longexposure

Melbourne, Australia-based wedding photographer Lakshal Perera shot this stunning wedding photograph a few days ago showing the newlywed couple in the foreground and the Milky Way floating in the night sky. The scene was extremely dim, allowing for a clear view of the sky. Perera captured it in a single exposure using a Canon 5D Mark III and 16-35 f/2.8L lens at 17mm, 71 seconds of exposure, f/5.6, and ISO boosted up to 4000 (wow). The couple is relatively sharp given that they had to stand still for 71 seconds!

Photographer Rick Giles' project Light features abstract long-exposure shots of light pouring in through the door of a barn. He tells us,

The shots were created in camera by moving the camera across the surface of where the light is penetrating the barn. This draws the light in, and depending on the movement of the camera, creates shapes on the dark interior of the barn. Sometimes in quite abstract formations breaking the light down into the hues of the season. Other times mirroring the complete landscape of the exterior onto the interior wall.

It's awesome how the colors in the light offer a hint of what's on the other side of the door.

Last month we shared a long exposure photograph by NASA astronaut Don Pettit that showed star trails and city trails in the same frame. Turns out the photo was just one of many long exposure images shot by Pettit so far during Expedition 31. The photograph above shows star trails, an aurora, and flashes of lightning splattered all across the surface of the Earth.

Here's amazing concept: use a seemingly random display of dots (like the static you see on a signal-less television set) to share photographs that only a camera can see. The International Federation of Photographic Art created this clever interactive video that asks you to grab your camera and follow the instructions. Set your aperture to f/5.6 and your shutter speed at 1s. Snap a photo of the screen filled with static, and prepare to be amazed!

Silent World is a project by Paris-based artists Lucie & Simon that shows post-apocalyptic views of famous locations around the world. All but one or two of the people in each location are removed from the scene. Rather than use multiple exposures and compositing the images to remove moving objects (e.g. people and cars), they chose to use a neutral density filter -- one that's normally used by NASA for analyzing stars -- in order to achieve extremely long exposure times during the day.

Hamilton College assistant art professor Robert Knight has a project titled "Sleepless" that consists of ghostly long exposure photographs of people tossing and turning throughout the night.

German photographer Michael Wesely has spent decades working on techniques for extremely long camera exposures -- usually between two to three years. In the mid-1990s, he began using the technique to document urban development over time, capturing years of building projects in single frames. In 1997, he focused his cameras on the rebuilding of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, and in 2001 he began photographing the Museum of Modern Art's ambitious renovation project. He uses filters and extremely small apertures to reduce the amount of light striking the film, creating unique images that capture both space and time.

Photographer and makeup artist Nadia Wicker has a beautiful series of abstract photographs titled Ursides in which she captures self-portraits in which her face looks like exploding fireworks. While her method is secret, Wicker says that she uses her experience with makeup -- rather than Photoshop -- to create the photos.

Metropolis is a project by photographer Martin Roemers that consists of long exposure photographs that show the bustle and chaos of large cities.

Specifically, I’m looking at the small stories of the street vendor, the commuter, the passer-by, the market stallholder and other pedestrians, who populate the street or are a part of the traffic. Despite the megacity and its mega-commotion, their environment still maintains a human dimension. I present this by photographing busy locations from above. Moreover, every photo has a long exposure time so that the big city’s vitality is shown through the movement of people and traffic while the image literally focuses on the small story in question. Every megacity is a theatre and every city has a different stage and different actors, but in the end every single one of them is trying to make its way in today’s modern society. [#]

The project was awarded 1st prize in the 2011 World Press Photo competition in the category "Daily Life".

Light painting enthusiast Ian Hobson created this psychedelic long-exposure photo entirely in-camera. Can you figure out how it was created?

Digital Photo Blog shot these beautiful long exposure photographs of gold fireflies in Japan during the June to July rainy season, when they come together to mate.

Flickr user Chris captured this remarkable photograph of the Eiffel Tower at night …

Photographer Rob Whitworth created this time-lapse of the crazy traffic found in Ho …

Photographer Yasuaki Segawa captured this incredible photograph of the Milky Way rising above …

Claus Thiim captured this beautiful image of …

“What is Life?” is a creative stop motion animation created by a group of students at the …

Here's a long exposure light painting tutorial by a couple MIT Media Lab students. In addition to teaching the basics of the technique, they also show off a robot arm that they programmed to do extremely precise light painting photos and animations.

