How to Create Long-Exposure Photography on your Mobile Phone

Rox Nuttycombe started with the HTC Hero, a simple phone purchase for everyday use. However, one HTC phone wasn’t enough. Soon, one became two. Two became five. Five became 50.
Rox is a longtime HTC customer and member of HTC elevate, a global community for HTC’s most passionate fans and supporters. We recently learned about Rox’s extensive collection and are impressed by his passion.
“I didn’t start out with the idea of collecting a lot of phones,” Rox says. “I saw that many innovations in the mobile world were made by HTC, so I decided to try and collect those – the first 3G, the first 4G, etc. – and it just snowballed from there.”
The London, England native created his wish list of must-haves after watching an HTC product timeline video. But the hunt hasn’t always been easy.One of the hardest devices to find was the HTC Kangaroo, one of the first devices HTC created. Another was the Dev Phone 1, which Rox found for sale online, complete with the plastic cover on its screen. The catch, though, was shipping the device. The seller was in the United States.
Buying the Dev Phone 1 wasn’t the only time that Rox has had to look outside the United Kingdom for the phones necessary to grow his collection. Currently, he’s awaiting a shipment from Russia that contains the world’s first 4G handset: the HTC Max 4G.
“My holy grail is the HTC EXCA 300,” he adds. “It is basically the phone used to write Android. Needless to say they are extremely hard to find, but one day I will have one.”
Rox isn’t just an HTC collector. He’s a creator as well.
When he’s not working as a technology technician and instructor, Rox enjoys crafting things out of wood and copper. Wood is one of his favorite materials, he says, because no two pieces are the same in terms of grain and pattern. He also loves wood’s feel when a natural finish is used.
One of his creations is a wooden case for one of his HTC Explorer phones. His inspiration was the Touch Wood SH-08C – a Japanese phone made by NTT DoCoMo. The Touch Wood has a purely wooden case and is shaped like a bean. Only 15,000 units of the Japanese phone were made.
“I see this as my ‘proof of concept’ case,” Rox says of his HTC Explorer case.
The collector continues building his trove of HTC devices, checking off a must-have here and there from his wish list. He’s also eyeing another trip to the woodshop.
This is a guest post written by Alexandru Ivan, a graphic designer based in Romania, HTC customer, and a member of HTC elevate. You might remember the remarkable high-speed photos he took with the HTC One or recognize his HTC One (M8) wallpaper. Now, Alex is back and this time, sharing one of his favorite mobile photography tricks. 
If you’re looking to give your pictures an elegant, artistic touch, try long-exposure photography. Long-exposure photography involves using long-duration shutter speed to capture objects normally while blurring or smearing any moving objects. An example would be a city street in which the buildings remain normal in the picture, but the fast-moving cars whir by in streaks of color. Here are the tips and tricks I use to capture long-exposure photographs using my HTC One (M8). 

A few tips before getting started

Using a tripod is crucial. Otherwise, you will end up with pictures where every object is completely blurred because of the low shutter speed used. You can improvise if you don’t have a tripod, but whatever is used must keep the phone still. Try also not to tap the screen too hard when taking the picture—the vibration from touching the screen to take the picture can ruin an otherwise perfect long-exposure shot.

Camera settings

Launch the Camera app on your M8 and use “Manual Mode” – long-exposure photos can only be shot using this mode. Trying HDR Mode during daytime won’t ensure a nice picture either.
In Manual Mode, you can adjust a lot of things. For example, I prefer to adjust the white balance (WB) after I take my pictures. I do this in Edit Mode because it can be tricky to adjust while taking the pictures.
It’s also important to note that ISO and shutter speed settings are dependent on each other. Basically, when the shutter speed value increases, the ISO should go decreases. For shooting in complete darkness, you may use a shutter speed higher than 2 and ISO higher than 800. That’s because you can’t adjust the aperture for the camera sensor and photos may need some editing afterward to edit out some light noise in the pictures. Inbuild filters and settings from the HTC One (M8) can retouch this.

Locations

If you’re looking for somewhere to test long-exposure photography, try landscapes. For instance, roads, highways, and cityscapes are ideal. Try to avoid pictures with too many light sources like street lamps. If you’re interested in a traffic shot, it’s better to shoot onward for the light trails. Headlights, though, could be too bright for your camera settings. In terms of time, the best for shooting long-exposure photographs is between evening and morning.
What makes long exposure images special is that each image is unique and surreal. With practice you should have a collection of photos that are one of a kind.