How many times have you leered at the many alien-like hieroglyphic symbols on a camera and asked yourself whilst scratching your head: "What does this even mean??" Modern cameras come with user manuals that rival telephone books in terms of size, and there's reasoning behind that. Even the tiniest of point and shoots are jam-packed with an overwhelming amount of features...some very helpful and some that seem unnecessary. Either way it's generally a good thing to know your expensive toy before using it. However, I noticed something while lazily thumbing through a humorously translated camera manual...when was the last time a user manual gave you some insight as to where these common features came from? The answer is never. I'm sure there's a little bit of room left in that noggin for some more useless knowledge to impress your friends at your next tupperware part...in an effort to give back to the community here's an impromptu history lesson on a type of exposure that shouldn't take too much time...
Pull up a seat, lets have a little history lesson on the term "bulb"
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A long exposure from the Mike Zawadzki archives (Fuji T64 4x5)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_9740" align="alignright" width="183"]
BULB[/caption]
If you're one with the night, you're probably no stranger to the infamous B. Low light situations call for longer exposures, ones that require some sort of stability. Without the aid of a tripod it's pretty damn hard to get an image that's not uselessly blurry with a five second exposure. Sometimes low light situations can resemble something of no-light situations...if you've ever tried to take a picture on an automatic mode in pitch black, or even with the body cap on in direct sun testing for a light leak, you'll see your camera give up in it's attempt to find adequate exposure, ultimately resulting in the word "BULB".
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Technology most likely designed by ancient aliens[/caption]
Bulb, you don't say..is this inferring you to use a flashbulb? An onion bulb? A Bulbasaur? Funny story, well not all that funny... The term bulb derives from the olden days. Times long gone that smell of warped wood, whiskey and moth balls. Back when your Great Granpappy had to clumsily lug around that cumbersome ol' viewcamera, they didn't have ISO 12,800...or high speed anything for that matter. Well before ISO/ASA was ever established, they measured their wet plate emulsions in strange units like Scheiners and H&D's, along with all sorts of math equations in order to find a standard index of exposure. Considering their emulsion had the equivalent of ISO 8, this often meant 20-90 second exposures in open shade; a real hoot when you were doing portraiture. Anyway, prior to mechanically timed exposures, they had shutters that were operated with a hand-held pneumatic bulb. One would simply squeeze this little bulb to open the shutter and it would stay open until released. Some would argue that bulb gets its name from the "smile for the birdy" type of explosive flashbulb. Although fired in unison with a timed exposure, I stand by my assumption that the bulb were concerned with is the one that actuated the shutter.
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If you've ever tried standing still without blinking for 15-30 minutes, you don't know what you're missing![/caption]
When cable releases became popular, manufacturers would include a "bulb" setting to reference that type of exposure. The not so distant cousin that is often seen canoodling next to "B" is our friend "T" which functions similarly, but will keep the shutter open until you press the release again. This comes in handy when you have hour long exposures...I can imagine holding down a shutter for a couple hours would cause severe hand cramps and irrefutable boredom.
If we flash forward to the cameras of tomorrowland, you'll see the same old thing wrapped in the plastic skin of the future. Most DSLRs have programmed exposures up to 30 seconds...after that you get the matter-of-fact "BULB". Thanks to modern advances we can minimize shake with the help of remote control. If that's not progress I don't know what is. Today the term "bulb photography" get's thrown around a bit, but it's just another way of dressing up long exposure photography. If you have full manual control over the shutter for an extended amount of time, by all means, you're taking the bulb by the horn.
Long exposures extend the creative boundaries of photography. Think of it as allowing the camera to see what the human eye cannot. You can capture motion of trailing light or make ambient moonlight look like daytime. Coupled with an ND filter, you can take bulb exposures during the day for some interesting results. One little trick I've been using is to drag the shutter and pop strobes, which allows you to stop motion while still getting interesting blurs. An example of my light experiment can bee seen below. The possibilities of long exposure are just about endless and you never know what you might get. Sometimes the best part is enjoying a happy accident. Well that concludes our first segment of The More You Know...stay tuned for more questionably useless photo information that might come in handy when you're a contestant on Jeopardy.
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Dragging the shutter with yours truly...am I seeing double?[/caption]