For his series titled "Drift", photographer David Burdeny traveled along roads in Canada, France, Japan, England, Belgium, and the USA, and captured the shifting light and color of the diverse landscapes by shooting at slow shutter speeds.

Photographer Mike Rosinski created this amazing image showing light trails from both fireflies and stars by stacking over 370 …

Flickr user Céline Ramoni has a beautiful set of photographs shot from the Yurikamome rail line connecting the cities of Shimbashi and Toyosu in Japan. The exposure times aren't too long (they're all less than a second), but the speed of the train creates plenty of motion blur -- even in daytime.

Here's an awesome tutorial that teaches you how to create beautiful light painting sparkler photos. The materials are pretty cheap: all you need is some steel wool, an egg whisk, and a rope or cable. Simply place the steel wool inside the whisk, light it on fire using a lighter (or 9V battery), and swing it around at the end of the cable while your camera snaps a long-exposure photo. Just be careful not to start a fire!

There's plenty of tutorials online teaching you the "proper" techniques for photographing fireworks, but have you ever tried shooting them "incorrectly" on purpose? When photography enthusiast Pete Rogina took his Canon 5D Mark II out to capture fireworks this past Independence Day, he decided to try "light painting" with the fireworks by shooting them at long exposures without a tripod, waving the camera so that the streaks of light would take on abstract shapes.

This light painting photograph was created by a group of students over in Germany using a swarm of seven Roomba automated vacuum cleaners. Each one had a different colored LED light attached to the top, making the resulting photo look like some kind of robotic Jackson Pollock painting. There's actually an entire Flickr group dedicated to using Roombas for light painting -- check it out of you have one of these robot minions serving you in your home.

Flickr user Robert Hodgin purchased a cheap RC helicopter and shot these 30 second exposure photographs of him attempting to keep the helicopter from crashing. If you have RC helicopter skills, you might be able to create pretty neat light-painting photographs using this idea.

Sit around long enough near an airport and you can shoot photos like these -- stacked long-exposure images that make airplanes look like fireflies streaking around the night sky. Flickr user Terence Chang visits various locations around the Bay Area to capture these photographs of San Francisco International Airport.

Runners in broad daylight aren't often captured as motion blurs, but that's exactly how Flickr user Justin (just big feet) shot the London Marathon. Just stick a neutral density filter or two onto your lens to restrict the amount of light entering your camera, allowing you to shoot at slower shutter speeds.

Photographer Denis Smith creates photos giant balls of light without any digital trickery, relying instead on light-painting. His technique is to spin a light around while slowly turning his body, creating spheres of light when seen in a long exposure photo.

I imagine, almost everyone interested in photography has seen the stunning pictures created with a technique called light painting. You set your camera to long exposure, 20 to 30 seconds or even longer, and use a light source, a flashlight or LED light, to "paint" with it. Most pictures have some kind of magic touch to it because you see only the track of light afterwards and not the actual light source. Light stencils are somewhat related to light painting. It uses the long exposure as well but uses a flash to illuminate a stencil to stamp the motive into the picture.

After seeing 3D light painting done with an iPad, classmates Jinhwan …

Here’s one of the most creative examples of light painting and long-exposure photography we’ve seen — a few techie …

Alexandra Pacula paints beautiful oil paintings of cities at night that look like blurry, long-exposure photographs.

Cameras usually hide what it’s shooting from you when the sensor is capturing light, so you can’t watch slow …

These photographers were taken by Phillip Maisel as part of his project, "A More Open Place". He made long exposure photographs of Facebook photos while flipping through albums, creating this surreal, layered effect.

This is an amazing 1.5 hour exposure taken at the Gippsland Lakes in Australia by Phil Hart, showing both star trails and the crazy blue light given off by a bioluminescent algae called Noctiluca scintillans, commonly known as the Sea Sparkle.

We came across some work by Maciej Leszczynski the other day, and wanted to share it with all of you.

On the same day I was experimenting with the light painting I described in a post …

I love experimenting with photography, and trying out interesting new techniques, angles, and styles. One of the things I’ve really …