Thanks for the video Serge! However, I think there are some key points missing from your video in order to understand extra-long exposures instead of 'shooting in the dark': 1. Understand what 'stops' are; 2. Know how many stops the ND filter will reduce the exposure; - e.g. 8-stop, 10-stop, 13-stop ND filter, etc.; 3. Test your exposure w/out the ND filter and note the shutter speed; 4. Simple math, use calculator: Take the shutter speed and multiply it by 2^stops of ND filter, i.e. 2 to the power of number of stops the ND filter is. e.g. if your exposure is 1/6s w/out ND filter, then with a 10-stop ND filter, your shutter speed will be (1/6)*2^10 = 170s; 5. Use the camera's meter to calculate the exposure to bring to 0ev, or whatever +/-ev you prefer or adjust to. 6. Understand hyperfocal distance (there are numerous apps out there that calculate hf distance). If you are focusing for the background, then focus before putting on the ND filter. Hope this helps some folks trying out extra long-exposures! As always, thanks for the video! :-)
+MrHopekiller if you put the camera closer to the water you wouldn't see the floor, that seems flat. the wood construction on the right don't seems in the right position, i think
Worthing pointing out the focusing was been manually set before putting on the ND filter, which in turn was done before putting the camera on the tripod in this case. One can't put the filter on and then use the markings on the lens to manually set focusing (the focus ring always extends a little beyond the infinity focusing point). I felt such a fool the first time I tried this presuming little difference in approach with my new ND1000 filter to previous highest ND4, and wondered how I was going to focus seeing blackness through the camera.
llSci0nll ISO should be as low as possible, and restrict aperture to at least f/11 or perhaps f/16. Hopefully then exposure is longer than 0.015s (1/60 sec) before using the N1000. Else might need consider shooting in less bright conditions (eg later in day rather than midday). I wonder if adding an additional lesser filter (eg N4 or N8) risks too much distortion ?
Wow my bulb mode ends at 30 seconds, then you need a remote to go over just one click you start and one click you stop this way you can do 10-minutes exposures if you want
Brilliant video Serge. Question...What if I take a shot with 30s exposure and then make 10 virtual copies of it in Lightroom and then stack them on each other in Photoshop or GIMP? Will I get the same result as a 300 seconds exposure?
I remember back in the day when digital cameras and photo editing software didn't exist, and REAL photographers used REAL skills to create great photos. Nowadays, literally ANYONE with a computer and light room can create photos like this with just a few mouse clicks. Photography has become a lost art!~ There is no real point to it anymore......
Monsieur Serge, i thank you for your amazing tutorials and your will to share your inspiring work and how you get there. Your Tutorials especially in the last Months are something special. I cant tell what it is- i just find that you do them with all of your heart... and people, including me, notice that. Again, thanks for your effort you put in this work.
Hi Serge, I have been following you since you start the tutorials. I have noticed you are including "lots of ads" in your videos, so the percentage of the tutorial is decreasing in terms of time. I really would like you to get back a bit on your originals ones. However, I really want you to congratulate for your work cause I have learnt a lot because of you. ;)
making BW photo by seting saturation to 0? mate, you should be probably doing something else instead of teaching people this obscure technics how to destroy image..
Really nice video Serge, but for your next video with another photographer you should do seperate takes. You eplain Step one, he explains step two. Because in the video you just repead what he just said.
At 9:13 you said something in French. I didn't understand. C'est pas.....something. Would you type it in here and translate into English? I would appreciate it.
8 ปีที่แล้ว
+R John Mitchell "c'est parti mon kiki" difficult to translate literally but more or less 'let's go' (kiki could be the name of a dog)
Serge as always, amazing video. So helpful as inspiring to a newbie like me. But I have a question in terms of ND filters, I was told expensive Lee filters were the only ones to consider. Could you shed a light on your thoughts? Fstoppers do a great comparison between the B&W, tiffen and Hoya
Really? They were the brand I was considering. I can't justice the price of the Lee filters. I'm just starting out as a photographer but I'm a graphic designer and drummer and I know how much I've invested in drums and I know that in specialised products you get what ya pay for. But the filters are too flimsy for my liking. Thanks for the very quick reply
Franky-B their settings are an idea based on their lighting/etc. you're going to need to make minor adjustments based on what you're photographing, time of day/etc.
first of all. i want to thak you serge. you are amazing. i prefer a little reflection of these two thing in front. can be edit with brush under expose. you did before another work. take care. :)
At the end of the Video you show in some picture the Eiffel Tower by Night. I heard the copyright is at the Artist of the lights and its not allowed to shoot and share Pictures from it. Do you have a permission?
