Fine-Art Long Exposure -- Photography Techniques

Fine-Art Long Exposure Photography Techniques -

A Video Workshop for beginning to intermediate photographers!

***  Note: Although a DVD is shown in the image above, this tutorial is available as a digital download only! ***

I am incredibly excited to present to you this tutorial on Fine-Art Long Exposure Photography.

After almost 3 years of shooting, carrying a small (and sometimes very large) video camera with me around the world, I felt confident that now is time to tell you my story. This series of video tutorials is geared toward the enthusiast to intermediate level photographer wanting to get started or long exposure photography techniques. This video is for you if you've never tried to shoot long exposures and are intrigued to give it a try. Or, maybe you have for a while, but now you are looking for more consistent results to take your skills to the next level.

These video tutorials follow me along my journey as a fine-art long exposure photographer. We start in the classroom where we begin by reviewing my portfolio together. We move on to discuss and talk about neutral density filters next. The camera follows me along to a shooting location, where I take you step-by-step through the process of taking long exposure photographs. I talk about camera settings and calculating exposure times with ND filters. I talk about lens selection and whether or not to use long exposure noise reduction. Despite all these technical considerations, I do make sure to discuss weather, cloud and water movement, and most importantly, composition theory and creative opportunities as they apply to long exposure photography.

Back at my studio, I download the images and discuss the results with you. I share more image samples from my portfolio to illustrate important concepts such as picking specific exposure times, and we delve into the digital darkroom and process images from color to black and white. For this presentation I will not only show you simple, yet effective, methods of image editing, I will talk about how these techniques can help you realize your vision and let you create unique images as a fine-art photographer.

As this video tutorial is geared towards the enthusiast to intermediate photographer, I will keep post processing techniques limited to simple software solutions (such as Silver Efex Pro). We will dip our toes into Photoshop from time to time, but this is not an advanced post processing tutorial (please see my separate tutorial video for that information).

My goal is to show you how to master your shooting techniques so that you can keep your post production to a minimum. You'd be surprised how much can be achieved with 'just' simple software solutions. My aim is that after watching this tutorial you will feel not only confident and comfortable with the long exposure shooting technique, but also feel that same confidence when it comes to understanding the creative opportunities these techniques can have for your photography. I want you to be excited to go out shooting and be proud of your resulting images!

Here is a list of topics that will be covered in this tutorial video:

Video is presented by award-winning photographer and renown instructor Marc Koegel

- Introduction and narrated slideshow of Marc's award-winning imagery

- Equipment for LE Photography (cameras, lenses, tripods, cable release, etc)

- Neutral Density (ND) Filters: Market Overview and Suggested Brands

- How to calculating exposure times with ND filters

- Field-trip to photograph seascapes near Vancouver (Canada)

- Field-trip to photograph historic grain elevators near Calgary (Canada)

- Thoughts on composition, camera angles, and perspective for unique images

- Back in the studio: Image review and post-production opportunities

- Picking an exposure time: Why it is important and how it influences your images

- Color to black and white conversion in Adobe Photoshop

- Color to black and white conversions using Silver Efex Software

- And much more