If you Shoot Long Exposures, You Gotta Get This App
Yesterday afternoon I was on location shooting some long exposure black and white (well, I was shooting in color with the intention of converting to black and white later) and I thought I’d share an iPhone App that has made finding out exactly how long to keep your shutter open an absolute no-brainer.
It’s called ND Timer and you just tell it three things:
- (1) What your current shutter speed is (before you put your ND filter on your lens)
- (2) How many stops your ND filter is (like a 3-stop, 4-stop, 10-stop, etc.)
- (3) If you’re stacking more than one ND Filter on top of another you tap the “Stack Filter” button then let it know the number of stops of your 2nd ND filter
Instantly it tells you exactly how long to leave your shutter open, and it even has a built-in timer countdown clock.
It’s just 99¢. That rocks! (you can find it on the App store)
Plus, it couldn’t be easier to use (there’s really nothing more to it than I just told you.
Anything Missing?
Well, yes. There is one feature I would love to see added: sometimes you’re standing there for 5 or 10 minutes waiting on a long exposure, and it is counting down the time, but I’d love to be able to switch to another App (maybe check my Facebook page), but when it gets down to 10-seconds left before you need to release the cable release lock it needs to have a pop-up warning that appears on screen and ideally an option for an audible warning, like one of the built-in alarm sounds. I’d also love to have the option of having it beep each second for those last 10-seconds (like the self-timer on your camera), so you can get ready to release the cable release lock.
Outside of that, it just rocks, and for 99¢ how can you go wrong?
How about a Long Exposure Photography Tutorial?
OK! (see below)
That’s a long exposure tutorial I did on location in Maine a few years back for my buddies who run the “Weekly Photo Tips” blog. It’s already been viewed nearly 550,000 times — the only thing missing was this App (I didn’t know about it then). Anyway, hope you find it useful.
That’s it for today, folks. I’ve been working on another project for CocaCola.com (this one is a special project for Mother’s Day) and I did three shoots for it yesterday. I’ll have details, and a link, coming soon.
Hope you all have a really great Tuesday!
-Scott