Nighttime street scenes often lend themselves to long exposures.
Long-exposure photography is a technique used by photographers for nighttime and low-light photography. It can also used in bright lighting for artistic effect. A long-exposure photograph is created when the camera's shutter is set to remain open for more than a half-second. Depending on lighting conditions and the intended effect, long-exposure photography can require exposures of a few minutes or several hours.
Nighttime Scenes
A long exposure faithfully reproduces a room's light fixtures.
Long-exposure photography is often used to capture outdoor night scenery, where a flash is ineffective because of distance limitations. It can also be used to capture mood that bright lighting would destroy, as in a restaurant setting or an early-evening outdoor shot that includes a sunset.
Tracing Motion
A record of a dancer's movements can be used for training purposes.
During the day, long-exposure photography can capture and trace the motion of a moving car, a running athlete or a leaping ballerina. At night, long exposures can trace the movement of the stars against the sky. Scientists and coaches sometimes review these photographs to gain insights into their field of work.
Creativity
The photographer may want an expressionist representation of the subject rather than a sharp picture.
Skilled photographers use long exposures as a way to express their creativity. In daylight, a slow shutter speed can create images that convey an artistic impression of a scene or of a subject. This is achieved due to the blurring effect on the image.
Exaggerating Existing Light
A long exposure can capture the atmosphere's reflection of city lights.
Long-exposure photography is sometimes used to create stunning images that appear to play tricks with light. These images are possible because of the cumulative effect of the exposure on the recording medium, whether film or digital. A long exposures magnifies the source of light relative to its surrounding. This light source appears exaggerated in the image in comparison to what the eye sees when viewing the scene.
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