Hand in 18th February 2018
Judged on 27th February 2018
Judge – Andrew Chandler
Brief
“All of the fundamental principles relating to photography still apply in making a successful long exposure shot i.e. good composition, correct exposure, sharpness (where appropriate) and so on. However, there are some additional things to consider when you decide to set up your tripod and try to remember where the “B” setting is on your camera.
Firstly, does the subject matter lend itself to the technique in the first place or are you just doing it for the sake of it? In other words, what’s your vision? What are you hoping to achieve?
Secondly, and linked to the first question above, does the result enhance what you see or detract from it? This can be very subjective, but one of the great things about digital photography in particular is it allows us to be more creative and experimental. In the same way that high-speed photography shows us something that the human eye can’t normally see, so too do most long exposure shots.
Thirdly, have you been able to avoid/eliminate some of the artefacts that are often associated with long exposure shots? As well as noise, light leakage and chromatic aberration, because the sensor can get quite hot over time, “hot pixels” can appear in your final image and will require some post-processing.
Therefore, in essence, I’ll be looking at subject matter, creativity and technical competence and asking whether these combine to make me go “Wow!”
Hope this helps
Andrew”