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Saturday, March 17, 2012

Extended Exposure

This is a photographic technique when you leave the camera shutter open for reasonable duration of time. These can produce some amazing images especially at night. Below is an example of an extended exposure. What you will need is a tripod and a remote cable release.
Extended Exposure at Sattal

The camera has to be on full manual. Set the ISO to 100 ( counter intuitive but this is what is required) Pick an aperture of f5.6 or above. Having distance markers on your lens will help get the focus right.You can take help of the hyperfocal distance chart. It is important so set focus on the right place or you may run the risk of having a blurry image at the end of the exercise. If the aperture is at f22 the problem is a little less (but this will lengthen your exposure time). One trick for the people who don't have distance markers on the lens is to do a manual focus to infinity and just turn the dial a hair back and you would get what you need. It's trial and error thing to get the focus but for the most part I have found this works. 


The length of exposure varies and mostly a trial and error thing. Take notes every time you do this to help you the next time. This is also used when people do light painting. Light painting is a technique when you leave the light and paint the subject. Check out Troy Paiva website. There is some amazing stuff on this whole thing.http://lostamerica.com/