How to Take long exposures without filters

in this video i'll show you guys how you can create long exposure stroke fine art photography pictures without using any filters whatsoever plus i'll be giving away my trusty ifootage tripod hi guys and welcome to this week's video it's all about long exposure photography and the question is i suppose can you take long exposure images without the use of any filters whatsoever well a bit of a spoiler alert yes you can [Music] all right let's talk you through this video very quickly talk you through my setup first of all the burning question how is it possible to take long exposure shots when you don't own or you don't have in your possession any filters well it just requires one thing and one thing alone and that is timing you see i've come to the seaside and all i need to do is to ensure that i'm here during sunrise or sunset but before sunrise and after sunset so in other words without stating the obvious the reason why we introduced neutral density filters onto the front of our lenses is simply to reduce the light falling onto the sensor well if you go out in conditions where there is less light than say during the day then that will have exactly the same effect so i find myself here at this great location as the tide's coming in as the sun is setting so all i'm going to do now is set my camera up i will have to move because the tide's coming all the way up to where i am at the moment um it's about 30 minutes of high tide left so i probably will need to go back a little bit further but all i need to do set up my composition set up my focus and get everything right and then just simply wait until the light falls off it really is as simple as that oh i am going to have to move that's coming in quicker than i thought that's a good start i just had to rush back okay so let's try getting set up once again let's go through the equipment i'm gonna need first of all well gonna need a camera i'm gonna need a tripod and pretty much that is it make sure it's a sturdy tripod and as the tide is coming in make sure that your tripod is not stood on wet sand try your best to ensure that that doesn't happen and depending on how late we stay here if i'm if i'm going to need to to extend my shutter speed beyond 30 seconds then i'm going to need a timer or intervalometer the chances are some of you guys might well have a timer or intervalometer both the same thing by the way built into your camera okay so let's get set up like i did before i've got the groins from the left-hand side going two-thirds of the way into the frame maybe just slightly over half and on the third in the background there i've got a marker and that looks to be fine coming up towards the end of this video by the way i will be giving away my eye footage tripod i do love this tripod this is going to be a very plain image very fine arty if you wish over a long exposure that's really nice okay so ah got my composition pre-focus a third of the way into the frames using the groins on the left-hand side right gonna set my camera up in the normal way iso 100 f11 gonna bring up my histogram and then i'm simply going to find out how slow i can push the shutter speed two second delay on there click and that already is looking pretty nice i'm gonna capture that again as the tide is receding just to get some streaks on the go and then we're going to fine-tune my settings and then we're going to talk about light that comes all the way up there one two yeah okay that's quite nice [Music] camera on a tripod sturdy tripod got my composition everything is in place i've got my settings right base iso in this synthesizer so 100 f11 because that's my go-to aperture f11 will render pretty much everything in focus as long as you focus roughly a third of the way to the image and i've then done that focus a third of the way to the image and then switch my focus on to manual so my camera now will no longer hunt or chase and my camera settings at this present moment in time is uh i'm at an eighth of a second eighth is really really good and all i'm going to do now is just sit here and as the tide is pretty much coming to its peak the light is starting to drop off i'll have probably about 35 40 minutes maybe an hour for the tide to turn around before it starts going out in which case the light will drop off an awful lot more than it currently is at the moment let's drop that across there there the light will drop off considerably more in that length of time in or during the next hour so during blue hour and everything so all i'm now going to do is react to the lack of light simply by slowing my shutter speed down and you can carry on doing this until it gets dark and in which case you'll be shooting at a minute and two minute exposure and it really does work it's really really simple to set up so if you fancy doing this but you've not rushed out and bought any filters then you know just get your timing right tied in during before sunrise or like me now at sunset and just simply set up and wait it out that easy that easy i could have wanted to close the aperture a bit more i don't mind shooting f-16 so i'm going to close the aperture a bit more three clicks from f11 to f16 and to compensate i'm now gonna have to slow my shutter speed down by another stop let's just bring on my histogram just to check yep nothing's clipping i'm gonna try and push my histogram as far to the right as i possibly can but already i'm at one and a half seconds one and a half seconds sunset is in 15 minutes and high tide is in 15 minutes timing spot on really really really cool you never get fed up with images like this i like that this will only improve as the light drops and that shutter speed starts to extend [Music] keeping you abreast of where i'm at at the moment as the light starts to drop i'm compensating by slowing my shutter speed down more and more at the moment i've got a two second exposure because i've got a two second exposure i quite like shooting the waves as they're starting to recede so i have lifted my tripod up and tilted the lens down i haven't done anything any more than that because i quite like it um it's make sure you get your timing right though you may have noticed i've added my timer all i'm