Hello Serge and Alex. Another excellent tutorial thanks for sharing. I was in Venice last month and I met Alex. We shot sunrise at the Ponte dell' Accademia bridge. He is great guy and loves black and white photography. Alex, pictures are all uploaded in my website check it out. Ciao!
Dear Serge Following the advice of Erik Almas I purchased Capture One 9. Do you have this software? If yes it would be nice one time to make a tutorial here on how it would be your basic workflow in Capture One. I can do the basics there but it has so many extra features that would be very interesting to see how the best French photographer deals with this software. Everything I know I learned with you Keep up your excellent work!!!
Nice video. You should cover the eyepiece as It can effect the image. I used to do a lot of long exposures around 4-5 minutes but found stacking many 30 second photos is easier and gives the same results. With 30s exposures it's much quicker to get the exposure right and don't need such a dark nd filter.
À chaque "bonjour mesdames et messieurs" je me dis Chouette en français 😁 mais superbes vidéos malgré tout, j'essaye d'apprendre grâce à vous ! Merci !
Serge, Your crop tool isn't in rule of thirds. You must go in menu Tools-> Crop Guide Overlay and set Thirds. That's what You have in film is Golden Ratio.
Thanks for your amazing and very knowledgeable videos. I'm new to photography and your videos have helped me out so much. I am wondering if you could suggest an app I could put on my iPhone that will help me learn my setting so I can start shooting raw more often then I do now. I know there is a few out there but just wondering if there is one that really kicks butt.
Nice video, simple, informative & fun. I am off to Venice soon and would love to give it a go. Where was the location.? Which Vaporetto stop please. Thank you. G
Thank you for yet another interesting tutorial. I started with photography not that long ago, but I think a ND filter is pretty interesting. Using your friends advice, I will look for a converter and use a bigger filter. The only problem is that I have no idea where to find those kind of conversion disks. In addition, i cannot find ND filters in my size either. My regular lens is 37mm. Do you have any suggestions?
That's exactly the kind of video I was waiting for. Thank you for showing the whole process,p! And making us discover this cool photographer. (Sympa le clin d'œil "c'est parti mon Kiki"!)
Excellent tutorials and I've learned much from your guidance. I'm now going back to original RAW files to apply some of the Lightroom techniques you have shown.
One question sir .. The church photo you did it with the light room can you please show us how to do it with photoshop rather than lightroom? Sorry and thank you!
super Serge as usual mais dommage quand même qu'il n'y ai plus de vidéos en français et plus de cours vidéos à acheter en français. A quand les packs de formation bilingues ? je vous suis depuis pas mal de temps et j'aime beaucoup vos cours et votre travail photo 👍
Bonsoir Serge, 2 petites questions (two questions) : Comment gères-tu le bruit avec de si longues expositions? How do you manage with noise at such long exposures ? Peut-on superposer deux filtres ND, par exemple un ND400 et un ND8 ? Can I add an ND8 400 over an ND400 filter ? Thanks a lot !
+Serge Ramelli Je suis déjà abonné Serge ! I already suscribed ! And what about adding 2 ND filters, for instance one ND400 and one ND 8 ? I guess it should be equal to a ND3200, but is there any inconvenience ? Merci pour vos réponses et félicitations pour vos vidéos.
It actually is by taking multiple expsosures but then you have to average all the images. The "exposure time" of the final image is calculated by adding the exposure time of all the images that you used for the averaging, which means that you would have to take thousands of photos if the sun is shining.
