50 Stunning Examples of Long Exposure Photography

Today we’re showcasing amazing 50 examples of long exposure photography for all the fans and those who are still unsure if they’re crazy about it or not. We will try to depict the long exposure in different niches, from landscapes, street lights, seascapes to waterfalls and hopefully inspire all of you to try long exposure photography. You don’t necessarily need to own expensive equipment to take long exposure photography as long as you are familiar with the fundamentals of long exposure photography. A picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s make our story short and continue enjoying the most breathtaking examples below.

1 . Explore Cherry Blossoms in Fukuoka

A stunning photograph by Takayuki Koike will inspire you to visit and explore Japan during the spring season while enjoying the most exciting moment for all Japanese people when cherry blossoms bloom.

2. A Ballerina. Captured With Long Exposure Photography

Indonesian photographer Andre Arment created a magical scenery of dancing ballerina using long exposure technique and captured even softer movements of this beautiful dance than ever before.

3. Enjoy the City Lights in Hong Kong with this slow shutter capture

Ever wondered how Hong Kong looks after dark? Jesús M. García did the homework for you and he definitely scored an A+ for the hard work.

4. Spice up Your Gallery While Visiting Spain

Carlos Javier Teruel Galvez created that perfect mystical atmosphere using the strong contrast between green and milky effect of tidal waves in Barrika, Spain.

5. Go Inside the Light Tunnel

No Photoshop at all. Boro LR created this powerful illusion using a neon light and a flash. Incredible, right?

6. Take a Sneak Peek Behind the Blue Curtains of Finland

Keijo Savolainen is a self-thought landscape photographer based in Finland. If you check out his gallery, you’ll see that his main goal is to show the simplicity of landscapes at any time of the day or season and he’s pretty good at it.

7. Fight Back the Cold Winter

It is a photograph that evokes many emotions for sure. Mikael Sundberg shows how life in nature can be tough sometimes. It teaches us an important lesson about life to never give up, not even when it’s hard. Have you tried to capture emotion in your long exposure photography? We would love to see your work in the comment section below.

8. Buona Notte, Colosseum

Not only did Ewan Tupper show us how great Rome is, but also he managed to photograph such a historical place without having any people near it by taking advantage of the ghosting effect of long exposure photography. He gave us another approach never seen before and that’s why he’s on our list.

9. Play With Fire (for Professionals Only)

Tom Lacoste has set a good example of making long exposure photography without using photoshop. The only thing that you’ll need is a professional that blows fire!

10. Relish Your Inner Child

Instead of taking the car today, hop on your old bike and feel the wind in your hair. Pörrö showed us how good it feels to be outside on two wheels during the autumn. Some might say this is technically panning but we think it qualify as long exposure photography too.

11. Need a Ticket for a Magic Show?

Zev, our favorite magician, used his special powers to show us how magic works. He takes us to another planet and makes us wonder if the fairy tales truly exist.

12. Light Trails at Tokyo’s Intersection

Tokyo has always been a city of illumination, symmetry in architecture and an inspirational place for many photographers. Shinichi Higashi took his advantage and presented the vibrant city colors in his own, unique style. This photo is a good reminder for all of us to think of composition in our long exposure photography. Often it is hard to imagine the final results that is why forethought is very important in long exposure photography.

13. Take a Walk by the Vltava River, Prague

Croatian photographer Roberto Pavic took the shot of the most famous bridge in Prague, Charles Bridge. He has chosen the black and white tones instead of color and we fully support his decision. Long exposure photography takes out lot of distraction from your frame. This effect can be further strengthened by using black and white color treatment.

14.  Grand Mosque

We all have high expectations when visiting any famous sightseeing spot in the world. Once we get there, the pressure rises since we all need that one shot no one has ever taken before. That’s exactly what Tiago Caramuru did. By using long exposure photography, he is able to smooth out the ripples in the water to get a dramatic reflection.

14. Get Lost in the City Crowd

German photographer Frank Machalowski took this picture in a crowded city of Salzburg. What makes him different in this collection is that he uses an analog camera.

