Here is a collection of Long Exposure Night Photographs taken on a Vivitar v3800n. For these shots I used a tripod and a shutter release cable. I used the shutter release to keep the shutter open for long periods of time, which enabled me to capture as much natural light as possible. The exposure times in these photographs range from between 3 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on the light conditions at the time. The tripod is simply used to keep the camera steady (avoiding blurry images).
Tags: Analog Photography, Long Exposure Photography, Night Photography, SLR
Hey! Is it okay that I go a bit off topic? I am trying to read your page on my Blackberry but it doesn’t display properly, do you have any suggestions? Thanks for the help I hope! Lacy
Hey Lacy! The website is quite new! so it still needs abit of tweeking to the design… but after reading your comment, I have set up a mobile version of the site. If you re-visit the site on your blackberry it should take you to the new mobile version! cheers!
Danny
Hey thanks for fresh stuff here! By the way I wanted to ask about material. From where are you getting these ideas?
I studied photography. I think when you spend alot of time messing about with photography, you come up with alot of ideas. Also just looking on the internet is very inspiring.
Danny
Nice information, valuable and excellent design, as share good stuff with good ideas and concepts, lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need, thanks for all the enthusiasm to offer such helpful information here.
outstanding!
Giving a blog talk to beginner bloggers in the not-too-distant future, I’ll be pointing people in the direction of your efforts. Nicely put together dude.
Great blog!
I love doing long exposure night shots. I normally just guess the exposure times and use completely manual cameras. How do you decide on exposure times?
I am much the same really! I guess some shots, especially if I’m shooting somewhere I have never been before. I usually leave my SLR on f8 then judge the exposure time by how much light is around me. There is a Michael Kenna interview online somewhere which gives great tips on night exposure times, It’s worth trying to find it and having a look at some of his amazing shots! (if you haven’t already!)
when doing night photography you don’t put any flash in it right? just let the shutter open for quite awhile?
That’s right, I leave the shutter open for a matter of minutes, to let the natural light in. I never use a flash for my night photography shots.
cheers for your interest Leo!
Thank you Danny.
Grrrrr! My first film came out really horrible! any advices that you can give? When shooting at night how do you know how long will you let the shutter open? My camera is a diana f+ and I just don’t know how long 5 sec? 10 sec? 2min? some say trial and error and record your data but is there a rule of thumb? also when using a flash (indoor or outdoor), does that mean i don’t need to put the shutter in B mode and hold the shutter for a little bit longer or is it just just in N which is 1/100 sec? Lastly, what is the difference between iso 400 iso 200 iso 100 films? does that means the higher the iso the less time needed for the shutter to be open or is there more to it?
Thanks,
Leo
Hi Leo!
Sorry to hear they didn’t come out as you planned! When I first started taking night shots I would probably have 10 decent shots out of 36! So don’t give up! It is a good idea to make a note of your exposure times in a little note book, then you start to get a rough idea of how long to leave the shutter open. As for film speeds… the higher the speed of the film, the less time it will take, BUT… you will get a better quality photograph if you stick to iso 100. You may find your pictures looking real grainy and grey if you use a iso 400 for example. I not sure about other people, but I always use iso 100 with diana cameras anyway, it usually gives the best results. As for the B and N settings with the flash, I guess you can use it on either setting. I normally use an SLR for my night shots, but I will use my Diana F+ next time and post some tips on the blog!
hey! I got a question I’m using 36 exposure film but after i pick it up from 1 hour photo lab i look at the pictures and there is only 16 or 18 but never 36…. what might this be? over exposure? do you ever get that?
thanks
Leo
Hey Leo!
Yes this sometimes happens to me, if it is a very under exposed image then photo lab’s digital computer will think the image is blank. You should be able to see the numbers on your negatives to see which ones didn’t come out.
cheers
Danny
Thank you very much for writing such an interesting article on this topic. This has really made me think and I hope to read more. Jane