# Long Exposure Portraits?



## JohnnyL (Nov 21, 2009)

Hi guys, I photograph for a skateboard shop over here in Shanghai , China. I've been given an assignment by them to get pictures of their new team. I got full control of everything from the location to the color clothes they wear on that day so I'm trying to get ideas on what I can do.

I'm thinking shooting the team at night would be more unique than the regular day group portrait shots. First thing that came to mind was since it's busy Shanghai , I'll photograph the team with a long exposure busy highway background. Then comes the problem , long exposure and portraits? Wouldn't the subject ( the team ) be motion blurred? How can I do this?

Just some additional information , the group is of three , I do have a flash and I'd like to make the best team portrait ever!

Thanks! Any suggestion or advice would really be appreciated!

--------------------
5 december
Now the results!


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## KmH (Nov 21, 2009)

JohnnyL said:


> Wouldn't the subject ( the team ) be motion blurred?


Only if they move during the exposure, or if the camera moves during the exposure.

However, if you use strobed light set to sync with the rear/second curtain of the shutter......


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## christm (Nov 21, 2009)

Another option is if they are skating along against a row or traffic then the traffic lights would be blurred as long as you kept the same speed and exact framing all the way through. 

Another option is to photoshop it.


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## Pugs (Nov 21, 2009)

KmH said:


> JohnnyL said:
> 
> 
> > Wouldn't the subject ( the team ) be motion blurred?
> ...


This...


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## IgsEMT (Nov 21, 2009)

Long exposures = how long, 1/30 or 1/15 you might get away, USING flash of course. Anything slower, you'll probably get blur.
What you could try to do is something like 1/10 with a flash as they skate by you - flash will freeze the main action while you'll still get the trail of movement. Preferably if you're using tripod.


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## Pugs (Nov 21, 2009)

Oh, and if you have them wear darker colors, that will help diminish the appearance of motion blur. Have them wear something darker and non-reflective with a rear-curtain sync, and that should help with the longer exposure times.


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## JohnnyL (Nov 21, 2009)

IgsEMT said:


> Long exposures = how long, 1/30 or 1/15 you might get away, USING flash of course. Anything slower, you'll probably get blur.
> What you could try to do is something like 1/10 with a flash as they skate by you - flash will freeze the main action while you'll still get the trail of movement. Preferably if you're using tripod.



I forgot to say , I want the portrait of them just posing there. They won't be skating around. I was thinking of long exposures like 5 to 10seconds. 

Heres what I just thought of. I set the camera on the tripod , say 10second exposure. I release the shutter telling them not to move and a few seconds later ( I don't really know whens the best time ) I use my flash off shoe and fire it at them using the test button.

Would this work out? 

Also , it's just a cheap flash without variable power or sync option..


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## molested_cow (Nov 21, 2009)

I've got an idea for long exposure action shots, but it's hard to explain.... I'll try.

Pick a background that shows the moving lights, such as cars, people etc on the streets.
Plan how you want the skateboarder to move through the frame so that you can capture the right moment while you set your camera on a tripod for the shot.
Set up dim lights to illuminate the skateboarder as he moves.
Use bulb mode with a remote. Start the exposure just before the skateboarder moves into the frame.
Flash the skateboarder at where you want to capture the right moment.

The result will be the skateboarder frozen in action, with motion because of the dim light that lit him up just enough to leave ghost images, while you capture moving cars and pedestrians in the background. You will have to find out the perfect aperture setting by trial and error. This is essentially shutter speed priority except you control the exposure time.


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## thoughtcryme (Nov 21, 2009)

The only problem with any of this that I can see is that putting equal focus on the subject and background is fundamentally unsound.
It results in a busy composition that rarely works out as intended.

What is the viewer looking at? The skater, or the lights in the background?
If you want to make the images pop more, you could try experimenting with depth of field.
And/or stylize it with a digital silver retention or cross process variation.


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## KmH (Nov 22, 2009)

JohnnyL said:


> IgsEMT said:
> 
> 
> > Long exposures = how long, 1/30 or 1/15 you might get away, USING flash of course. Anything slower, you'll probably get blur.
> ...


Only if you have the lens stopped way down and that will likely cost you some sharpness of the image.

Telling them not to move and them not actually moving is another matter.

At 10 seconds you'll likely get enough ambient light for an exposure. Any light added from a speedlight will overexpose the image.

Your need to set up some days before hand and discover, by trial and error, the settings that will work for you.


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## Buckster (Nov 22, 2009)

JohnnyL said:


> IgsEMT said:
> 
> 
> > Long exposures = how long, 1/30 or 1/15 you might get away, USING flash of course. Anything slower, you'll probably get blur.
> ...


As long as they're in the dark while you're making the long exposure, and aren't lit by ambient light, it should work out fine.  As long as it's really dark where they're posing, you should be able to open up the aperture and have a pretty long exposure without a problem.

Where it gets weird is if they move.  Then, if there's anything lit behind them, it will ghost 'through' them, like a double exposure would do.  If they move a little, it'll ghost around their edges.  If they move a lot, it'll ghost through more.  So do what you can to prevent that - get them comfortable, or get something dark right behind them.

Here's an example of a long exposure (176 seconds) @ f/3.5 where the subject (me) doesn't blur because I'm in the dark, never exposed to ambient light, and only lit by the strobe for an instant:






What at first looks like a blur on my knee is actually the shadow of my arm.  The strobe was between the two trees, pointed at me, and another was to camera left, just to provide a little bit more fill for the scene.


