Weekly Update

Before reaching for the ND filter, ask yourself one question:

What will a longer shutter speed add to this photograph?

Perhaps you want to:

• smooth rough water
• turn breaking waves into mist
• stretch moving clouds across the sky
• remove distracting people
• simplify a chaotic scene
• create a sense of calm
• show the passage of time

If you have an answer, long exposure may be exactly the right technique.

If the answer is simply, "because I have a 10-stop filter", perhaps leave the filter in the bag.

Ian's photography isn't about making long exposures for their own sake.

It's about using time as part of the composition.

Imagine standing on the coast during a storm.

The waves are crashing against the rocks.

Spray is flying through the air.

Dark, textured clouds are building overhead.

You could put on a strong ND filter and make a five-minute exposure.

The water might become beautifully smooth.

The clouds might turn into long streaks.

But what happened to the storm?

You may have removed the very things that made the scene interesting.

Ian specifically pointed out that if you've got beautiful detail in the sky, an extremely long exposure may simply smear that detail away.

Sometimes the texture in the waves matters.

Sometimes the shape of a cloud matters.

Sometimes freezing movement tells the story better than blurring it.

Long exposure should change movement deliberately, not automatically.

Ian shared a particularly useful habit during his presentation.

He takes a static photograph first.

Before committing to the long exposure, he photographs the scene conventionally.

There are several reasons for doing this.

It gives him a chance to check:

• composition
• focus
• exposure
• histogram
• highlight and shadow detail

But there's another creative reason.

It gives him an alternative.

After making the long exposure, he can compare the two.

Sometimes the long exposure transforms the scene.

Sometimes the original photograph is better.

That's an important lesson.

Don't become so committed to the technique that you stop looking at the photograph.

We've used shutter speeds such as 30 seconds, two minutes and even sixteen minutes throughout this series.

But none of those numbers is inherently special.

Different shutter speeds record movement differently.

Consider moving seawater.

At a relatively fast shutter speed, you may freeze every droplet.

Slow down slightly and the water begins to show movement.

Move into exposures of a second or two and waves may develop flowing streaks and texture.

At 30 seconds, much of that detail may disappear.

Over several minutes, the sea may become almost completely smooth.

Each interpretation can work.

The question isn't:

"What shutter speed should I use for long exposure?"

It's:

"How do I want movement to look in this photograph?"

That is a much more useful way of thinking.

Ian spoke about being able to look at a scene and imagine what a long exposure might do to it.

That's previsualisation.

You're looking at choppy water but imagining it smooth.

You're seeing a small cloud on one side of the frame and thinking about where it might travel during a 12-minute exposure.

You're watching hundreds of birds moving through a scene and anticipating that many of them may disappear during a sufficiently long exposure.

Ian demonstrated this with one of his coastal photographs.

The original scene was busy: choppy water, large numbers of birds, hard light and a relatively small area of cloud.

During a long exposure, the scene changed.

The moving birds largely disappeared.

The water became smooth.

The cloud travelled across the sky.

And because the sun was setting during the exposure, the character of the light itself changed.

The finished photograph was therefore something he couldn't simply see standing in front of the camera.

He had to imagine what time would do to the scene.

That's where long exposure moves beyond technique and becomes creative photography.

Ian has been a professional photographer for around four decades, yet he openly acknowledged that long exposure photography still involves trial and error.

That's part of what he enjoys about it.

When the shutter remains open for several minutes, you can't predict everything.

Clouds change direction.

Waves behave differently.

Light changes.

People enter the frame.

Boats appear.

Weather arrives.

Sometimes the resulting photograph isn't what you expected.

Sometimes it's better.

Ian compared the anticipation of waiting for a long exposure to the days of the darkroom, when photographers watched a print slowly appear in the developer tray.

There's an element of discovery.

Even with all the technology available to us, photography can still surprise us.

Perhaps the strongest message running through Ian's entire presentation wasn't really about long exposure at all.

It was about slowing down.

Ian described making a 14-minute exposure followed by a 14-minute dark-frame calibration.

That's 28 minutes devoted to a single photograph.

While the camera was working, he wasn't racing around looking for another twenty compositions.

He was looking.

Thinking.

Observing.

In one example, while waiting for an exposure to finish, he noticed another possible photograph.

He returned and photographed it the following night.

That led to another idea.

Then another.

Over four successive nights he produced four photographs that became his successful 2017 Victorian Landscape Photographer of the Year portfolio.

One photograph led to the next because he gave himself time to look.

Ian also spoke about seeing familiar locations differently.

At Clifton Springs, his friend headed down towards the obvious viewpoint while Ian was still near the car.

Ian looked down from above and saw his photograph.

That became a 14-minute exposure.

His friend later returned and wondered why Ian hadn't gone down to the supposedly better location.

Ian already had the photograph he wanted.

There's an important lesson in that for all photography.

The place everyone else puts their tripod isn't necessarily where yours belongs.

Move higher.

Get lower.

Walk around the subject.

Look behind you.

Study the negative space.

Think about balance.

Ian's work frequently uses strong graphic shapes, careful alignment and considerable negative space.

The long exposure complements that simplicity.

The composition still has to work.

Another recurring theme in Ian's presentation was that remarkable photographs don't require remarkable destinations.

Yes, Ian photographs while travelling.

But many of the photographs he showed were made around Melbourne and Victoria.

Beaches.

Piers.

Stormwater outlets.

Bridges.

Bathing boxes.

Industrial structures.

Places thousands of people walk past without giving them a second thought.

Long exposure can help us reinterpret familiar locations.

A rough sea becomes a minimalist surface.

