Dark Photography School

It’s no secret that when you leave the shutter open for more than a second you can get some neat effects when light is moving against a dark background. Many people experiment with this in the usual way with moving cars and rides at the state fair. I still do regularly, in fact. What many people may not know is that you don’t need the light to be in movement to create something unique.

EXIF: 100 ISO, 6 sec., f/22, 40mm focal length, flash on

For the photo above, I popped the flash with a 6 second exposure. After the flash went off, I then tilted the camera while still on the tripod. I didn’t try and do anything specific, I just slowly moved it short distance in a few different directions. The phrase less is more applies tremendously to this particular way of capturing light. It’s very easy to overdo it and create a picture that is just a bunch of squiggly white lines. Simply rock the camera forward and backward on the tripod while two out of the three legs are still on the ground. Try moving just a few inches in each direction.
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After the tripod and camera itself, the next most important piece of gear to own is a remote shutter release. This is a hand held controller either attached by cable or by infrared that can remotely open the shutter. Most models allow you to press once to take a picture normally, as well as press and lock which will hold the shutter open indefinitely when in bulb mode.

This is my off-brand remote, obtained at a local camera shop for around $15. The one made by your camera manufacturer is probably more than $100.
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In the old days, you could get a multiple exposure photo by opening and closing the shutter while not advancing the film. While I’ve heard that there does indeed exist a digital SLR that can do this, my ancient beast isn’t one of them. When looking up the topic when I first upgraded to digital, most examples I found were using post-production (Photoshop) to do this. I’m going to show you how to do this using a hand-held flash unit (Canon Speedlite 430EX was used in the examples below), some colored gels, and a tripod.

EXIF: 200 ISO, 30 sec., f/6.7, 17mm focal length, flash on

For this particular type of photography, you want to stay focused on the exposure time rather than the aperture. You will need at least 4 seconds to get a double exposure, as seen in the photo above. I tend to stay in the 15-20 second range, depending on the amount of available light. The camera setting I recommend most is Tv, or Shutter Priority. This mode allows you to change the exposure length while automatically adjusting the aperture. It’s a delicate balance trying to determine the proper length of time to leave the shutter open. You will need enough time to reposition the flash and/or wait for your subject to move. On the other hand, if you leave the shutter open too long, the subject may barely be visible, even if you popped them with the flash. It is also important to hand hold the flash unit. Not only does light from above look more appealing and real, but it’s more difficult to pop the flash twice during one exposure when mounted to the camera (with my setup, at least).
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EXIF: 200 ISO, 30 sec., f/6.7, 17mm focal length, no flash

This is the Fannie Heck house on Blount Street, in Raleigh, NC. It dates back to shortly after the Civil War. There was plenty of available street light to get a 4 or 6 second exposure with the same ISO, but bumping up to the maximum (didn’t have release cable with me at the time) non-bulb setting (30 seconds) allowed me to get the cat tails flowing in the wind while everything else sat still. Read the rest of this entry…

To make complete strangers more interesting subjects, you have to deal with a few trained reactions. What’s the first thing you do when someone is taking a picture of you? Usually you smile and look directly at the camera. If you are looking for something beyond what you’re used to seeing, you want to try and capture something other than that familiar photo.
There is nothing with smiling and looking directly at the camera. Those pictures are great for people you know. The problem is that when you are photographing complete strangers, they won’t feel at ease with you enough to let out a genuine smile. Trying to achieve this can be painful and/or embarrassing.

EXIF: ISO 1600, 1/6 sec., f/4.0, 31mm focal length, flash on

EXIF: ISO 1600, 1/6 sec., f/4.0, 17mm focal length, flash on
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EXIF: 200 ISO, 2 sec., f/4.5, 17mm focal length, no flash

Using a flash is known to freeze items in motion, whereas slow shutter speeds are known for conveying motion. You can combine the use of flash with a slower shutter speed to create unique and distinct effects. In the image shown above, the front half of the train’s engine was caught with the flash, but the rest of the train was not. It froze the engine in motion, but blurred the rest of the cars. Additionally, the street lights in the area provided a very warm color temperature.

EXIF: 1600 ISO, 1/10 sec., f/4.0, 26mm focal length, no flash

This image was taken during a moment of rain in a downtown area. It depends on the amount of available light and speed of the subject, but usually anywhere from 1/4 to 1/15 of a second will grab a person in motion, and display it in a blurred way.
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White balance is an application of color temperature to give your camera knowledge of the environment. With this information, it can take a picture that more accurately represents what the eye sees. It also enables you to creatively alter the subject of the photo. Most digital SLRs allow you to:

• select from a set of presets
• shoot an object to serve as the base white
• specify a manual color temperature in Kelvin

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