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I was just wondering if anyone can give me some pointers on doing a long exposure at night?

I was walking through the park last night and tried to get an 8 second exposure of my girlfriend moving across a light in the ground. The equipment I had at the time was limited to my 80-200 AFS at 2.8 and a fork in the tree as a tripod. Not ideal but worth a try.

We had a ball and want to try again with a proper tripod and a 50mm 1.8 lens. Does anyone have any setup ideas and perhaps some examples of such photography that I could have a squiz at?

Not sure that I fully understand what you want to do. An 8sec exposure is a very long time, plenty of time for a person to ghost completely out of the photo, depending on lighting conditions.

For example, here's a 2.5sec shot.

Nikon D70 ,Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX APO IF
2.5secs f/14 @200mm ISO200 tripod and infrared remote shutter release

If you want number of images of the same person, moving through the one frame, you'll need SB-800 which can do repeating flash, if I correctly understood what you wish

Can you shoot a small subjet ( a patch/ logo) without flash, handholding 1/8 sec at f3.2 focal lenght 200mm tack sharp?

Sorry, I realise that my post wasn't very clear . Basicall I wanted to keep the surrounding area relatively dark but have an image of the subject (my girlfriend) clearly captured with a blured streak behind her.

Thanks Hlop
I think you're right about 8 seconds being too long. I'll try reducing the exposure time a little as you suggested.

Kerry:
Ah yes, I like the sound of the flash idea! I don't have an external flash yet (it's on my wish list) but when I get one I'll certainly give it a try.

agriffiths wrote:Sorry, I realise that my post wasn't very clear . Basicall I wanted to keep the surrounding area relatively dark but have an image of the subject (my girlfriend) clearly captured with a blured streak behind her.

That's the point where you'll certainly need a SB-800 which has a zoom head (you will use it to lit your subject only) and you will use slow sync to make surrounding visble and set exposure as you wish in this case (to make an environment dark or light). Probably, you can achive this result with SB-600 but I'm not sure

You could use rear sync flash with the built in unit - being digital you can experiment until you get want you want

ahhh, that's a negative Birddog I did have reasonable success capturing the moon at 200mm but that was rested against a post at 1/500, f3.2 (I think). My hands aren't quite as steady as they used to be... parkinsons at 27 yo? More likley a caffeine overdose!

Sheez you guys are fast! I gotta speed up my replies!
For now I think I'll try out the built in flash and play around with a few settings. Then when my powerball ticket comes in I'll fork out for a new SB800
Thanks for your help guys! Can anyone point me in the direction of a few more examples like the one Kerry posted? For inspiration

Here's a sample of simulated rear curtain flash. It was taken with my Sony 717, which didn't have that option. I simply triggered a slave flash as I guessed when the shutter would close.

Assuming that I now understand what you want, you need to have about a 1sec or less exposure in existing light that is sufficient to light your subject to obtain the ghost effect that you want and use the rear curtain option on the flash.

Sony DSC-F717 ,Canon 250d close-up
1s f/4.5 at 9.7mm iso100

Hey, yeah that's cool. Just the kind of effect I'm after.
Sorry guys, I realise that my photography skills and knowledge aren't exactly top notch and am gratefull for your input