Accurate Timing of Long Exposures

[Jim Jones]

. . . You don't need watches, metronomes, apps or the like; use your head.

Best,

Doremus

Yes, indeed. I learned to count seconds with a Big Ben alarm clock before we had electricity on the farm. Even without music it can be accurate. Two musicians, Godowsky and Mannes, did much of the research leading up to Kodachrome by counting seconds in the dark. It still works well today when dodging and burning, either while printing or shooting film. Today's inexpensive compact digital clocks that tick once a second may help.

[tgtaylor]

For long exposures I use my wrist watch. My last long exposure was for 2'40" on Ilford Delta. I'll wait for the minute hand to line up on a minute and then trip the shutter and keep it open until both the minute and second hands reach the required value. For example, on the exposure above I opened the shutter when the minute hand hit the 10 minute mark (second hand was on the 60 second mark) and when the minute hand moved to the 12 minute mark and the second hand moved to the 12"40" mark I closed the shutter. Todays wrist watches are very accurate and this method always results in a very accurate exposure. I'll pack a small mag flashlight with a red filter for reading the flashlight and finding stuff in the pack when doing night photography and its a good idea to always pack such a light.

Thomas

[DannL]

For long exposures I use this AGAT stop watch, which was ordered from the Ukraine. It was well worth the investment.

Attachment 105645

[Jac@stafford.net]

I find this count-down timer quite good. Simple, readable. iPhone or iPad.

[Brassai]

I just use the stop watch function on my cellphone. Really, when exposures are getting much over a couple of seconds, a quarter second is not going to affect much. I try to allow a bit for reciprocity anyway.