same subject with different shutter speeds until you get the photo you want.

Probably the best advice is to match your shutter speed to the subject you are photographing. For instance, if you are photographing a waterfall, a shutter speed of a few seconds may be all you need to blur the water and create a "lace veil" effect. However, if you want to photograph your dog running across the yard, half a second may be most appropriate or you risk photographing an unrecognizable blur. At the other end of the spectrum, if you are trying to create star trails, the shutter speed will be on the order of hours since the relative movement of the stars is inexorably slow.


Photo mine

\
Photo courtesy Ben Scheele


Photo courtesy Edy Santosa

less