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How it was Done – Zooming the Exposure

This is a technique I learned years ago in photography school and have been having fun with lately. Hope you have as much fun playing with it as I do!

zoom-exposure2

Zooming during a long exposure tips

  • Works well on night scenes and ones with many light sources
  • Set up your camera on a tripod with a remote trigger or release
  • Set your camera to Manual mode
  • Set your focus by zooming in all the way, then lock the focus (using either back button focus or focus using Auto-focus and then switch it off to Manual focus)
  • Zoom out so you can see the whole image as you want it framed
  • Then start your exposure and zoom your lens out while the shutter is opened (you may need to practice a few times to make it go smoothly)
  • Experiment with different zooming speeds and timing, as example: if you exposure is 5 seconds do one with 3-4 seconds at the beginning, then zoom at the end; then do another when you zoom immediately and do most of the exposure at the end
  • Exposure must be 2 seconds or longer to make this work, otherwise it becomes really tricky to zoom
  • If it is too bright to get a 2 second exposure, make sure your ISO is as low as your camera goes and your aperture is set to your smallest setting (f/22 or f/32). If it is still too bright you may need to use a Neutral density filter to cut down the amount of light coming through the lens

Here are a few examples done using this technique.

SanFran-2012-1039-blog1100zoom-exposure1

zooming-3

ACTION PLAN

I encourage you to experiment and play around with technique and other similar variations. Share your images in the comments below and if you have other tips please tell us!

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Darlene Hildebrandt
Darlene Hildebrandt

is an educator who teaches aspiring amateurs and hobbyists how to improve their skills through free articles on her website Digital Photo Mentor and online photography classes. She also teaches all about photo editing using Lightroom, Photoshop, and Luminar Neo and has courses available on all three.

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