Choosing the best shutter speed for different long exposure photography situations

 

 

Nigel Danson is back in the Faroe Islands in his newest video. It's a beautiful location for landscape photography and a great place to try out long exposure photography. When capturing long exposure images, different subjects look best with varying shutter speeds. A long exposure image of calm water may require a different exposure time than shooting very choppy ocean water. If you feel comfortable in Photoshop, you can also composite images captured at different shutter speeds. For example, you can combine a long exposure shot of a waterfall with a short exposure shot of the sky, such that the water is smooth but the clouds are detailed and frozen in the sky, even if it's a windy day.

Finding the right shutter speeds for different long exposure situations requires practice and experience, but Danson does share some general tips and tricks in the video below, such as shooting with 1-3 second shutter speeds when shooting water coming up and over coastal rocks. This allows you to retain some of the detail of the water. Depending on your camera's base ISO, the aperture range of your lens and the ambient light, what gear you need for long exposure photography will vary. When shooting during the day, you may need a 10-stop neutral density filter. It's possible you'd need something with even more light-blocking capabilities, especially if you wanted very long exposures, such as 60 seconds or more.

To see more of Nigel Danson's work, head to his website and follow him on Instagram. Danson has also recently launched a massive landscape photography course, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

(Via Nigel Danson)