POTD: “The Strip”, Las Vegas

The Strip, Las Vegas.

“The Strip”, Las Vegas

With long shutter speeds, you can capture the passage of time in a way that your “instant snapshot eyes” can’t.  Your eyes and brain are capturing a rapid series of individual images and turning them into motion, while a still camera can capture one very long image. You can create images with a camera that your unaided eyes can’t create.

All you need is a camera with long shutter speeds, a stable camera support like a tripod (or a bean bag), and a moving subject. Lights from moving vehicles are ideal. It also helps to have interesting surroundings like The Strip in Las Vegas.

Set up your camera, frame your subject and meter the scene.  Bright lights can fool a camera into underexposing the overall scene so it is a good idea to use exposure compensation to add +1, +2, or +3 stops to the exposure settings  the camera meter recommends.  “Bracket” your exposures by trying several different exposures around the one you think is ideal.

It is also helpful if you have an exposure guide like the Black Cat Exposure Guide which you can read about here and buy here.

Pick a lens aperture that will give you enough depth of field to suit your creative purposes. For this photo I used f/22 to maximize the depth of field. If the shutter speed need to be longer than the longest shutter speed your camera offers, set the camera to “B” (bulb), lock open the shutter with a cable release and keep the shutter open as long as you want.

Use the camera’s self timer or a cable release to avoid jiggling the camera when the shutter is fired. If you are using a long lens and your camera has a “mirror lockup” feature, turn it on to avoid vibrations from mirror slap at the beginning of the exposure.

If you are shooting from a bridge, don’t take pictures while traffic is crossing the bridge or the camera will pick up the vibrations and blur the image. The same goes for pedestrian overpasses with lots of people, although that is hard to accomplish in a busy place like Las Vegas. You may have to wait a while to catch a lull in the pedestrian traffic.

The place to practice is on a busy street in your home town. That way you will be experienced and ready when you go to Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or some other photo-rich, world class city.

More information about depth of field, exposure at night, and the creative use of shutter speeds can be found in Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies.

Photo Data: Canon 5D. Canon EF 70-200mm lens at 135 mm. f/22, 10 seconds, ISO 100.