As long as you want/need if you use a remote, either a wireless one or a cableremote, I've used both and I find both of them working great. With the wireless one I click once to start the exposure, and again to stop it.
Ahh I see. So it's a manual exposure rather than a set exposure. I have a Nikon D80 but not yet a remote - Do you suggest a remote in particular? Thanks for the help! :)
I just have a cheap wireless one from ebay wich works just fine for me, the cable release one is more expensive I think.. Just make sure it's compatible with your camera =)
+Rony Biram If you have a 5D or 7D and even an other canon DSLR you can use the "Magic lantern firmware".It allow to break the time exposure limitation of 30 second.BECAREFUL THE INSTALLATION OF THIS FIRMWARE BREAK THE WARrentY OF YOUR CAMERA.But i never had problem even with the customer service when i send it to repair.
Who else was scared of the camera falling into the river all the time 😀😀😀😀
Me :D
just add 10 stops ( the value of the ND filter) to your base exposure and u get the final exposure time
+Petru Le Grand There are also smartphone apps that calculate this for you (a great free one for iOS is "Long Exposure Calculator" by Junel Corales).
+Tristan Jones Most cameras don't go above 30 seconds exposure without using bulb mode or an external timer.
My point was that you can't use the clicks of the shutter speed wheel once you get above 30 seconds.
I did not even know about visualize spots in Adobe Lightroom until I saw this video which I find useful when changing out lenses.
Thanks for the video Serge! However, I think there are some key points missing from your video in order to understand extra-long exposures instead of 'shooting in the dark':
1. Understand what 'stops' are;
2. Know how many stops the ND filter will reduce the exposure; - e.g. 8-stop, 10-stop, 13-stop ND filter, etc.;
3. Test your exposure w/out the ND filter and note the shutter speed;
4. Simple math, use calculator: Take the shutter speed and multiply it by 2^stops of ND filter, i.e. 2 to the power of number of stops the ND filter is. e.g. if your exposure is 1/6s w/out ND filter, then with a 10-stop ND filter, your shutter speed will be (1/6)*2^10 = 170s;
5. Use the camera's meter to calculate the exposure to bring to 0ev, or whatever +/-ev you prefer or adjust to.
6. Understand hyperfocal distance (there are numerous apps out there that calculate hf distance). If you are focusing for the background, then focus before putting on the ND filter.
Hope this helps some folks trying out extra long-exposures!
As always, thanks for the video! :-)
Thanks for the video. Probably an idea to mic up the other chap though, hard to hear what he's saying.
Doesn't diffraction kick in at F16?
It kicks in even earlier but f16 is a no go for retaining details.
Why don't you use the "Black and white" button instead of turning the saturation to -100?
there are 100 ways to do it.
i think you should have put the camera directly on the floor
+MrHopekiller if you put the camera closer to the water you wouldn't see the floor, that seems flat. the wood construction on the right don't seems in the right position, i think
from the look at your 2 exposure times I prefure the second shot. the first looked blown out to me but there again it could be your camera.....
Worthing pointing out the focusing was been manually set before putting on the ND filter, which in turn was done before putting the camera on the tripod in this case. One can't put the filter on and then use the markings on the lens to manually set focusing (the focus ring always extends a little beyond the infinity focusing point). I felt such a fool the first time I tried this presuming little difference in approach with my new ND1000 filter to previous highest ND4, and wondered how I was going to focus seeing blackness through the camera.
+bi1iruben /I still cant get a long exsposure shot done, as if I use a ND1000 filter on a nikon I cant even go above 15 secs?
+bi1iruben you can turn on the screen.Your sensor will transmit enough light even when 1000ND is attached.
nucik123 ok, will try that next time - thank you.
llSci0nll ISO should be as low as possible, and restrict aperture to at least f/11 or perhaps f/16. Hopefully then exposure is longer than 0.015s (1/60 sec) before using the N1000. Else might need consider shooting in less bright conditions (eg later in day rather than midday). I wonder if adding an additional lesser filter (eg N4 or N8) risks too much distortion ?
