Latest / The Nerdy Photographer Podcast / 066 - Long Exposure Photography Tips

Transcript

066 - Long Exposure Photography Tips · The Nerdy Photographer Podcast

0:00
Casey Fatchett: You. Hello and welcome to the nerdy
0:06
photographer podcast. I am your host, Casey Fatchett. And
0:10
today's nerdlet episode, we are going to cover some tips for
0:14
long exposure photos. So if you're taking long exposure
0:17
photos, whether you're doing landscape pictures, waterscapes
0:21
or, you know, light painting, things like that. These are
0:24
three useful tips to help you get better pictures. Number one,
0:28
get a tripod. Might seem simple, but one of the biggest elements
0:32
of getting great long exposure shots is keeping your camera
0:35
still. Even a little bit of movement can make things blurry
0:39
and totally ruin your picture. That means you need to stabilize
0:42
your camera. And what's the simplest way to do that? Well, a
0:45
tripod. Whatever you're photographing, whether it's
0:47
landscapes, urban settings, starry skies, a quality tripod
0:51
is literally the base on which your photos are built. So I'm
0:55
going to post some links in the episode description to some good
0:58
tripods. Here's one thing that I will say, the more important it
1:02
is to you. Like these photos are to you, the more money you
1:05
should spend on a tripod. Because cheap tripods are, you
1:09
know, just notoriously bad. So spending the money on a tripod,
1:12
if it's something you're going to use you plan to use for years
1:15
to come, it will definitely be a return on investment. Please
1:19
feel free to spend, you know, the more money on that is a
1:22
investment. Well, it returns to you. You know, multiple times.
1:27
All right. Tip number two, use a trigger. Another part of keeping
1:31
your camera steady is keeping your hands off your camera. You
1:34
can use a remote trigger, or even like a cable release that
1:36
actually connects to your camera to keep your hands from
1:39
disturbing your camera while the shutter is released. Even if
1:43
your camera's on a tripod, your finger can apply enough pressure
1:46
to disturb it, especially if you're doing really long
1:49
exposures, like you do for Astro photography. Personally, I use
1:52
cam Ranger as my remote camera trigger, but you can also find
1:55
similar triggers from case air Pluto and Arsenal, and I'm sure
1:59
there are plenty of others out there. I will put a link to my
2:02
camera Ranger info in the Episode Notes for this episode,
2:07
and my final final tip, or long exposures, is use a neutral
2:13
density filter. We had that episode on what our different
2:18
camera filters and lens filters are so use a neutral density
2:22
filter. You've ever wondered how photographers get those really
2:26
long beautiful like exposures of waterfalls or rivers, where the
2:30
water, just like looks totally blurred out, and everything else
2:33
and other things are totally in focus? Well, it's most likely
2:35
that they're using a neutral density filter. A neutral
2:37
density filter is like kind of it's not like sunglasses. Those
2:41
are more like polarizing filters. It's different. It
2:43
darkens evenly the entire image, allowing you to use long
2:47
exposures and very wide open apertures, even in brightly lit
2:51
conditions like in the middle of the day, without blowing out the
2:54
highlights or bright areas of your photo. You use that neutral
2:58
density filter, they're measured in degrees of darkness or stops
3:02
of light that they block out. Use filters with a specific
3:06
number of stops when I'm photographing portraits, so I
3:08
can use a low aperture in bright conditions. But when I'm comes
3:12
to long exposures, I usually carry like long exposure shots
3:15
of like landscapes and things that I personally carry a
3:17
variable neutrino density filter that ranges from one to 22
3:21
stops, because that way I don't have to carry a bunch of
3:24
different filters with me when I go out into the woods. Big
3:26
pictures. That's me. I'm not primarily a landscape
3:28
photographer, so you know, a variable ND filter is fine by
3:32
me, but you may decide otherwise, but I highly
3:35
recommend using a neutral density filter you do a lot of
3:38
long exposure photos. It'll keep you from blowing out the
3:43
brightly lit parts of your image, and that's all for this
3:47
episode. You can follow along on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and
3:53
Tiktok at the nerdy photo, and please reach out to me there and
3:56
let me know what other sorts of topics you'd like to hear about
3:59
in future episodes, whether it's a short nerd lit episode like
4:03
this, one with primarily technical tips, or one of our
4:06
longer interview episodes, please reach out to me at the
4:10
nerdy photo on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and Tiktok. You
4:15
can also please subscribe to the podcast. More listeners always
4:20
welcome. Tell your friends, leave a review. This is an
4:23
independent podcast, which means your feedback and your effort
4:28
and telling other people about the podcast go a very long way
4:31
in helping this podcast succeed. And you want us to succeed,
4:34
don't you? Okay, that's great until Until next time, stay safe
4:39
and stay nerdy. You ready to.
5:00
Unknown: Down in a world of utter randomness. One podcast
5:09
stood up from the bunch, and it was the amazing world of talking
5:15
shiz, sorry, I had to clear my throat there. Yeah, it's just
5:21
mainly randomness,
5:22
and focus is definitely not focused on at all.
5:25
No, our podcast is definitely no theme at all. It's literally
5:32
random, and talk about literally everything and throwing in
5:35
random jokes at any given
5:36
time we're on Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts. So go ahead,
5:42
tune in New Episodes weekly.
5:44
And we're International, international, very, very well.
5:49
So tune in, follow us on Twitter. See you there.