15. California, Here We Come

The author of this photograph, Agus Sutanto says that he actually came to this place because he wanted to shoot fireworks but it wasn’t possible because of the fog. He had to make the best out of the bad situation and the results are just amazing. Not everything goes according to our plan, right?

16. Speicherstadt at Night

Here’s how the sunset blue hour looks like in Hamburg, Germany. The talented photographer Arne Bornheim mixed his true passions, traveling and photographing in one single photograph.

17. Munich’s Colorful Underground

Joe Plasmatico is known for having a sharp eye for symmetry. In this photograph, colors do play a major role but the long exposure gives that special touch.

18. Less is More

Splendid minimalism by photographer Martin Rak. Simplicity can be a powerful composition tool, it let the viewer wonder their imagination while emphasizing the subjects you have chose to showcase.

19. Come Dream With Me

We love this milky way photo from photographer Ionuţ Caraş. He has used several photography composition rules when capturing the RAW image such as the rule of thirds for the horizon and leading lines.

20. Love Is in the Air, Literally

Love should always feel like this, high above the ground, right? Suren Manvelyan probably had a great time making this unusual shot with this adorable couple.

21. Havasu Waterfalls, Arizona

Terence Lee has given us the pleasure of enjoying Havasu waterfall in Arizona by making such a great composition using rich red colors from mother nature combined white silky water.

22. Never Lose Focus

[Nocturne] has given himself a nickname, light painter, and we couldn’t agree more. His night photographs are definitely best in the world. He has invented his own name for night photography. ‘Noctography’ – means ‘Nocturnal Photography’. You should definitely explore more of his work if you are into Night and Long Exposure Photography.

23. London Bridge

Dutch photographer Vaans Ruijten has given us an excellent perspective of London’s Bridge rush at night. Many photographers have tried to capture the same scenery before but Vaans really went an extra mile to present something new.

24. Gondola Ride Through Venice

Venice is all about love, gondola ride, and a visit to the famous St Mark’s square.  The photographer, Carmine Chiriacò, used long exposure as a game changer for this well-known scenery and he for sure won our hearts.  Long exposure photography allows you to capture motion, use that as a storytelling tool in your photography.

25. Winter Flight

Belgian photographer Yvette Depaepe has taken this photo along the canal in Hoeke, a small village near to the Netherlands (Sluis) on a winter day. Motion blur, camera panning, and black and white treatment make this an emotion invoking capture.

26. Yellow Diamond

Nothing can beat a great sunset on Diamond Beach in Iceland. Victor Liu says that he has never seen as a big chunk of yellow diamond as this one before, being washed by golden water, pure and absolute. Including foreground elements can be a great composition tool especially when long exposure take care of other distractions from your frame.

Related Article: Master the Golden Hour in Photography

27. Horse Galloping

Slovenian photographer Milan Malovrh cherishes a true passion for capturing the horse movements. Even though he mainly photographs horses, every single photo has its own story. This particular photo is more powerful due to the rule of thirds composition used.

28. Tunnel Vision

Joel (Julius) has offered this splendid and powerful monochrome shot to his audience. He used the square format that really clarifies the structure of the buildings even more. As you can see, having a long exposure blurred the clouds and even introduced motion lines that add symmetry to this photograph.

29. Yellow Lines

German photographer Adriano Saccio created this powerful scenery leaving the yellow light track on a road in the middle of the night. You can’t move your eyes away from the path, can you? To learn about leading lines composition rule and many others, read this article.

30. In the Middle

One more powerful black and white photograph made by Rasa Razaniene is on our list today. The author says that she had always been dreaming of working with little ones and had her dream come true. This slow shutter captures many emotions such as happiness, hope, and playfulness. Well done, Rasa!

31. Rising Above the Surface

David Orias has given us a wonderful dawn light on a luscious, silky wave in California. We could stare at these colors of the wave for hours, how about you?

32. Autumn as Its Best

We usually associate autumn with the rain and bad weather but our photographer Miles Morgan changed our perspective a bit. His use of powerful yellow color of leaves and the greenish tones match really well. beautiful use of foreground elements, focus, and the rule of thirds in this creation.

