Daytime Long Exposure? Not a Problem

If you've never played around with long exposure photography before, do yourself a favor and give it a try. If it's daylight, don't freak out, it's not necessarily a problem if you go into it prepared.

About a week ago I was out on the Washington coast with some friends and I was trying to shoot some landscape work on the beach. I was struggling; I wasn't really finding the composition that I wanted and I wasn't exactly feeling the 50mm in that moment. It was sunset and the scene was really pretty, I just wasn't hitting the shots I thought I might. After sunset, we moved to a different place along the beach and I started to play around with some long exposures and it all fell into place.

I ended up bringing home a shot that I really love, a shot that I would give serious thought to printing. All I knew was that I was liking what I was seeing in the moment. Waves crashing and flowing in around the rocks, shutter speed dragging long enough to let the motion of the waves appear as fog instead of water. When I got home, I knew that this was something I'd like to know more about. 

That's where Benjamin Jaworskyj comes in. I'm a big fan of his videos, his YouTube channel, and the energy he brings to the table. This particular video has some long exposure basics (just what I was looking for) but adds the daylight factor. If you're not able to wait until dusk or not wanting to get up before sunrise this could be what you're looking for too. 

Give the video a watch and leave a comment below with your long exposure experiences. Have you tried anything like this before, whether with moving water (waterfalls, ocean tides, or rivers and lakes) or with the sky (clouds and stars)? Is this something that you'd like to learn more about? These kind of images feel pretty unique to me as they are capturing time and movement in ways that I don't think we always associate with a photograph. I'm looking forward to getting out and having another go at this again soon. 

Evan Kane is a portrait photographer based near Seattle. He specializes in colorful location portraits with a bit of a fairy tale flair. Always looking to create something with emotion behind it, he fell backwards into photography in mid 2015 and has been pursuing this dream ever since. One if his mottos: "There is always more to learn."

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5 Comments

Hello Evan,
There are other factors with long exposure in the daytime that are not mentioned in the video, such as casting some ND filters add to the image, a shutter release cable (images longer than 30”) and a eye cap to stop the light from entering in the rear. Once you take these types of photos, you may very well fall in love with the results. Hope this helps you or someone else.

Ivan

Thanks for the comment Ivan :)

Maybe you're not particularly into landscape photography. Long exposure photos are so ubiquitous, I know people who're sick of them. Not me! I like to make composites where part of the final image is a result of long exposure and the other, not. That's still a little unique. For now! ;-)

I think that each person gets to decide what is ubiquitous or not. I never really cared what is cliche or popular. If it's an image that I want to try, I'll try it. Just because many other people have done it too doesn't mean I can't make it mine :)

"Ubiquitous" is subjective but you can't decide what it means. Anyway, I agree with your larger point.