doing is waiting for the tide to come up and as it starts to recede press my trigger because the water looks much nicer on the way out it leaves streaks wait for a big wave that's quite nice that's quite interesting press it quite nicely i quite like doing this let's do it again as long as you get your timing right it's just a bit of luck there just wait for that rogue wave the highest wave that comes every seven or eight waves or something i'm just keeping an eye on the light keeping an eye on the time and keeping an eye on my histogram the easiest shot in the world to grab really is that's looking good there's a big pipe down there so i might actually when i'm shooting at a 30 second exposure maybe a minute or two minutes i'm going to go down and just grab that pipe as well it's a little bit fine art it might look good it might not look [Music] good apologize in advance by the way because my vlogging camera which is a canon m50 is pretty rubbish it's pretty pants at video in in low light but i will continue with it so it'll get to a point where you'll just hear my voice and not see me or it'll look really grainy so i apologize in advance but uh you can clearly understand what i'm doing i'm sure okay so i'm looking at my histogram now 10 minutes have a lap since the last time i looked at my histogram my histogram has already moved from the right hand side to the middle so that's great that means now i can go in and reduce my shutter speed down even more to push that histogram up because ultimately that's the main aim of this exercise is just really to extend that shutter speed for as long as i possibly can so if you look here you can see my histogram has now moved more to the center and my exposure time there is two seconds so i'm just going to slow my shutter speed down even more i'm going to leave my aperture at f 16 although ultimately i will change that to f 11 later on and i'll leave my iso at 100 so i'll leave these two here i'll just adjust my shutter speed looking at my histogram slowing it down slowing it down and in 10 minutes look at that i can really really push that histogram all the way to there and already we'll be able to achieve an eight second exposure let's just take that image remember i don't need a timer or an intervalometer at this point i'm just doing it for ease of use i could just simply use my two second delay timer on my camera and click and there you go let's have a quick zoom in and a quick look at that ship shape and bristol fashion i think you're saying is and that's looking nice once again i'm just going to keep an eye on that histogram and as it moves back into the center again i'll be able to push my shutter speed even more [Music] i don't know i just think it's quite cool just to go off sometimes with your camera and your tripod and not have to worry about anything else and you're still able to take images like this minimalistic long exposure fine art call it what you like it's still really cool to be able to do this using minimal equipment one thing i will say is make sure your tripod is a very very sturdy tripod and uh yeah you're going to get the cleanest image that you possibly can because there's going to be no image deterioration at all by placing polarizers on the front of your lenses by placing neutral density filters and gradient filters etc can't get better than that can you you can't get better than that so let's just check the time since i last reported in the time at the moment is six o'clock i think that's a lapse of 10 minutes since i last reported in and as you could see same settings 8 seconds iso 100 at f16 i haven't changed anything i'm just watching my histogram move further and further to the left as the light starts to drop let's compensate now by slowing my shutter speed down and down and down and down and down as it stands at the moment i could push this to 30 seconds let's take that shot there you go look at that for the shot look at that that looks fantastic minimalistic fine arty call it what you want without any filters whatsoever that is brilliant and 30 second exposure at f 16. i am going to reduce that down to f 11 i'm going to open my aperture up a little bit more to f 11 in about five minutes time from now which will equate roughly to the same so that means based on these calculations in 10 minutes time from now i could probably slow my shutter speed down by another two stops well two stops is double double so double 30 takes you to a minute double a minute takes you to two minutes my calculation there by roughly in ten minutes time from now i could take this exact same shot with a two minute exposure without using any filters on there whatsoever five minutes has lapsed and i can see my histogram is really starting to move now into the center again in the space of five minutes while i'm at 30th of a second so that means i know i can at least push this for one more stop well one more stop 30 seconds now takes it to a minute exposure that's brilliant my camera will only and the chances are your camera will as well only shoot at 30 seconds in that case then switch my camera to bulb mode double check my settings make sure my aperture is f11 and my iso is at 100 and now i'm going to get my timer and make sure it's at one minute because my timer in bulb mode now becomes my shutter speed set to one minute and take that picture just five minutes has elapsed and i'm able to shoot from 30 seconds to one minute in five minutes time from now if that it means i'll be able to shoot this at a two-minute exposure how cool is that i get really excited about stuff like this i don't know why i do this all the time but it's just so cool to do and yet it's actually it doesn't look like it on this camera but it's the light has dropped so much so much it looks quite dark but in the camera it's still bright and vibrant and it looks terrific that's really really cool and for the last shot i can see my histogram has gone down there so now i'm just going to double my in actual fact i'm going to open i think i've got two stops clear there so one two three i'm going to open my aperture remember ultimately i want to get to the sharpest part of this lens which is f11 there and i'm also going to extend my shutter speed by another