See I get confused as to how long you can do a long exsposure, as longest I can do with a ND1000 filter and high F stop was no more than 3 seconds
Very nice photo Serge! I was worried you were going to accidentally kick your tripod over into the water lol! Thanks for the inspiration.
My bulb mode ends at 60 s. Which cameras support 150s?
Wow my bulb mode ends at 30 seconds, then you need a remote to go over just one click you start and one click you stop this way you can do 10-minutes exposures if you want
Thanks.!!! I hope it works!!
Brilliant video Serge. Question...What if I take a shot with 30s exposure and then make 10 virtual copies of it in Lightroom and then stack them on each other in Photoshop or GIMP? Will I get the same result as a 300 seconds exposure?
I remember back in the day when digital cameras and photo editing software didn't exist, and REAL photographers used REAL skills to create great photos. Nowadays, literally ANYONE with a computer and light room can create photos like this with just a few mouse clicks. Photography has become a lost art!~ There is no real point to it anymore......
Monsieur Serge,
i thank you for your amazing tutorials and your will to share your inspiring work and how you get there.
Your Tutorials especially in the last Months are something special. I cant tell what it is- i just find that
you do them with all of your heart... and people, including me, notice that. Again, thanks for your
effort you put in this work.
what does it mean to put the focus on 4 meters from your camera? how do you do that?
He just means to pick a spot 4 meters away and focus on that spot.
Hi Serge, I have been following you since you start the tutorials. I have noticed you are including "lots of ads" in your videos, so the percentage of the tutorial is decreasing in terms of time. I really would like you to get back a bit on your originals ones. However, I really want you to congratulate for your work cause I have learnt a lot because of you. ;)
making BW photo by seting saturation to 0? mate, you should be probably doing something else instead of teaching people this obscure technics how to destroy image..
Really nice video Serge, but for your next video with another photographer you should do seperate takes. You eplain Step one, he explains step two. Because in the video you just repead what he just said.
Wonderful tutorial Mr. Serge, we need more teachers like you. Thank you so much.
Check out some of Jerzy Bin's long exposures too - thanks for the video, Serge!
then what would you call Karl Taylor's 30-40 minute exposures? Ultra-Mega-Long?
You need a website, why not do it yourself............. Most iritatin ad :|
Nice work! I'm just curious which filter exactly you're using here? This one:Fotodiox Pro 77mm Slim Neutral Density 1000 (ND1000, 10-Stop) Filter ?
At 9:13 you said something in French. I didn't understand. C'est pas.....something. Would you type it in here and translate into English? I would appreciate it.
+R John Mitchell "c'est parti mon kiki" difficult to translate literally but more or less 'let's go' (kiki could be the name of a dog)
Serge as always, amazing video. So helpful as inspiring to a newbie like me. But I have a question in terms of ND filters, I was told expensive Lee filters were the only ones to consider. Could you shed a light on your thoughts?
Fstoppers do a great comparison between the B&W, tiffen and Hoya
Really? They were the brand I was considering. I can't justice the price of the Lee filters. I'm just starting out as a photographer but I'm a graphic designer and drummer and I know how much I've invested in drums and I know that in specialised products you get what ya pay for. But the filters are too flimsy for my liking. Thanks for the very quick reply
Tiffen s also a very good filter, I ave used them for 40 years with no problems
I love your work, thanks for sharing!
hi guys, is there anyone from Delaware who likes photography?
nothing like explaining something not in your native language!
I stil have overexposed pictures with your settings, i have olympus omd 10 what could be the problem.
Franky-B their settings are an idea based on their lighting/etc. you're going to need to make minor adjustments based on what you're photographing, time of day/etc.
You make amazing photos, no question, but I would love to see your take on the southwest, desert, cactus, etc...
would sunny weather make a difference?
what did you call that mode? and do all cameras have that?
first of all. i want to thak you serge. you are amazing. i prefer a little reflection of these two thing in front. can be edit with brush under expose. you did before another work. take care. :)
At the end of the Video you show in some picture the Eiffel Tower by Night. I heard the copyright is at the Artist of the lights and its not allowed to shoot and share Pictures from it. Do you have a permission?
it looks like a fog rather than water. interesting
Focus at the hyper focal distance.