33. Zurich Airport

This photo was taken by Russian photographer Sergei Ustinov and it’s great how long exposure attracts one’s eye into the tunnel just by looking at the photo. Wonderful lines, form, and depth indeed.

34. Spring Rhapsody

Greek photographer Maria Kaimaki completely blew our mind with such a neat, sharp concept. The title speaks for its self, it’s truly a Spring Rhapsody and it feels like we can hear the tune while watching the waterfall.

35. New York, New York

New York City, The Big Apple, The Concrete Jungle, The City That Never Sleeps. Leif Løndal truly captured all the names connected with New York City in one single photo.

36. Red Brolly

Josh Adamski has found a good way to create a long exposure impressionism with a powerful touch of red umbrella surrounded by the grayness of a daily life.

37. Ghosts of Chicago

Our next photographer Luke Strothman comes from Chicago and he’s all about gold in his shot. Long exposure of the night sky gives this well-known tourist attraction a different perspective. Motion blur of clouds and people below add so much energy to this photo while taking out distractions.

38. After the Rain

Take a good look at these colors! We’re getting great tones and night vibes from Todd Hakala‘s shot!

39. Red Sky Rocks Redux

Andi Campbell-Jones took this sunset photograph at Welcombe Mouth. The rock formation reflecting the red/orange sky combined with the long exposure misty sea makes this a very unique North Devon view. A great use of leading lines, the rule of thirds, and of course long exposure.

40. Far From the City

Just spectacular. Words can’t describe how perfect this shot is. Use of long exposure has completely flattened the water. The black and white treatment has made the water looks like a cloud floor. If heaven had a stair case to earth, it might look like this! Fabrice Silly, you are truly an inspiration.

41. The Sweet Temptation

A clean, sharp and clever composition made by Quebec City-based photographer Martin Cauchon. We have all seen the normal product photography attempts. Martin managed to think out side the box and tried a long exposure. The result is mouth watering!

42. Yellow Street Light

We’ve seen so far different ways of using colorful lights in long exposure shots but this one stands from the crowd. Shady S. should be proud of himself and his excellent, unique style.

43. My Kingdom

 

Michał Mierzejewski gave this photograph the title “My kingdom” and described it as an Umbrian mixture of sun, IR photography & wine.

44. Acadia’s Boulders

Remi Boucher photographed eroded granite boulders from the bedrock of Mount Desert Island that keeps getting rocked around by the power of the waves and the passage of time. From sharp polyhedrons, some of them become incredibly spherical, before returning to the grain of sand.

45. Light My Fire

We can also use long exposure technic while shooting models. Phlearn LLC used that knowledge wisely and created this experimental portrait look only by using a sprinkler. This surely made our eyes sparkle!

46. Spring Melancholy

Fasten your seat belt because we’re traveling to Romania just because of this breathtaking shot by Vlad Cureliuc. Green color not only reminds us of spring but also smells so fresh as if it were in the air right now.

47. Skogafoss, Iceland

“Much happens that one expects the least.” These are the words that our photographer Eddie Lluisma used to describe this magical moment. People say that there’s a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but in this case, Eddie’s photograph is the gold!

48. Lost in the Fog

German photographer Christoph Schaarschmidt has a story to tell. He was standing there alone in the fog, waiting for the view to become clear. And then it happened, the fog disappeared at 1 am, one car came slowly up the steep serpentines. It was his dream for a long time to take a photo of light trails like this in Norway – and it was just an awesome feeling that it worked out on the most beautiful and famous street.

Related Article: Ultimate guide to fog photography

49. Fireworks Over Thailand’s Sky

Prasit Utalert has given us a sense of festivities with this really amazing shot of fireworks over Thailand’s sky. Amazing composition and use of reflection pond in this photo.

50. Spin Me Around

Last but not the least, a self-taught photographer Caryn Drexl took a self portrait and explained each step behind the scene. She had the lights wrapped around a frame hanging overhead which she’d send spinning before each shot.