Long exposures can be used to take some different and interesting
pictures. The effects tie in to a degree with using flash and
longer shutter speeds, but here we are looking at not using the
flash.

The simple reason to use long exposures is to record a picture
when the light level is below that normally needed to achieve a
result. Of course, there are some very high speed modern films,
but these tend to have coarse grain structures and give different
effects to long exposures.

The first requirement is a good tripod, or failing that,
something on which to rest the camera. On holiday, I've used wall
tops, shoulder bag placed on the pavement and many other solid
objects as long as they do the job.

Set up the camera and look at the scene. It is best to expose for
the brighter parts as they would otherwise 'burn out' giving
areas of pure white - very eye catching when it is probably not
needed. If you have spot metering, and know how to use it -
because it's not that easy - then you can spot meter the
highlights. One beauty of this type of photography is that a
whole range of exposures will result in a picture, and each one
will be different.

A bit of experience will result in being able to make a good
guess. Say you are shooting a street scene, an exposure of 10
seconds at f11 may be right. 20 seconds is only 1 more stop ! So
the margin for acceptable error is quite large. EXPERIMENT !!

An interesting side effect is that a street scene, for example,
can be made to look deserted, even with people walking about. A
long exposure will show the static objects, but those moving will
hardly record - except for bright objects, such as car tail
lights.

One of the classics is the big wheel at a fairground. A suitable
time exposure, small aperture to allow a very long shutter speed
- possibly 1 sec. at f22, or longer, will record the stationary
lights normally, but the wheel will be a complete circle of
coloured light.

If you don't have a cable, or electronic release to prevent
shake, then select the cameras delayed action setting. In most
cases this gives about 10 seconds before the shutter fires and
thus means that the camera is totally stable.