Long Exposure Photography

Course
Lesson 76 - Introduction to Long Exposure Photography
Here we introduce the course, tell you what you will learn and view the visual effects
that can be created in this field of photography.
Lesson 77 - Equipment
To create long exposure effects, you will need specific equipment. Here we’ll look at
what gear will get the job done from a low to high budget and break down the
minefield of what ND filters are, what they do, what strengths of NDs should you use,
what graduated ND filters are, what effects they create and so on. I’ll also teach you
how to work out exposure times correctly and introduce our exposure calculator.
Lesson 78 – Camera Settings and Techniques
There are general settings and techniques commonly used in this type of
photography. In this lesson, I’ll show you techniques to help you get the most out of
any situation and teach you how to bracket shots and why this is essential. You’ll
learn what camera settings are best, how to take meter readings and expose
correctly in fully manual modes, and how and when to use your bulb setting. Then
you’ll get practicing in these settings to make sure you fully understand them before
we go out and take some pictures.

Lesson 79 – Making Clouds Streak in the Sky

Here we’ll go outside and put these techniques into practice. This is a great starting
point for long exposure photography; it gets you used to using filters, exposing
manually, using the bulb setting on your camera, and all you need is a building with
some clouds in the sky!
Lesson 80 – Making Clouds Streak in the Sky - Edit
Taking good shots is the first part – Editing them is what makes them great! It’s
important to realise that there are two parts to photography. Being skilled in both will
ensure you’ll be consistent in creating great images.In this edit, I’ll use Lightroom to
teach you how to create striking black and white shots, enhance the contrast and
balance the exposure of the two buildings with Auto Masking. I’ll then extend this edit
further and teach you some advanced Photoshop techniques to add more clouds to
the top left of the image. You’ll also have the Raw files taken on the shoot so you can
work along with me and put all this into practice.

Long Exposure Photography Course 1

 Lesson 81 – Long Exposure Seascapes
This is a common technique and can create some excellent visual effects. In this
scenario, we’re outside again and I’ll teach you how to use ND filters to make water
look smooth. You’ll learn how to use graduated filters together with ND filters and
how to use the camera’s light meter to determine the correct grad filter to use.

Lesson 82 – Long Exposure Seascapes - Edit

In this edit, we’ll transform our bracketed shots to give more detail in the highlights,
shadows & midtones. You’ll start by doing general edits in Lightroom then we’ll move
into Photoshop where I’ll teach you an advanced blending technique commonly
known as luminosity masking. I’ll also teach you how to seamlessly remove objects
from the picture and put colour back into the burnt-out areas of the scene. Again,
you are provided with the Raw files so you can work along and learn with me and
Photoshop actions to speed up your post-processing.
Lesson 83 – HDR Edit
In this scenario, we’ll use the same technique as in the seascape one but this time
I’ll teach you how to take a set of bracketed shots and blend them together using a
technique called HDR merging. This is a great way of increasing the tones and
colours across an image in a very easy way. You’ll then learn how to easily remove
objects from the water and tackle some more challenging removals that involve
objects protruding above the horizon line. Raw files are provided so you can work
along with me.

Lesson 84 – London at night

In this scenario, I’ll take you one of the busiest places in London to use long
exposures for night photography. I’ll teach you how to make people disappear and
how to make the night lights bleed into star shapes. You’ll also learn how to make
the river look like glass to enhance the beautiful reflections a city at night produces.
Lesson 85 – London at night - Edit
In this edit, I’ll teach you how to enhance night photography in Lightroom. We’ll
change the shot black and white, enhance contrast, darken highlights, balance the
exposure of the scene with range masking, and add split toning. We’ll then go into
Photoshop to remove people from the pathway. Again, the Raw files are provided so
you can work along and learn with me.

Lesson 86 – Light Trail Photography

In this scenario, I’ll take you to the iconic Tower Bridge and teach you how to make
vehicles streak through the frame. There is no one-setting-fits-all for light trails as the
effect depends on how fast the vehicles are going and the available light you have;
this is what makes this a great technique for challenging your photography skills. So

Long Exposure Photography Course 2

 here you’ll push your knowledge and learn how to change camera settings and
balance exposures to control the visual effect that you want.
Lesson 87 – Light Trail Photography – Edit
In this edit, I’ll teach you how to enhance the colours and contrast of night scenes,
remove people and objects that get in your way and we’ll look at bringing through a
bus travelling in the other direction using layer masks in Photoshop. The Raw files
are provided so you can work along with me.

Lesson 88 – More long exposure scenarios for Black and White Editing
Each situation will require different techniques in shooting and editing and it’s
important that you can adapt your photography as required. In this lesson, we’ll look
at how to adapt your shooting for different scenarios and look at different editing
techniques specifically for black and white shots.

Lesson 89 – More long exposure scenarios for Colour Editing

As in lesson 13, here I’ll show you how I adapted my shooting techniques for
different scenarios and this time we’ll look at specific editing techniques for colour
images.

Lesson 90 – End and Recap

An end to the course. Here we will recap on all of the great knowledge you’ve
acquired and how you can take these skills even further.

Long Exposure Photography Course 3