CaptainPhoto

I have done just what you are explaining. Using an ND filter with a long exposure. Shoot with a low ISO and be sure to use a tripod or somehow anchoring your camera.
I did it in NY at Grand Central Station - must have been 100 or more people moving around going from one platform to the other. The only ones that showed up were the ones standing still.

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

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USNRET......

Your suggestion is a "very workable" approach and there are many examples on the net of doing just such...

I have used it in Paris, photographing the Louvre Museum using a tripod and it does work...

Patients is the key word, for you will "allways" have that one person who want to standing one spot for what seems like "forever"

Give it a try, it will take time..... and patients is the key

Cheers
George Veazey
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goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

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Yes Fantom........ Works better for sure

Geo Vz

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I think this is the preferred approach.
Taking long exposures allows to much motion in the wished for subjects. Either by the subject (wind etc. especially when trees are in the background) or in the stability of the camera and mount.
Taking a series over time that allows you to stack and eliminate can provide more detail in the final image.
However, even some cell phone cameras have modes that allow the long exposure approach. I have not played with them, but some people seem to have had success.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It might be worth a try. Test the procedure before you get there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpNtAXbaNr0

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

reverand

There's an easier way to do this. Turn on your vibration control, and then set your shutter at 1/15th of a second, which is ideal to get flowing water look like flowing water (rather than frozen gobs of glue). Set your aperture at whatever you like. What you may have to do is lower your ISO, which will simply result in sharper, less noisy images.

Bill_de Loc: US

In the olden days when film was still being used, a woman photographer shot an empty NYC subway station. She said she was afraid to go into the subway at night when there were few people around. I don't recall how long the shutter was open, but it was a very long time.

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amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Just use a tripod and take several shots a few moments apart, after the people move. Do this a little systematically and carefully so that you end up with all areas you want "clear" of other touristas. The only thing that might be tricky is if the lighting changes. So long as it's steady and it doesn't take very long to get all the images taken, you probably will want to set your camera to fully manual exposure so that all the image have similar exposure and, hopefully, need little or no adjustment.

Late in post-processing you can simply cut and paste from one image to the other to remove the people from your final image. This can often be better than cloning people (or other objects) out of an image, because the cloning process "makes up" part of the image from surrounding pixels, instead of replacing them with what's actually there like the above method does.

You may need to do some slightly exposure adjustment or blending to make the cut and past work, but it should be reasonably easy.

The long exposure trick does work... but you need a VERY long exposure, it works best at night or in low light and is best when people (or vehicles or whatever) are moving reasonably quickly. If the movement isn't fast enough or the exposure isn't slow enough, you end up with blurs that will be very difficult to remove from the image.

EDIT: You should also turn off image stabilization (if your camera and/or lens have it).... and it would probably be best to pre-focus, then turn off autofocus or just focus manually. All this is so that things don't change from shot to shot.

BTW: Sometimes including a one or two people in an image can be useful to give a better sense of scale.

tgreenhaw

I like to bring a tripod and variable neutral density filter with me on vacations for long exposure water shots. I will occasionally use it to accommodate a shallow depth of field on bright outdoor shots as well.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Go when others are not there. I always try to avoid crowds or I don't shoot and move on. I tend to shoot details and so don't have to fuss with people in my images.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Absolute rock solid patience and lots of waiting time is better than a neutral density filter and long time exposure. Most people on a tour or a time schedule have neither the patience nor the time and will have to settle for "second best". Also, when traveling with your significant other, hopefully she or he will spend enough time shopping or doing something else to "give" you enough time to get the shot.

The best story of patience that I know of came from an 8X10 view camera photographer from Boulder, Colorado. He went to Moab to shoot Delicate Arch. He carried his equipment up to the standard west side view two hours before sun rise in the rain. He took an hour to set up and then sat and waited for the sun to hopefully come up in an hour. Nothing but rain. Lunch came and went. Rain still fell off and on. He said only 6 other photographers came up that day and only one of them stayed for as long as an hour an a half before packing up and leaving. A half an hour before sunset the rain was very light and sometimes stopped. But the gray clouds covered the full 360° view of the skies and he considered packing it all up and calling it a day. He packed some of his equipment but decided, since he had been all day so far, that he might as well stay until his sunrise/sunset chart indicated the sun had set before finishing packing it all up. So he sat down again and waited. Fifteen minutes before sunset set the sky seemed to lighten and he got ready for the possibility. Ten minutes before sunset, the sun started streaming though an unseen open beyond his horizon view. The sun lit the arch and dimly lit the mountains on the far horizon with moody clouds above. He got two shots before the sun was blocked again with less than 5 minutes left before sunset. I promise you the 4'X5' photo was spectacular. Rock solid patience can sometimes be rewarded.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It works, but the filter is so dense you can't see through it, even with an EVF! I remember a magazine article from about ten years ago that featured examples and listed the range of ND values required for various situations. It's probably online somewhere...

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

One thing not yet mentioned is that after framing and focusing, it is critical that you cover your camera's viewfinder eyepiece. Enough light will leak in from the back to ruin your image.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

This is only true for SLRs and dSLRs. Mirrorless cameras do not have such problems.