When you order the Unleashed, it comes in a beautifully designed box. In order to get started, all you need to do is to install the free Foolography Unleashed app, plug the Unleashed into your camera and start the app to connect. We designed and developed everything with the goal that you won’t need a manual. However, we did get some feedback that a couple of explanations would be helpful. That’s why we shot several How-To-Videos that you can find on our support page. So if you’re still wondering how some of the modes work, check out the videos that explain all features in detail. The tutorials come with English and German subtitles as well as text transcripts so you can get the most out of your Unleashed.
If you have any feedback, please let us know. You can either have a look at our forum or write us an email to our info@ address. Thanks for your on-going support!
As we’re reviving our blog, we thought it would be great to introduce a series that is about photography and film making itself. Terminology, basics, techniques and hacks. At some point we hope to get other photographers to share their best practices or their newest “how-to”. Let’s see where this takes us.
Our final goal is to see people flourish in what they love doing – so we want to help in the best ways we can. And since we’re kind of into this photography thing, we want to engage with other photographers and filmmakers all over the world. So if you love your camera or are just getting started: This is the right place for you. :-)
We know, in general, there are many ways to reach a certain goal. It’s the same when taking photos or videos. That’s why, whenever we or someone else posts something, we want to start a conversation and discuss ideas.
Today, we want start off the series by looking into some of the basics behind long exposures.
LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY
A small excursion into the making of a photo: A photo needs exposure to be able to show what you photographed. Exposure is the amount of light hitting the electronic image sensor – or in earlier days – the photographic film. It determines how bright or dark a picture is in the end. This is variable, so the “perfect” exposure length varies from photo to photo. It all depends on the effect you want to achieve. In the end there is no “correct” exposure length for a given subject – in the end it is very much subjective.
In photography, the exposure is determined by the shutter speed, aperture (the opening of the lens) and ISO (which basically controls the brightness and darkness of your photo). It’s a formula of three variables.
For long exposures, you still consider all three variables. But here, shutter speed is the significant factor: It is the only variable that actually has a connection to time. That’s why it’s called “LONG” exposure. So the idea behind the long shutter speed is, that, because of the time factor, you’re able to catch (more) movement – things that happen over a period of time. And in the end, movement is what makes for a typical long exposure shot.
Typical scenarios where long exposures are used:
Night Photography
Night photography deserves an own article since the topic is huge. There are many ways to take photos at night, but one thing is certain: To avoid a super dark photo and a lot of noise (due to high ISO), you have to use a slow shutter speed. Even with a very low aperature (lower than f2), at some point the lens cannot be more open to catch more light.
Star Trails
Even though it’s part of night photography, catching star trails is a category of its own. It involves special techniques (bulb mode, stacking etc.) and a lot of preparation and timing. The idea behind it is to catch the stars’ movement, caused by the earth’s rotation, which creates fascinating light trails.
Light Painting
Here, you keep the scene very dark and use a light source (flashlight, fire, smartphone LED) to “paint” something in the air. As the shutter stays open and the (bright) light source is moving, you get crystal clear lines of light. You can even write entire sentences this way.
Water-Long-Exposures
Long exposures of moving water create a very mystic/misty look. It’s quite often used in combination with the HDR technique. The objects framing the water stay sharp – this creates tons of interesting composition options.
City-Long-Exposure
It’s the same principle as for water-long-exposures. This time, the stationary elements of the photo are the buildings and the moving elements are the cars. With their lights they create those beautiful light trails tracing the city streets.
So the next time you want to go out there to take photos, consider trying night photography. It brings tons of opportunities for creative long exposures and other beautiful photos. Take your tripod, set your camera to manual mode, try to use a low ISO and aperture – and play around with shutter speed. One last important tip: Try to use a camera remote control so you don’t have to touch your camera. Pressing the shutter can cause some shaking and the photo will be blurry. Our Unleashed is a great option for this and can make your next long exposure adventure a lot easier and more enjoyable!
Let us know in the comments what long exposures you like doing the most or what special tips you have for certain scenarios and effects.
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We’ve partnered with Bad Elf to bring you a GPS thats worthy of pairing with our Unleashed!
The GPS Pro and the brand new GPS Pro+ were already great before we got in contact with Bad Elf – they’re MFI compatible, have a display for seeing all the details of your GPS status, they have excellent battery life, and up to 10Hz logging. The GPS Pro+ even supports Glonass as well as GPS, and tops it all off with a barometric altitude sensor. But the best is that we worked together with Bad Elf, to bring excellent new features to the GPS Pro/Pro+ when it’s paired with our Unleashed(s):
You can use multiple Unleasheds with a single GPS Pro/Pro+ simultaneously, and/or iOS and Android devices too. up to 5 simultaneous connections are supported!
When an Unleashed (or more) is connected, you can use the GPS Pro’s physical buttons to remotely trigger your camera(s) via Bluetooth! – So the GPS Pro is not only a great GPS source for the Unleashed, it’s also a Bluetooth remote!
It’s almost Christmas and foolography will be giving gifts again, though this time we’ll step up our game. For every Unleashed (D200+, D90 or Dx000) purchased through our online-shop in December 2011 and the first half of January 2012 we will give you:
One FREE GPS receiver by Visiontac!
Alternatively, if you do not want the free Visiontac VGPS-500 (e.g. you prefer to buy one of our Holux receivers or already own a compatible GPS receiver), we will donate 20€ of your purchase to the charitable NEHEMIA Foundation in Albania.
We are pleased to announce that B&H now carries our wireless geotagging products, and currently has all versions of our Unleashed stocked, as well as all available bundles with the Holux GPS receivers we also carry.
While we still ship worldwide, and will still gladly take your orders in our online-shop, B&H will offer many more payment options, quicker shipping to US-Customers, and of course an unparalleled range of photography gear, so you can save shipping costs by purchasing everything there.
So that’s what happens when your products are written about in the news section of dpreview.com (first peak) and on engadget.com, nikonrumors.com, etc (second peak).
We sure enjoyed our 15 minutes of fame :-)
We’ve started a page of previous mentions in the press, which we will update with more and more links to articles and reviews that were written about foolography.
Our Bluetooth geotagging solution for Nikon’s D3100, D5000, D7000 and D90, was finally launched at photokina2010, everything worked out just in time, and the reception at photokina was great!
With these two new versions and of course our original Unleashed (D200+), we now support the entire current Nikon DSLR lineup, from the entry-level D3100, all the way up to the professional D3X.
The new Unleasheds are unbelievably thin, and fit very nicely on the side of the cameras, but have a look yourself:
[foologic-shop-product id=’1004′] 
