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Long Exposure Timer for Landscape Photography

Once an ND-filtered daytime exposure or a night sky shot pushes past a camera's built-in shutter range, tracking the exposure manually with a stopwatch or preset countdown becomes essential.

Long Exposure Timer for Landscape Photography

Open the Long Exposure Timer

Recommended settings

  • Waterfall or seascape smoothing: typical Bulb-mode exposures run 1-30 seconds depending on ND strength.
  • Night landscape or star-adjacent exposures: often 15-30 seconds, right at the edge of most cameras' built-in shutter range.

Tips for this niche

  • Keep the timer visible and the screen awake for the full exposure — a long exposure interrupted early wastes the shot entirely.
  • Use a preset close to your planned exposure time rather than only the freeform stopwatch, so you're not doing mental math mid-shoot.

Got your Landscape settings dialed in?

Turn your landscape shoot into ready-to-post captions, hashtags and matching audio — free to try, no signup.

Want the full lesson?

This topic is covered in depth in Lesson 6: Shooting for a Genre.

Example scenario

A 20-second waterfall exposure needs precise tracking in Bulb mode. Starting the countdown the instant the shutter opens and watching for the alert at zero keeps the exposure consistent with the planned ND filter calculation, rather than eyeballing when 20 seconds have passed.

Common mistakes

  • Guessing when to close the shutter in Bulb mode. even a second or two of error changes a long exposure's brightness noticeably — track it precisely rather than estimating by feel.
  • Not accounting for reciprocity or filter stacking when timing. stacking multiple filters or shooting at very long durations can need adjustment beyond the base calculated time — treat the timer as tracking the exposure, not replacing the exposure math itself.

FAQ

When does a landscape shot need Bulb mode instead of the camera's normal shutter dial?
Once the planned exposure exceeds the camera's built-in maximum, usually around 30 seconds — common for strong ND filter work or some night landscape shots.

Guides for this tool, by niche

Long Exposure Timer for Travel PhotographyLong Exposure Timer for Architecture Photography

Related terms

What Is Long Exposure Photography?

Troubleshooting

Why Are My Long Exposure Photos Blurry? Causes & Fixes

Before the shoot

Landscape Photography shot list