Slow Shutter Speeds

Luna parks are good subjects to experiment with slow shutter speeds. Long exposures require a steady camera:

1. Mount your camera on a tripod.

2. Connect a cable release.

3. Set “Mirror Lock Up”.

4. If your lens comes with a stabilizer, make sure to deactivate it (these systems search for vibration to compensate and if they don’t find any, they create one).

Your photographs will look much more interesting if you take them during the blue hour of the day (it begins about half an hour after sunset and lasts about 20 – 25 minutes). During that period of time the sky turns into a beautiful blue. After that period the sky becomes completely black.

Set your camera to “Manual” mode and the metering mode to “Spot”. Point your camera at 45 degrees up the sky and zero out the harsh mark on the metering bar. Remember to use a small aperture and low ISO in order to have the best quality, maximum depth-of-field and a long shutter speed.

Reframe and take the shoot!