The steps to capturing an ethereal slow shot

Gear

To practise long-exposure photography you’ll need three accessories: a strong ND filter such as a 6, 10 or 15 stop; a tripod (carbon fibre ones are lighter); and finally, a remote or cable release. Some cameras allow you to shoot in bulb mode without the need for a cable.

Understanding stops of light

When shooting long exposures it helps to know what’s happening when you add an ND filter. If you use a 10-stop filter this reduces the light entering your camera by 10 stops. A stop is the unit used to measure light. One stop is half or double the amount of light, so to reduce your exposure by one stop would mean halving your shutter speed. To reduce by two stops would mean halving twice.

Subject

It’s important to choose the right subject. A scene with lots of movement as well as something static will give the image contrast and help emphasise the motion within the composition. Look for sea stacks or rocks in the sea and simplify things by including lots of negative space.

When to shoot

The beauty of long exposure photography is that you can shoot at any time of the day, from sunrise to sunset. The only thing you need to take into consideration is the density of the ND filter. If you shoot in the blue hour you might not need a filter, but if you’re photographing at noon on a bright day, then you could need up to 15 stops. Think about how long you’d like your exposure to be and take a meter reading with no filter. You can then work out how many stops you will need to reduce it by in order to achieve your desired shutter speed.