Long Exposure & Filters

What long exposure needs

• Manual controls — shutter, aperture, ISO (plus Bulb for very long exposures).
• Sturdy tripod that resists wind and holds camera + lens + filters.
• ND filter set + holder — to lengthen exposures in daylight.
• Remote shutter — essential in Bulb mode to avoid touching the camera.
• Optional portable light for painting or lifting a dark foreground.

Neutral Density (ND) filters

NDs cut light so you can use long shutter speeds in bright conditions — smoothing water, blurring cloud and crowd movement. A base set plus a strong stopper (e.g. a 10-stop ND1000) covers most needs. Kevin's kit includes an ND1000 in 49mm.

Polarisers

Cut glare and reflections and deepen skies/colours — invaluable over water and foliage. Owned filters: 49mm circular PL (VF-49CPAM) for the FE 16mm f/2.8, and 72mm circular PL (VF-72CPAM) for the 18-105 f/4. A polariser costs ~1.5–2 stops of light.

Colour gels on flash

Gelling the Godox V1 changes the mood (colour) or the tonal relationships (B&W).

In colour: red = warm/theatrical, blue = cool moonlight, yellow = sunny late-afternoon, green = eerie/fluorescent.

In black & white, a gel lightens its own colour and darkens the complement:

Gel	Effect in mono
Red	Red light, dark sky/greens — dramatic, high contrast
Yellow	The "everyday" filter — slight sky darkening, natural skin
Green	Lightens foliage, darkens reds — good for botanicals
Blue	Softer, lower contrast; reds go near-black

Expect to lose ½–2 stops to the gel, so raise flash power or open up. Learning exercise: shoot one scene four times with red/yellow/green/blue gels, convert all to mono, and compare how the tones shift.

Discipline on the tripod

• Compose, meter and focus before the filter goes on — a 10-stop is opaque to the eye.
• Manual Focus (MF) once set. Tape the focus (and zoom) barrel with gaffer tape so nothing shifts between frames.
• Cover the viewfinder — light leaks are the classic long-exposure fault.
• Cheap ND casts a colour shift; correct in RAW or buy better glass.
• Stacking filters is normal in daylight (10-stop + 3-stop soft graduated); expect vignetting at wide focal lengths.

Longer is not automatically better: in a tested sequence at 4 s, 15 s and 29 s the effect was strongest at four seconds. Start in the 1/2 s–30 s range and shoot several lengths of the same composition. Fuller treatment in Long Exposure — Craft & Composition.

Consolidated from notes: Long exposure photography requires...; Filters for landscape - Neutral Density (ND) Filters; Polariser filters; Colour filters