Enjoy Very Long Exposures With Will Cheung And MPB

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Staithes shot using a Canon EOS R5 fitted with a RF14-35mm f/4 L IS USM mounted on a Gitzo carbon tripod. The exposure was 120secs at f/11 and ISO 50 and the Raw edited to taste in Adobe Lightroom Classic and Nik Viveza. Image by Will Cheung.

While MPB is world-renowned for its great service and fair pricing, perhaps less appreciated is the incredible range of imaging products that it deals with, extending way beyond used cameras and lenses.

At this time of year, many photographers turn their attention to indoor photography and MPB can help out with lighting kit at attractive prices, so whether you prefer flash or continuous lighting, check out its website to see what’s available.

This month, though, I am staying outdoors and looking at the creative opportunities with extreme long exposures. The look of milky water and streaky clouds does not have universal appeal, but I am rather partial to the effect and the process is fun too. Shooting exposures that last for several minutes rather than milliseconds and not knowing precisely what you’re going to get until the shutter closes just adds to the anticipation and thrill of this technique. However, there is an element of risk: get it wrong and that brilliant light or that majestic cloud formation that you were angling to capture might be gone forever because you forgot to set something important.

The first consideration with long exposure photography is the scene itself. If there’s no movement, don’t bother. Flowing water, clouds scuttling across the sky, people moving or trees waving around in the breeze are scenes worth trying. There’s no reason why you can’t shoot scenes with limited movement, but you might need very long exposures for a discernible effect.

The best known long exposure filter is the Big Stopper from Lee Filters which is a 10-stop neutral density filter; others in the range are the 6-stop Little Stopper and the 15-stop Super Stopper. Such is the fame of the Big Stopper that its name is often used generically and equivalent strength filters are available from most filter brands including Hoya, Kase, Marumi, Nisi and many others. Naming nomenclature varies from brand to brand so if you don’t see 10-stop mentioned in the product description then it might be called a 1000x filter or have an optical density of 3.0.

MPB has stocks of the Lee 100x100mm Big Stopper in ‘like new’ condition for £52 and then you need a filter holder (from £36 at MPB) and an adaptor ring (from £10).

Basically, if you want to try this form of photography you can get going for less £100, assuming you already own a decent tripod and if you don’t, MPB can help out there too.

I tried some long exposures on a recent trip to Yorkshire. To be honest, I enjoyed mixed success. For a twilight shoot at the fishing village of Staithes there was a brisk wind but very little detail or colour in the sky, so any cloud movement did now show up well. I had a little more success at Whitby.

For the Staithes shot (top of the article), with the camera on the tripod I checked the exposure without any filter. The sun was low and hidden behind heavy cloud cover so light levels were quite low and at ISO 200 the reading was 1/30sec at f/11. Using the free Lee Stopper Exposure guide on my phone (there many free apps that do the same job) told me that with a 10-stop filter the required exposure was 30secs but with such a very slow moving sky I need a much longer time. Setting ISO 50 would take me down to two minutes.

Whitby pier shot using a Canon EOS R5 fitted with a RF24-105mm f/4 L IS USM mounted on a Gitzo carbon tripod, which was held down for the duration of the exposure, which was 30secs at f/8 and ISO 400. The Raw was edited to taste- the original was very dark. Image by Will Cheung.

The camera, a Canon EOS R5, has a B timer so I didn’t need a remote release to keep the shutter open and the self-timer was used to start the exposure. The wind was quite strong but I hoped my Gitzo carbon tripod and Arca Swiss ballhead would be steady enough to hold the camera absolutely still. To help, I stood close to the camera to act as a windbreak.

I shot a couple of exposures at two minutes by which time it was getting dark and any detail that was visible earlier gone so an even longer exposure would have been pointless.

Dusk the next day at Whitby West Pier (image above) and the wind had freshened significantly but the sky again wasn’t that interesting. The wind meant that shooting long exposures wasn’t easy and at one point, a severe gust actually moved the tripod-mounted camera a few inches before I grabbed it to stop it tipping over. After that, I pushed down on the tripod’s shoulder to keep it in place before tripping the shutter with the self-timer.

