longer exposure.....or slow shutter speed?

editing post for removal.

I find it hard to believe, too. No, make that ridiculous.

Not sure what you have in mind, but it'll involve slow shutter speed...

-js

It can be done with digital cameras.
Please excuse the poor quality of this photo, but it is the only one of mine that I have quick access to right now:

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

tomdlgns wrote in post #3909556
perfect, thats it.

nice...so i would need a tripod, change the shutter speed, and a timer i imagine...

You could use a timer (reduces shake) OR get a remote shutter release cable. Either way it will reduce the vibration on your camera.

With some IS (image stabilized) lenses people have taken photos at the 1/6 - 1/10 of a second shutter speed HAND HELD (some even longer, but I like being cautious) --- so you don't ALWAYS need a tripod - but it sure helps (and is cheaper than a new lens ).

tomdlgns wrote in post #3909497
if you want to take a picture of lets say....a car driving at night and you want the tail lights or headlights to "chase" or "lead" the car, how would you do this on a DSLR?

i was told by someone that it can only be done with film and nothing that uses a memory card. i find this hard to believe, but i am not entirely sure, that is why i am asking.

i will post a pic once i find one that shows what i want to do.

As you've already discovered, you can get pictures of the light trails by leaving the shutter open for some amount of time. However, although you can see the car lights, there's no car to be seen. That is because they are moving too fast for the slow shutter speed to register with the amount of ambient light there is.

If you want a picture of a car that has a trail of light behind it, what you will need to do is artificially illuminate the car with a flash. If you use the flash in the normal way, you'll get a picture of a car with the light trails in front of it. To get a more "normal" looking car with the light trail behing the car, you need to set the flash to 2nd curtain sync which causes the flash to fire just before the shutter closes instead of immediately after the shutter opens.

BTW, since a flash has limited range, you obviously won't be able to apply this technique on the sample image you took of the highway taken from a distance.

tomdlgns wrote in post #3909603
what is a remote shutter release cable? can you manually control the shutter speed with a cable?

i will be using an XTi

Right - it connects to your camera and allows you to trip the shutter via a button on the fob at the end of the cable. You can even set the shutter on bulb and lock it open for very long exposures. There's also one that includes a timer for specific times or for interval shooting.

tomdlgns wrote in post #3909603
what is a remote shutter release cable? can you manually control the shutter speed with a cable?

i will be using an XTi

Well hullooo. The wee timer you're after is either a remote RC-1 or an RC-5. Some googling will tell you the difference between the two regards autofocus capabilities. But both should work perfectly well with your XTi. I have the RC-1 and it pretty much works perfectly. Think I got it off ebay pretty cheapo

http://www.amazon.co.u​k …-Controller/dp/B00007EE​A3
http://www.amazon.co.u​k …ics&qid=1189550​713&sr=1-1

as for taking the snap itself, see above posts!! They've got it right. I'm no expert, but it goes something like this:

= aperture to f22
= shutter time anything from 1 sec to 30 secs - or more: (bulb - the remote is cool for this)
= ISO to 100

snap away! Take millions of shots, keep a couple and bin the keek!! Good luck!

tomdlgns wrote in post #3909589

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

By the way that is a frickin' awesome snap!!!!!!!!

22 second exposure

5 second exposure

Here's the only one I could find, but obviously it's a boat not a car!

hmm. i know you got your question answered, but i'd like to clarify something. isnt a long exposure the same thing as using a slow shutter speed, just a different term. exposing the picture for a long time = keeping shutter open longer?

f50fan wrote in post #3911843
hmm. i know you got your question answered, but i'd like to clarify something. isnt a long exposure the same thing as using a slow shutter speed, just a different term. exposing the picture for a long time = keeping shutter open longer?

It is, but many cameras have an upper limit on the shutter speed that can be set on camera (about 30 seconds in most cases). To overcome this limit and get even longer exposures, you typically have to set the shutter speed but and use a remote release to open and close the shutter (you can use your finger on the shutter button but you can induce shake in the camera).

Mark

Do you mean a kitchen timer or stopwatch, in conjunction with a remote release or the shutter in bulb mode? Sure. When you're taking exposures that long, fractions of a second (or even several seconds) cause negligible variation.

You bet! You can set the exposure time (same as shutter speed) for say 10 seconds and then set the in camera timer. This works great and is a lot of fun. Once you have tried this you will want to get a shutter release cable so you don't have to wait for the timer for every picture you want to take. The shutter release cable is also great for fireworks. You just set your camera for ISO 100, aperature at about f/9-F/11, aim towards the fireworks and then sit back in your chair and click away