Long Exposures

Longer exposures are a doorway into another world, showing us how even familiar scenes can look much different when photographed over periods measured in seconds. At night, long exposures produce streaks of light from moving, illuminated subjects like automobiles or amusement park rides. Or, you can move the camera or zoom the lens to get interesting streaks from non-moving light sources, such as the holiday lights shown in Figure 5.4. Extra long exposures of seemingly pitch dark subjects can reveal interesting views using light levels barely bright enough to see by. Long exposures can cause moving objects to vanish entirely (including during the day, in which case you’ll often need the help of neutral density filters to make the long exposure practical), because they don’t remain stationary long enough to register in a photograph.

Figure 5.4. Zooming during exposure can produce interesting streaks of light.