minute that's another stop go two minutes this should be the shot of the day look at that f11 is the optimum for sharpness with my lens i'm happy with that iso 100 is the cleanest image and that's a two minute exposure no filters nothing just a camera and a very sturdy tripod and obviously to extend your shutter speed beyond 30 seconds a timer intervalometer attached as well although you might well have that incorporated in to your camera already [Music] [Applause] hopefully you guys enjoyed that content now the most important part of this video well certainly for one of you anyway it's the uh ifootage tripod giveaway let me very briefly give you a bit of a backstory attached to this tripod though eight or nine months ago uh i received an email from this company called ifootage and they offered to send me a tripod they didn't ask for anything in return which was quite unique so i looked over their website and i thought their gear looked really good so naturally i said yes please so they sent me out this tripod which i i have to i don't have to tell you they've not asked me to do this it's not sponsored in any way shape or form everybody who's entered this competition the emails will be dumped i'm not going to pass the emails on for marketing blurb nothing like that i suppose that's what i really like about this company but they sent me this tripod out and i've been using it ever since it is fantastic carbon fiber everything works as it should do it's lightweight super strong and it's got an inbuilt leveling head as well plus it's super sexy because it's red and i've been using it ever since like i said but they then reached out and said actually gary we have a newer model that's slightly taller we didn't realize that you were six foot four and this one is about four inches shorter than the replacement one that they sent me hence the reason i now have a spare one because the taller one is obviously much easier for me at six foot four especially because i don't have a flip-out screen on my the back of my camera so that's really the back story attached to it they've not asked me to do anything they've not asked me to you know to even give away my old tripod they just wanted to support me which i thought was absolutely fantastic so there you go that's the back story of why i've got a tripod to give away right now so let me come on to the competition all i ask you guys to do was to email me a name that's it and i've now got to randomly draw it out except what a blooming headache that is what a blooming headache that is and take a look here seriously i expected 60 or 70 people to send me an email i'm not joking and i'm not joking i'll show you the figures here if i click on that one then click on control and a to select them all 703 entrants i have 41 of you just ended up in my spam filter bit bizarre that isn't it and i've had a few emails sent to my personal email address as well so the only way i was actually going to put all the names in the hat and draw them out so i've been wrecking my brain all week and i've come up with this one i have downloaded a random number generator if i show it you on here let's see if that focus is in there this is a random number generator i'll show you how it works you shake it and it randomly lands on a number that's it okay so you get the picture so this is where the competition starts i'm now going to shake it whatever number comes up on there i will go into my emails and count them from one ignoring the duplicates all the way down until i get to whatever number appears on my phone on this random number generator it's an app that you can download by the way you're ready i hope it's a low one 750 right hang on awkward to hold i think it's focused let's give it a shake this is it for the competition give it a good shake and 159 159 159 is that one there and it is d armitage d armitage i'm not sure if i can say is it derek app i've said it there you go derek armitage you are number 159 officially i don't know where you live i'm not going to check now otherwise you might give me a headache but wherever you live in the world i promise i will send out this tripod and uh i forgot to mention box and inside the box there is a brand new bag for it as well never open never used and i'll send you all of that in the mail on monday all that's left me to say is congratulations to derek well done and course thank you very much dee to everybody who participated everybody who sent me an email i'm blown away by the response more importantly thanks to this company called ifootage they didn't have to do what they did but they did and i'm eternally grateful to them i'm gonna recommend that you go on their website if you're in the market and looking for a camera accessory they don't just do tripods they do they do all sorts of things then certainly go to their website and have a look and please don't think for one minute that i'm the sort of person who would recommend that you spend your hard-earned cash on rubbish right just just so that i can get a free tripod that is not the case at all this tripod is brilliant this is the tc6 and i'm only giving it away as you know because they sent me the slightly taller model which is the tc7 and that's the model that you'll see me using week in week out because it's brilliant so if you want to check their gear out i'll leave a description down below i'll leave a link to their website down below in the description of this video thanks hopefully you guys have enjoyed it if you have do me a favor help support the channel give me a thumbs up and if you think the content is worthy of it subscribe as well cheers

Channel: Gary Gough

Views: 76,066

Keywords: long exposure photography, long-exposure photography, long exposure, fine art, fine art photography, photography, tutorial, how to, landscape photography, long exposure photography tutorial, photography tutorial, landscape photography tutorial, landscape, photography tips, long exposure photography for beginners, beginner photography tips, photography tips for beginners, gary gough, gary gough photography, landscape photography tips, landscape photography in the field

Id: NycQDBNyquY

Length: 24min 28sec (1468 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021