How to Shoot Alexey Titarenko’s Slow Shutter Photography Technique

In this video we take a closer look at slow shutter photography after Alexey Titarenko, particularly his famous City of Shadows series, and then break down how you can experiment with a similar long-exposure approach yourself. Instead of freezing people at 1/500th or 1/1000th of a second, this technique does the opposite. By leaving the shutter open for several seconds, or sometimes considerably longer, moving people begin to blur, overlap and even partially disappear while stationary elements such as buildings, stairs and railings remain sharp. We go through the entire process step by step, including choosing the right shutter speed, working with a tripod, setting your aperture and ISO, focusing correctly, using ND filters during daylight and finding locations where the technique actually works. We also look at why there isn’t one perfect shutter speed. A one-second exposure can leave people clearly recognisable while adding movement. Five or ten seconds can create much stronger motion, while exposures of thirty seconds or several minutes can turn busy crowds into almost ghostlike forms. Beyond the camera settings, we explore Alexey Titarenko’s City of Shadows and how he used long exposures while photographing Saint Petersburg in the early 1990s. His work is a great example of how shutter speed can completely change the way a city and the people moving through it appear in a photograph. In this video: • How slow shutter street photography works • Alexey Titarenko and City of Shadows • Choosing the right shutter speed • Long exposures from 1 second to several minutes • Using ND filters in daylight • Tripod and focusing techniques • ISO and aperture settings • Photographing moving crowds • Creating ghostlike people and motion • Black-and-white editing • Composition tips for long-exposure street photography • Common mistakes to avoid If you enjoy street photography, long-exposure photography and learning from the work of great photographers, subscribe to The Gl