Research - The Work of Other Photographers
These images feature a shutter speed value that is modified in order for the final outcome to be different. A standard shutter speed for example would be around 1/50 - 1/300 depending on the light levels, aperture etc. So modifying these settings to have a longer exposure require different environments and lighting, for example having a longer exposure of maybe 5 seconds, the light would have to be a lot lower in order for the picture to have the subject bright enough to see. With the longer exposure comes camera shake and human error. This is counteracted with things such as tripods or something else to balance the camera and reduce the shake, ensuring everything is in focus.
Sometimes having a lower shutter speed can be a good thing and can be utilised to create motion blur in certain techniques. Some images that use the slower exposure track a subject which creates a really unique effect keeping the subject in focus while the background is blurred, this is hard to create due to the subject moving and having to perfectly track them.
However for the reverse, the opposite is true. Using a very high shutter speed such as 1/3500 requires a lot of light and captures movement in a still frame. This is sometimes used for sports, cars, water droplets etc. Using this is difficult due to the fact that really specific requirements have to be met with light levels and the settings used on the camera.
Lincoln Harrison
Lincoln Harrison is a photographer that specialises in long exposure photography. His website "lincolnharrison.com" shows his galleries of long exposures and his collections of work. His main 4 categories are "Seascapes", "Landscapes", "Star Trails", and "Nightscapes".
He provides explanation to the process he uses on some of the pictures, for example
My Work
Picture 1
This image was taken using 59, 30 second exposures and stacked using the photoshop feature "Smart Object > Stacking Mode > Maximum"
Each of these images contained a small portion of the actual image and showed little movement within the stars, but put together they show how much the stars move over a period of time. The total exposure time was around 30 - 45 mins because of issues I had. Some other editing was done in photoshop such as contrast shifting, levels and colour changing to bring out the colours.
Each of these images contained a small portion of the actual image and showed little movement within the stars, but put together they show how much the stars move over a period of time. The total exposure time was around 30 - 45 mins because of issues I had. Some other editing was done in photoshop such as contrast shifting, levels and colour changing to bring out the colours.
This is what the original pictures look like, unedited. In Each picture the stars have moved slightly due to the 30 second exposure and the rotation of the Earth. Doing this multiple times over the course of some time would result in a picture of the movement of the stars.
Picture 2
This image consists of 120, 30 second exposures stacked together using StarStax then further processed using Photoshop to boost saturation, light and contrast.
In between some of the pictures, my camera moved positions and captured a different perspective, so there are some different positions for some stars. Even though this final image was taken over an hour total, the trails are still quite small due to the stars being close to polaris. Polaris lies nearly in a direct line with the Earth's rotational axis "above" the North Pole—the north celestial pole—Polaris stands almost motionless in the sky, and all the stars of the northern sky appear to rotate around it. This makes for very interesting pictures when the stars seem to revolve around it. For example (not my image)
Due to the movement of my camera, I had to stack certain images differently and in different groups to line up the stars and buildings correctly.
Picture 3
This picture was taken using a very fast shutter speed while rain was dripping from my roof, the 1/1250 shutter speed really captures the movement of the rain drop.