Photographing Places with No One Present

Photographing Places with No One Present

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Photographing Places with No One Present

EOS 70D • EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS • f/11 • 60s • ISO 200
(with 10 stop ND filer)
Does the place in the photo above look familiar but strange? This is Fa Yuen Street in Mong Kok, one of the busiest streets in Hong Kong. It looks strange because we seldom see this place with no one around during daytime. This kind of photo captures the desolate moment of the world and looks surreal. Let’s check out the shooting skills and tips on how to capture an empty street.

Shoot with Slow-Speed Shutter and ND Filter

Some of the experienced readers may have been aware that this is actually a kind of slow shutter photography. We use long exposure to capture the moving trails of objects, such as traffic trails and star trails. With a slow-speed shutter, the movement of pedestrians is blurred, and only static objects such as the buildings are captured clearly. To intensify the effect, we have to extend the exposure time by all means. First, use the smallest aperture and lowest ISO setting as possible. Since the shooting is done in daytime, we have to use a ND filter as well to optimize the result.
ND filter is a type of filters that helps extend the exposure time by reducing the amount of light entering the camera. It is thus very useful for taking long exposure shots. The stops of light that can be reduced are indicated by the ND value. For example, ND-2 gives a 2 EV reduction in light, ND-4 a 4 EV reduction in light and so on. You can slow down the shutter speed by the number of steps you go down in EV. For example, originally the camera settings used are f/16, ISO 100 and 1/2s. After attaching a ND-4 filter, you can slow down the shutter speed to 8s (1/2s → 8s, a 4 stop reduction in shutter speed) while maintaining the same overall exposure value. For the shooting this time, we need to extend the exposure time to 1 minute or more. Choose a ND filter that offers the amount of EV reduction you need according to the shooting scene.
EOS 70D • EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS • f/16 • 120s • ISO 200
(with 10 stop ND filer)
The use of a slow-speed shutter is to make the moving pedestrians disappear in the photos. Therefore, it’s important that you pick the right location to shoot. Places with no waiting people nor cars are preferred. Avoid places like lookouts, bus and train stations or traffic lights where stopped cars or people will be photographed.
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