What Is Bulb Mode

Generally this would be used in extremely low light situations such as taking photos of the night sky.

What is bulb mode.

It allows your shutter speed to be any length you choose. When you are in bulb mode an exposure begins when you press the shutter button of your camera and continues as you hold the button down. If you ve turned the shutter speed dial on your camera past 30 seconds you might have noticed the strangely named bulb mode. The key with bulb mode is that your camera s shutter stays open for as long as you hold down the shutter release button.

The bulb mode is basically a creative feature. This is 30 seconds in most cameras. Bulb mode simply allows the photographer to take a picture for as long as the shutter is depressed that means pushed down not sad. It allows shots to be taken that are minutes long rather than seconds.

The bulb mode known as time on canon is intended for exposure times that exceed the maximum predefined shutter speeds. In short think of bulb mode as time travel mode. You can use bulb mode by choosing manual mode or shutter priority then start scrolling your selector wheel all the way to the end of the shutter speeds. Bulb mode is a setting that refers to the shutter speed of your camera.

What is shutter speed. Bulb mode is simply a shutter speed option that you can select in manual mode on your camera. Simply aim the camera to the north or south celestial pole depending on which hemisphere you live. One second one minute 17 minutes or anything else.

It s possible to use bulb mode for shorter exposures but it would be much easier to just select the predefined desired shutter speed. The exposure ends when you lift your finger to release the button. This is a throwback from the first film cameras but it s still useful today. The bulb setting abbreviated b on camera shutters is a momentary action mode that holds shutters open for as long as a photographer depresses the shutter release button.

A typical image to capture using this feature is one of star trails when the night sky is clear.