Landscape Photography Magazine

“We all dream of long exposures and surreal effects and the latest technology in filters allows many of us to fulfil those dreams. We have put together a comprehensive guide that will help you achieve stunning results with long exposures”

I should like to start with a bold statement: “photographs do not record reality accurately; they represent a perception of reality based on the expressive creativity of the photographer who made the image”.

Taking a photograph of the ocean waves pounding a rocky shoreline in bright light at 1/500th of a second freezes the action, allowing every drop of spray to be seen and appreciated. However, this is not “real”. Feeding our brain a sequence of thirty or so such images per second is much closer to the way we experience reality.

Conversely, the same scene taken in low light, or with a strong ND filter attached to the lens, creates a scene of ethereal mist, abstracting and mystifying the landscape. Again, this is not reality, but the viewer is being shown our intent: power in the first image and mystery in the second.

The choice of different shutter speeds for expressive aims introduces the purpose of this article, which is to show the way to achieve…