Hello Serge and Alex. Another excellent tutorial thanks for sharing. I was in Venice last month and I met Alex. We shot sunrise at the Ponte dell' Accademia bridge. He is great guy and loves black and white photography. Alex, pictures are all uploaded in my website check it out. Ciao!
Dear Serge
Following the advice of Erik Almas I purchased Capture One 9. Do you have this software?
If yes it would be nice one time to make a tutorial here on how it would be your basic workflow in Capture One.
I can do the basics there but it has so many extra features that would be very interesting to see how the best French photographer deals with this software. Everything I know I learned with you
Keep up your excellent work!!!
Super et des photos extraordinaires de PARIS.
Au fait comment dit-on " C´est parti mon ... " en anglais ? :0)
Nice video. You should cover the eyepiece as It can effect the image. I used to do a lot of long exposures around 4-5 minutes but found stacking many 30 second photos is easier and gives the same results. With 30s exposures it's much quicker to get the exposure right and don't need such a dark nd filter.
À chaque "bonjour mesdames et messieurs" je me dis Chouette en français 😁 mais superbes vidéos malgré tout, j'essaye d'apprendre grâce à vous ! Merci !
+Serge Ramelli Je suis bilingue aucun soucis ;)
Serge, Your crop tool isn't in rule of thirds. You must go in menu Tools-> Crop Guide Overlay and set Thirds.
That's what You have in film is Golden Ratio.
Thanks for your amazing and very knowledgeable videos.
I'm new to photography and your videos have helped me out so much.
I am wondering if you could suggest an app I could put on my iPhone that will help me learn my setting so I can start shooting raw more often then I do now.
I know there is a few out there but just wondering if there is one that really kicks butt.
what kind of rubbish is this video .. dont you read about each ND filter has certain amount of stops ??? silly video
Nice video, simple, informative & fun. I am off to Venice soon and would love to give it a go. Where was the location.? Which Vaporetto stop please. Thank you. G
He's waving that camera around with no neck strap... That's just nerve-racking around that water.
Thank you for yet another interesting tutorial. I started with photography not that long ago, but I think a ND filter is pretty interesting. Using your friends advice, I will look for a converter and use a bigger filter. The only problem is that I have no idea where to find those kind of conversion disks. In addition, i cannot find ND filters in my size either. My regular lens is 37mm. Do you have any suggestions?
That's exactly the kind of video I was waiting for. Thank you for showing the whole process,p! And making us discover this cool photographer. (Sympa le clin d'œil "c'est parti mon Kiki"!)
Excellent tutorials and I've learned much from your guidance. I'm now going back to original RAW files to apply some of the Lightroom techniques you have shown.
Serge Ramelli says he likes to do things IN camera? :D He overdoes the editing part in every f. photo...
Is it still a photo once you have photoshopped it to death? There's virtually nothing original left in the picture.
t save money from buying shutter remote, use magic lantern (you install it in your camera for free) it supports bulb timer for upto 8hrs
Thank you Serge, Alex's photos are worth a trip to 500px, very, very nice work.
If you have a compatible canon camera, you can use magic lantern to set the exposure time instead of using bulb mode
very nice tutorial, really love the technique and the workflow. can you share a similar example for a night pic...
Hi Serge!
Can you tell me, what kind of remote control do you use?
Thank you!
Serge, can you do a tutorial on how to edit photos on lightroom like the city shots by the
Instagram user : upscaleshooter
I like Raw photos better, but this is something I will invest more on learning about
improve your audio.
Is it necessary to cover the cameras eyepiece for long exposures ? learnt a lot thanks.
Serge Ramelli, Tks for the very easy to understand tutorials.
can u do HDR with long exposures? like 3photos ?
One question sir .. The church photo you did it with the light room can you please show us how to do it with photoshop rather than lightroom? Sorry and thank you!
Barad Neupane most likely using the camera raw plug in for photoshop.