The Whitby pier image shown here was exposed for 30secs and was the only one from four shots that was critically sharp. Evidently, holding down on the tripod and shielding the camera from the wind still was not enough.

I processed the image through Adobe Lightroom Classic including the use of Denoise and then used Nik Viveza to inject some life. It’s fair to say the finished image is much brighter than the conditions at the time.

If you have not tried long exposure photography, I’d certainly recommend it. It’s fun, challenging and the results can be awesome.

Over 70% of consumers bought or sold used in 2023

With world events and inflation, it’s no surprise that we’re all thinking more carefully about money, and how and where we shop.

According to new research by MPB and Retail Economics, 71% of consumers bought or sold goods in the past 12 months, with 63% of those surveyed making a purchase at least once a month and over 35% have increased the frequency of used purchases. Cost-savings was the most popular motivating factor followed next by sustainability concerns.

The report is a fascinating insight into the recommerce world – currently worth a staggering £6.5bn and expected to double in five years – and our shopping behaviour so it’s well worth a read. For the full story click here.

Plant a tree with MPB

To combat deforestation, MPB and One Tree Planted will plant a tree for every trade-in or sale in the month of November.

There’s not much time left this year so go for more details, click here. 

MPB Explained

You need kit to take photographs and produce videos, and taking the used route is a cost-effective way of making the most of your budget and keeping up with the latest developments in imaging technology.

MPB is one of the biggest used retailers with bases in the UK, Germany and the USA.

Trading with MPB the process is fair, safe, painless and incredibly easy.

Whether you have kit to sell, want to make a purchase or part exchange, start by going to the MPB website which is intuitive and straightforward to use.

If you have kit to trade, just start typing the name in and a list of suggestions from MPB’s huge database will appear. If a name on that list matches your product click on it and add its condition; if not, continue typing in the whole name and condition.

It’s worth bearing in mind that MPB’s database covers much more than cameras and lenses so if you have, for example, a photo backpack, tripod or filters to sell these can be shown as you type in their name too.

With all your kit listed, add contact details and a quote will appear in your inbox soon afterwards, although manually entered items will take one working day.

If you are happy with the quote, accept it and follow the instructions to get the kit ready for courier collection on a day to suit you. For higher-value deals, an MPB account manager will also be in touch, so you have a personal point of contact if you have any queries.

Once received by MPB, you will get a notification and after checking by its product specialists you will receive a final quote. This can vary from the original quote if there is a missing item – like a battery not being supplied – or your assessed condition differs from the actual condition.

A quote can go down, but it can also increase if the kit’s condition is better than your assessment.

The whole process doesn’t take long and MPB are in touch by e-mail at every step so you’re never in the dark, and only when you are totally happy with the deal, pass on your payment details or pay the balance in the case of part-exchange. Either way, the money or your new kit will be with you soon after.

Get A Quote From MPB Today

About MPB

• MPB is the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video kit.
• MPB are the simple, safe and circular way to trade, upgrade and get paid.
• MPB is not a marketplace, instead buying directly from visual storytellers and evaluating all items before reselling MPB-approved kit.
• MPB’s dynamic pricing engine provides the right price upfront for all items.
• Circularity is at the centre of MPB, promoting sustainability, diversity and inclusion in everything they do.
• MPB prioritises inclusive recruitment and supports employees with extensive training and development. They promote inclusive visual storytelling and an inclusive circular economy.
• MPB’s business model is 100% circular. All packaging is 100% plastic-free. Their cloud-based platform uses 100% renewable electricity.
• MPB has served over 625,000 visual storytellers while recirculating more than 400,000 products annually
• MPB provides first-class customer service. Customers can receive support through their Help Centre or by speaking directly with a kit expert.
• MPB’s product specialists are trusted by thousands of visual storytellers in the UK.
• MPB is rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot with over 19,000 reviews.

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