Get Beautifully Smooth Long Exposures

There's something absolutely magical about long exposure photography. Rough water and waves turn to smooth patterns, cars vanish, and choppy clouds turn into smooth streams in the sky. I love using these types of shots for architecture, as all the distracting details disappear and you can really feel a sense of motion by capturing life's little patterns in time. But getting the right exposure can be tricky for several reasons. First, if you need to use a neutral density (ND) filter to get a long shutter, you'll quickly find that your camera's meter isn't up to the task and the exposures can be way off the mark. Second, trial and error is extremely painful when you're making exposures that are several minutes long. You don't want to be doing that over and over. I use a very simple trick to find the right exposure: I find the equivalent exposure at high ISO, and then convert to ISO 100.

A lot of people have asked about which filters I use, so I've added a full list on my gear page: http://gregbenzphotography.com/camera-equipment

My basic process for metering is:

- Compose the image and focus on a tripod before putting an ND filter on the camera (so you can see what you're doing).
- Once you've added the ND filter, set the ISO to 6400 and use the meter to get a starting shutter speed.
- Take a test shot, evaluate the histogram, and try a new shutter speed as needed.
- Once the histogram looks right, switch from ISO 6400 to 100, and use convert whatever shutter speed you had in seconds to minutes

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Видео Get Beautifully Smooth Long Exposures канала Greg Benz Photography