Barad Neupane also brushes and dodge took in photoshop for the brightening.
dear Serge,
Is your friend Iranian?! :-)
He has very strong accent!
great stuff. what about the halos in the skies?how do you remove them?
Excellent video Serge as per usual, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.
Thanks!
nice!
super Serge as usual mais dommage quand même qu'il n'y ai plus de vidéos en français et plus de cours vidéos à acheter en français.
A quand les packs de formation bilingues ?
je vous suis depuis pas mal de temps et j'aime beaucoup vos cours et votre travail photo 👍
Damn I love this kind of photography. Thanks for showing us how to do it!
Damn! I can't believe that he is not Persian
+Saman Shariati He must be Persian. Listen the way he talking English :D
+Roham Rasai Hahah He is Persian ;)
+Meidany Photography haha eyvool aziz. Karet doroste. Best luck
+Roham Rasai Merci :)
+Meidany Photography ایول. اگر اومدی ونکوور در خدمتیم
Bonsoir Serge,
2 petites questions (two questions) :
Comment gères-tu le bruit avec de si longues expositions?
How do you manage with noise at such long exposures ?
Peut-on superposer deux filtres ND, par exemple un ND400 et un ND8 ?
Can I add an ND8 400 over an ND400 filter ?
Thanks a lot !
+Serge Ramelli
Je suis déjà abonné Serge ! I already suscribed !
And what about adding 2 ND filters, for instance one ND400 and one ND 8 ? I guess it should be equal to a ND3200, but is there any inconvenience ?
Merci pour vos réponses et félicitations pour vos vidéos.
+Jean-Pierre Vilespy the only problem is you will lose the quality because there is to glass in front of your lens
Your tutorials are very helpful Serge :D
Amazing video, thanks!!!
Great video, really like the result
mic your guest next time, jeez.
ND1000?
That's a 10 stop ND right?
yep
ND 1000 means 1000 times less light in, which is roughtly equals to 10 stops (1024 = 2^10)
O_O Those prices!...
How can I get the DVD??
It is possible to make a long exposure without ND filter?
depends on how much light there is
+Zé Pedro use your highest f-stop number,but i'm not sure you can go for more than 2-3s
Thanks!
Great work. Love it.
Great video. But what is "bowl mode"? Thanks
+David Edwards Bulb mode (where you hold the shutter open manually) - or with a remote you "open" with one click, then "close" with another click.
great work ,serge
is it possible to do without a filter?
no
It actually is by taking multiple expsosures but then you have to average all the images. The "exposure time" of the final image is calculated by adding the exposure time of all the images that you used for the averaging, which means that you would have to take thousands of photos if the sun is shining.
Yea it is just take multiple photos then average them in photoshop
Merci pour ce tuto Serge !
Lol. My camera only does 30 seconds. 🤔
I do. How long is the exposure on Bulb Mode?
As long as you want/need if you use a remote, either a wireless one or a cableremote, I've used both and I find both of them working great. With the wireless one I click once to start the exposure, and again to stop it.
Ahh I see. So it's a manual exposure rather than a set exposure.
I have a Nikon D80 but not yet a remote - Do you suggest a remote in particular?
Thanks for the help! :)
I just have a cheap wireless one from ebay wich works just fine for me, the cable release one is more expensive I think.. Just make sure it's compatible with your camera =)
Cheers, thanks for the help! Will look around :)
Go into what mode?
+Rony Biram BULB
Because for example in Canon the maximum exposure is 30 seconds if you don't choose the bulb mode where you calculate the exposure yourself
+minepate there is some free app to help you and when you do few times you can guess the time yourself .
+minepate play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quicosoft.exposurecalculator.app
here is a app you can get for free
+Rony Biram If you have a 5D or 7D and even an other canon DSLR you can use the "Magic lantern firmware".It allow to break the time exposure limitation of 30 second.BECAREFUL THE INSTALLATION OF THIS FIRMWARE BREAK THE WARrentY OF YOUR CAMERA.But i never had problem even with the customer service when i send it to repair.
Seems like Alex is from Tehran :)
This t8torial es so teoric and worring.