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## JohnnyL (Nov 23, 2009)

Hi Buckster , thanks for your reply. However , I think there will be ambient light from the shops , cars and street lamps but this is still a great trick which I will try but incase it's not dark enough and it doesn't work , I should have another trick up my sleeve.

Lets say I get them posed , I stand to the side holding my slave flash and then trigger the shutter. Within the few seconds after the flash and shutter has fired , I get them out of the frame. So now , the shutter is still open getting the good long exposures and I don't need to worry about motion blur since they're already out. Will this work?


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## Buckster (Nov 23, 2009)

JohnnyL said:


> Hi Buckster , thanks for your reply. However , I think there will be ambient light from the shops , cars and street lamps but this is still a great trick which I will try but incase it's not dark enough and it doesn't work , I should have another trick up my sleeve.
> 
> Lets say I get them posed , I stand to the side holding my slave flash and then trigger the shutter. Within the few seconds after the flash and shutter has fired , I get them out of the frame. So now , the shutter is still open getting the good long exposures and I don't need to worry about motion blur since they're already out. Will this work?


Whatever's behind them will show 'through' them like they're ghosts if they're not there to block it through the whole time the shutter's open.


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## bigtwinky (Nov 23, 2009)

While at a wedding this past summer, I took my camera to the nearby dock and did some long exposures.  I decided to try with a subject in it, who wasn't moving, to see how it would come out.

Not too bad for an artsy thing, not sure how something with a long exposure of 10-15 secs would work for a portrait.  You want tack sharpness for the portrait, and I think its nearly impossible for a human to stay perfectly still for 10 secs, mainly because we have to breath.

f/9, 13 secs, 13mm







An option for you would be to mount your camera on a tripod and then do 2 shots.  1 shots with a nicely exposed street with the streaks and all and another shot with a well exposed, flash light and whatnot of the subject.

Then put the two images on 2 layers in photoshop and mask out what ya don't need.
Note that working on hair can be a pain.  So if you can get them to wear hoodies, hats or whatever, that would help.


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## JohnnyL (Nov 24, 2009)

bigtwinky said:


> Then put the two images on 2 layers in photoshop and mask out what ya don't need.
> Note that working on hair can be a pain.  So if you can get them to wear hoodies, hats or whatever, that would help.



I had this idea as well but wasn't very sure how to do it. How can I put the two pictures together? I would think I lasso and cut out the guys and paste it onto the picture with streaks? I'm not very good with photoshop


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## bigtwinky (Nov 24, 2009)

I'm sure you can google or youtube a decent walkthrough.

Essentially...

Open both images separately in photoshop

Put them both in windowed mode so you can see both images on the screen (they can overlap, but make sure they are somewhat visible)

Go to one image and hold down (this I am not sure) SHIFT + CTRL and then click and drag and drop it on the other image.

The goal is to have the image you dragged create a new layer with the new image and to have it fill the whole layer, centered (this is what the CTRL+SHIFT do)

On the top/new layer, use the layer mask icon (should be on your lower right, new the create new layer button)

Use the Brush tool to brush/mask out the sections you dont want of the top image.  Black masks, white unmasks

*this might have some problems or things that are untrue, I'm going purely by memory from something I learned a while ago and havent done in a while.  I also dont have PS installed.  But you should get the idea...


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## IgsEMT (Nov 24, 2009)

> Quote: Originally Posted by *JohnnyL*
> 
> 
> _   		 			  				 					Quote: Originally Posted by *IgsEMT*
> ...



Use a light meter,  or of tries until you get it right


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## JohnnyL (Nov 25, 2009)

Cool , I think I got all the information I needed.

Thanks for all the help guys!


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## JohnnyL (Dec 4, 2009)

Hey guys , thanks for all the advice. I did get the shot today , although not what I had planned , I'm happy with the results for sure.







Info : I realized that 10second long exposure wouldn't work so I bumped the ISO to 800 , shutter to 1second and aperture to 3.5 ( smallest )


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## Pugs (Dec 4, 2009)

Compositionally I like this a lot.  The only thing I don't like about it is that lamp in the upper-right.  It's the first thing that my eye is drawn to and that takes away from the subjects, in my opinion.


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## jnm (Dec 4, 2009)

i made a very nice portrait with a 15 second exposure to get the very dark sky to be lit by the moon from behind the clouds and used a wireless strobe on the rear curtain to get my wife to come out with no blur.  i think it came out awesome, let me know if you want to see.


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## JohnnyL (Dec 5, 2009)

jnm said:


> i made a very nice portrait with a 15 second exposure to get the very dark sky to be lit by the moon from behind the clouds and used a wireless strobe on the rear curtain to get my wife to come out with no blur.  i think it came out awesome, let me know if you want to see.



Cool , show me!

Thanks for pointing out the light Pugs.


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## jnm (Dec 5, 2009)

JohnnyL said:


> jnm said:
> 
> 
> > i made a very nice portrait with a 15 second exposure to get the very dark sky to be lit by the moon from behind the clouds and used a wireless strobe on the rear curtain to get my wife to come out with no blur.  i think it came out awesome, let me know if you want to see.
> ...



the moon was hidden behind some pretty think clouds so i needed 15 seconds to make them come out at all.  camera was on iso 400, f/6.3 and flash was an SB600 set to 1/32 +0.3 about 10 feet in front of her set to the rear curtain.  there was enough ambient light on her since the resort was about 100 feet away that without the flash she would have been visible but very dark and blurry but  the flash took care of that.


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