A mundane structure becomes a graphic shape.

Streetlights illuminate a scene in ways we don't normally perceive.

Moving distractions disappear.

But the photographer has to recognise the potential first.

As Ian demonstrated repeatedly:

You don't necessarily need a better location. Sometimes you simply need to see your location differently.

Across this series we've mentioned some impressive equipment.

Ian uses professional cameras and lenses, a high-quality tripod and precision head, and today uses a Phase One system capable of computational Frame Averaging.

But one of his broader messages was that equipment doesn't make the photograph.

As he put it during the presentation, borrowing a familiar photographic expression:

It's not the camera. It's the four inches behind it.

Ian even included an iPhone photograph among his professional work to reinforce the point.

Equipment gives us possibilities.

Technique gives us control.

But neither decides where to stand, what to include, what to exclude or when to press the shutter.

That's still the photographer's job.

For our final exercise, take your tripod and ND filter to a location containing movement.

But don't put the filter on immediately.

First, make a conventional photograph.

Then try several different shutter speeds.

Perhaps:

1 second

5 seconds

30 seconds

2 minutes

You don't have to use those exact times. Choose exposures appropriate to the conditions and your equipment.

Most importantly, don't decide beforehand that the longest exposure will be the best photograph.

When you get home, compare them.

Ignore the technical achievement involved in making each exposure.

Simply ask:

Which photograph do I prefer?

Then ask:

Why?

Perhaps the two-second exposure retained just enough texture in the water.

Perhaps 30 seconds simplified the scene beautifully.

Perhaps the conventional exposure captured the energy of the waves better than any of them.

If that's the case, the conventional photograph wins.

And that's perfectly okay.

Before fitting your ND filter, ask:

What will the long exposure contribute to this photograph?

If you can't answer that question, take the photograph without it first.

Long exposure isn't the objective.

The photograph is.

Over twelve parts, Ian's presentation has given us a remarkably complete workflow:

1. See the photograph before worrying about the equipment.

2. Set up a stable tripod.

3. Compose carefully.

4. Focus before fitting a strong ND filter.

5. Work around your camera's base ISO where appropriate.

6. Choose an aperture suitable for the scene.

7. Make a normal test exposure first.

8. Check the histogram rather than trusting LCD brightness.

9. Protect important highlights while capturing useful shadow information.

10. Switch to manual focus before fitting the ND filter.

11. Fit the ND filter carefully.

12. Check for light leaks.

13. Cover the optical viewfinder when using a DSLR for very long exposures.

14. Secure cables, straps and anything else that might move.

15. Calculate the filtered exposure.

16. Use Bulb mode or your camera's long-exposure facilities when required.

17. Start the exposure without disturbing the camera.

18. Let time do its work.

19. Allow Long Exposure Noise Reduction to complete if you're using it.

20. Compare the result with your original photograph.

And perhaps the most important step:

21. Decide whether the long exposure actually made the photograph better.

Ian's presentation began with equipment and technique, but underneath it was something much more important.

After almost 40 years as a professional photographer, he spoke about photography as something that remains part of who he is.

Commercial photography is his work.

Going out with a camera and making photographs for himself keeps the passion alive.

Long exposure photography gave him a way to slow down, experiment, revisit familiar places and see them differently.

Perhaps that's the best place to finish this series.

We can learn the settings.

We can buy the filters.

We can calculate the exposures.

But ultimately, the reason to head out with the camera is much simpler.

Be curious. Keep looking. Experiment. And make photographs because you enjoy making photographs.

📷 Mastering Long Exposure Photography

With thanks to Ian van der Wolde for sharing his photographs, experience, techniques and enthusiasm with photographers at the VAPS Convention, and for providing the inspiration and material for this 12-part series.

For Warrnambool Camera Club competition files use:

• File Format: JPEG
• Colour Space: sRGB
• Maximum Dimensions: 1920 × 1080 pixels
• Maximum File Size: 5 MB

These settings apply to both EDPI entries and the digital copy required with print entries.

For an EDPI competition entry:

• Export as JPEG
• Use sRGB
• Fit the image within 1920 × 1080 pixels
• Keep the file at 5 MB or less

The photograph does not have to be exactly 1920 × 1080 pixels. It only needs to fit inside those maximum dimensions.

The physical print is prepared separately, but the digital copy supplied with the print entry uses exactly the same digital limits as an EDPI entry:

• JPEG
• sRGB
• Maximum 1920 × 1080 pixels
• Maximum 5 MB

You therefore only need one Lightroom export preset for both EDPI files and the digital copies supplied with print entries.

1. Open Export: Select the finished image, then choose File → Export.
2. File Settings: Set Image Format to JPEG and Colour Space to sRGB.
3. Image Sizing: Set Resize to Fit: Width & Height. Enter W 1920 px and H 1080 px. Tick Don't Enlarge.
4. Output Sharpening: Choose Sharpen For: Screen and Amount: Standard.
5. Check File Size: If the exported JPEG is over 5 MB, reduce the JPEG Quality slightly and export again.

Final check: the dimensions fit inside 1920 × 1080 and the file size is 5 MB or less.

Lightroom keeps the photograph's original shape. The exported image only needs to fit within the Club's maximum dimensions.

Examples of valid competition exports include:

Do not stretch, squash, add borders or force the photograph to exactly fill 1920 × 1080.

Once the settings are correct, save them as a Lightroom export preset so you do not have to rebuild them every time you enter a competition.

A useful preset name is:

WCC Competition — 1920x1080 — 5MB

You can then use that same preset for both your EDPI entries and the digital copies required with print entries.