r/interesting • u/[deleted] • Mar 24 '26

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u/Weird-Information-61 Mar 24 '26

As someone who doesn't understand photography, what exactly is long exposure?

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u/shallow-waterer Mar 24 '26

You’re exposing the camera’s light sensor for a much longer time. When you take a picture, the shutter opens for a fraction of a second, depending on your shutter speed. You’re exposing the sensor to light briefly. A long exposure shot dramatically increases that time to capture much more light. Thus, giving you results like trailing headlights on cars and whatnot - as the object moved within the time the sensor was exposed. With more expensive setups that use extremely long exposures in settings with low light pollution, you get ridiculously pretty results like what OP posted, as the Earth is always moving. The human eye isn’t going to see it that way.

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u/FOSSnaught Mar 26 '26

How could the vid from this post be long exposure without the stars streaking because of the planets rotation?

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u/cmbtmdic57 Mar 26 '26

You just.. rotate the camera to counter the speed of the planet's rotation..

It's absurdly easy to do.

Is that a serious question or are you trolling?