What settings do I need for Long Exposures ?

[nilagin]

Bearing in mind I haven't got a DSLR but my Panasonic DMC FZ5 has manual settings. What settings would I be looking for to take long exposure shots. I like the idea of night time shots of traffic with trailing lights etc. Also seeing the daytime groyne shots in 'Sharing' how do I get these. The exposure on the camera max's out at 8 secs.

 

[nilagin]

Do I take it nobody knows then. Do I just adjust the exposure time or do I need to adjust the apperture too. I tried indoors during daylight but pictures were too light and washed out.

 

[Matt]

you really need an ND filter to make it work, the amount of light coming in is too high on a bright day, set aperture to smallest aperture, whatever that is for your camera

 

[nilagin]

Cheers Matty , can I get an ND filter for my camera?

 

[Richard]

Dusk is the best time. It has to be dark enough for people to have lights on but still have some light in the sky to make that part of the picture interesting as well

This is one I shot on a 350D. Didn't use an ND filter, just set it to shutter priority and used an exposure of 15 seconds.



8 seconds should be plenty as long as you use a small aperture

 

[Matt]

daytime needs nd filter, nighttime shouldnt need one

 

[RobertP]

Didn't see this before. Answer is trial and error. You need to use full manual settings. At night try f8 100 iso and say 5 seconds to start with. If it is too bright then try f11 or f13. If the picture is just black or too dark try f5.6 or wider and your 8 seconds. Last resort increase the iso as well.

Just keep tweaking until you get something you like. If you are trying to do it in daylight you need to cut down the light with ND filters (or a bit of welding glass or similar taped on the lens face ). Then you can have long shutter times.

 

[nilagin]

Thanks all now just need an chance to try some experiments.

 

[Hacker]

The groyne shots you were referring to were taken at dusk, it was actually getting dark as I was facing East and the cloud cover was getting heavy, I was after long exposures to try and achieve the milky effect on the water. If the sky is quite light you might need to use a graduated neutral density filter to give a better exposure balance.

As Robert said, it really is down to trial and error but for a busy road 8 seconds should be plenty for some light trails, remember to switch on the noise reduction if your camera has that option.