| Re: Incredible Painting with Light "B" for "Bulb" is a shutter speed setting on many older cameras. It means the shutter opens when the exposure button is pressed all the way down, and the shutter stays open until the exposure button is let go.
In still older cameras you also had a "T", for "Time", setting. You pressed and let go the exposure button and the shutter would open. And the shutter would stay open until the exposure button was pressed and let go a second time.
"T" was exclusively used with a wire release, for extremely long exposures, like 30 seconds and longer (redshift!).
"T" was ideal for "painting with light": when, for instance, shooting a church interior with camera on tripod, and one flashgun. With "T" the photographer can afford to leave the camera (with shutter open), and walk around the pitch-black church firing the flashgun at regular intervals, then return to the camera to close the shutter.
With just "B" you need at least 2 people to 'paint' that church with light: one to press and hold the shutter, while the other does the walking and flashing around.
With neither "B", nor "T", we're relegated to setting as many seconds as the camera's software allows, and trying to fit the actual "painting with light" into that scant time slot....
Some things were better in the old days!
Last edited by RokcetScientist; 01-28-2008 at 09:25 PM.
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