Weekly Assignment: Use the Bulb Mode to Get a Very Long Exposure

[PWS-Staff]

It is fun to experiment with very long shutter speeds, which is when the bulb mode is your best option, especially when combined with a shutter release cable. The assignment for this chapter is to use the bulb mode to take a very long exposure — try for one over the usual 30 second limit on the camera and don’t forget to upload your results to the website.

For this assignment, I set up my camera and tripod on the sea wall facing the cove inlet that I wanted to photograph. I used a wide-angle lens to get both the skyline and the cove entrance in the frame. I started by setting the ISO to the lowest setting available on the camera (ISO 100) and the aperture at the smallest opening available on the lens (f/22) to get the deepest depth of field. Using this combination to get a proper exposure, I made an educated guess that I would likely need a shutter speed of 10 seconds or more. So, I started at 10 seconds, which was not nearly enough time. I added 10 seconds and tried again until I reached 40 seconds. It still wasn’t quite what I wanted, so I adjusted the shutter speed in 1-second increments. I took several shots between 40 and 45 seconds to make sure I was happy with the results. My favorite was at 41 seconds — I really liked the way the water looked soft, but there was still detail in the rocks, cliff, and seawall.

From "Night Photography," by Alan Hess