Gettin > 30 sec exposure

mickyc1

mickyc1

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Michael
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I see quite a lot of people talking about exposure times greater than 30secs but most cameras i have had a look at only offer up to 30 seconds, is there a way to get bigger than this? I have seen talk of wedges and other equipment but I do not have a clue what they are. Anyone shed any light on this for me?
 
You can take a longer exposure by purchasing a cable release which allows you to use "Bulb mode"
 
Most DSLRs have a 'bulb' feature which means that the shutter will open for as long as you press the button for. If you turn the shutter dial until it gets to 30 seconds then go one more click past that then it should say bulb on the display. If you have a remote release (which you should be using for long exposures) then it'll probably have a locking feature so you can lock the shutter open for a long period of time so you don't have to stand there with your finger on the button for ages.
 
You need to use the 'B' function (bulb), you can usually press the shutter to stop/start the exposure, but is far better to purchase a remote release/timer
 
The BULB function will give you as long as you want exposure, remote trigger is a must for not getting camera shake.

edit;Wow 4 replies in 2 mins :lol:
 
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Rubiks said:
You can take a longer exposure by purchasing a cable release which allows you to use "Bulb mode"
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a cable release won't allow you to access bulb mode, its available via the camera if you need it and you can use the onboard shutter button
 
Just to clear up a few things - you can't get a cable release for the D3000. If you don't fancy holding the button down on bulb mode, buy a Nikon ML-L3 IR remote (or other brand equivelant) - you can get them for about £15.

You can then expose up to 30 minutes, but you have to time it manually (click to open shutter, click to close).
 
Or if you don't have a cable release or remote, you can set the camera to capture multiple 30 second exposures and then blend them together later.

You should have an option to choose the number of shots in the timer menu.
 
Excellent, i wondered what 'bulb' mode was when i seen it appear before. I have an IR remote that i use. Say I want to go over 30secs, do i hit the button on the remote to start off the shot, then hit the button again to finish the exposure?
 
Not sure how the D3000 accesses Bulb but my old D70 does it using the IR remote ML-L3, setting the shutter speed to B in S mode then it's simply one press of the remote's button to open the shutter and another to close it. On the D70, I think the maximum is 30 minutes but check your D3000 manual.
 
mickyc1 said:
Excellent, i wondered what 'bulb' mode was when i seen it appear before. I have an IR remote that i use. Say I want to go over 30secs, do i hit the button on the remote to start off the shot, then hit the button again to finish the exposure?
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You've got it :thumbs:
 
Many thanks all, i'm gonna mess around with this setting this evening if the weather permits.
 
I find the Phottix Tr-90 very useful for long exposures.. you can programme in the shutter duration and it's press-the-button fire-and-forget. the crop up on Ebay in a variety of versions for different camera models (the Phottix website tells you which model for which camera). Search for "TR-90" on Ebay..
 
saw a tip on youtube last week , Place an elastic band around the shutter release button and a rubber from a pencil under the band and leave on for as long as needed , or what I did was buy a shutter release cabe off Flebay for less than £4 :)
 
The talk of "wedges" relates to shooting the night sky, if you try to shoot at anything over 30 seconds you will get elongated stars or streaks due to the earths rotation.

An equatorial mount when aligned properly to the pole star will allow you to "track" the apparent motion of the stars/planets/moon and thus reduce the risk of getting "star trails" or elongated stars.

A simple hand driven or battery driven version can be made if you have someone who's handy with wood and a few tools, google barn door mount or scotch mount and you should come up with the plans to make one.
 
you need to use the bulb function which is indicated by the b on the dial
 
Back in Ancient times cameras used to have a T setting as well as Bulb, you pressed to open and again to close, it should be fairly easy to implement this on a modern digital camera, along with time lapse, surely just a software thing. Come on manufacturers forget the extra megapixels give us something useful.
 
artyman said:
Back in Ancient times cameras used to have a T setting as well as Bulb, you pressed to open and again to close, it should be fairly easy to implement this on a modern digital camera, along with time lapse, surely just a software thing. Come on manufacturers forget the extra megapixels give us something useful.
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but isn't that what bulb does now?
 
Bulb only holds the shutter open while pressed down, shutter closes when you take your finger off the release. The older "T" (Timed) setting used two presses, one to open and the next to close the shutter.
 
artyman said:
Back in Ancient times cameras used to have a T setting as well as Bulb, you pressed to open and again to close, it should be fairly easy to implement this on a modern digital camera, along with time lapse, surely just a software thing. Come on manufacturers forget the extra megapixels give us something useful.
Click to expand...

But they couldn't possibly do something that would reduce sales of their ridiculously overpriced timer remotes now could they?
 
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