22 May 2011

Long Exposure – Amazing Inspirational Photography

Sometimes you want to take a picture of something, somewhere or someone where some of what you want to capture is still yet other parts are moving.  When this happens then long exposure should be considered.  It makes the capture of the stationary parts of your picture sharper still and blurs the parts which are moving.

Long exposure involves using a long duration shutter speed – effectively slowing it down (almost to a standstill, figuratively speaking).  One of the more interesting effects of slowing down the speed of your shutter is the light trails that can be captured moving from one part of the picture to another.

Of course, capturing these trails of luminosity mean that long exposures are much easier to achieve when the light is low – particularly at night. Yet the effect can be successfully achieved in the day time if neutral density filters are applied or your camera is designed with the facility to capture long exposure in brighter lights.

Long exposure does not necessarily have to be that long.  The right effect can be achieved in seconds rather than minutes or hours – when you have fireworks going off or cars speeding down roads then the long exposure time may not need to be a deal of time.

Sometimes the night can become almost like day when it comes to long exposure.  When the shutter is open for an extended period of time then more light is absorbed which makes the final photograph appear much brighter, often almost day like in quality.  By leaving your camera perfectly still (obviously, perhaps) the vibrancy and clarity of a photograph can be enhanced many times over.

The effect can be stunning.  Enjoy this selection of some of the best long exposure photography that we could find.  A final note too – often people say that it is hard to source good copyright free pictures on the internet and so use that as an excuse to effectively steal the work of others.  Each and every one of the astounding pictures you find here has a Creative Commons license which enables its reproduction on Kuriositas for your pleasure, with a link back to the original photograph and photographer.