Working with slow shutter speeds can create beautiful effects in landscape photography. Especially in combination with water, this is often a successful combination to take beautiful photos. But how do you create such photos? In this blog I will explain the basics behind long exposure photography.

There are several ways to take pictures with slow shutter speeds. The easiest way is to do this at night. Find a place with a lot of traffic, choose a slow shutter speed and shoot! You will soon see that there are streaks of light from the passing traffic on your photo's. Especially in cities and along or above highways, this can produce beautiful pictures. With the help of the light meter in the camera you can choose the correct shutter speed in most cases. Most cameras have a maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds. However, this can be extended with the 'bulb' function. The photographer chooses the desired shutter speed himself. But be aware, for using bulb mode you need a remote control!

During the day, shooting photos with a slow shutter speed is more challenging. This is because there is a lot of light, so there is a good chance the photo will be overexposed very easily. This will result in a white photo. One way to force slower shutter speeds is to set the aperture towards f22. This reduces the amount of light on the sensor and slows the shutter speed. But on sunny days this is not always enough. And it will certainly impact the overall quality of the photo. In landscape photography it is common to choose an f-value between 8 and 14. This ensures that everything in the photo is sharp without any loss of quality. Most lenses are at their sharpest between this aperture. In order to be able to force a longer shutter speed, we have to use gray filters. You can see this as a kind of sunglasses for your camera. It reduces the incidence of light, so you can work with slower shutter speeds. I myself use gray filters from Lee Filters for this job. Depending on the circumstances, I have three types of gray filters in my bag. I use a so-called 'little', 'big' and 'super' stopper. 6-ND, 10-ND and 15-ND, respectively. These values ​​indicate how strong the gray filter is. In other words, how much light is being blocked. Working with such a filter can mean that the shutter speeds run up to more than 8 minutes. Having a solid tripod is very important because every vibration of the camera is disastrous for the sharpness of the photo. Keep in mind that taking a photo can take up to 8 minutes. That is relatively valuable time. Especially in the golden hour. That is why it is important to maximize the chance of success. To do that, you need a steady tripod.

Another accessory that is indispensable when taking photos with a slow shutter speed is a remote control cable. Allows you to take pictures with a shutter speed of more than 30 seconds. In addition, this tool ensures that the camera does not have to be touched when taking the photo. This prevents vibrations and contributes to a sharp end result.

Taking pictures with slow shutter speeds therefore requires some investment. Indispensable are:

Gray filters with accompanying accessories for attaching them to the lens;

A good tripod;

A remote control cable.

With the above tools, nothing stands in your way to shoot the most beautiful photos with slow shutter speeds!