The Millennium Bridge dilemma

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St Paul’s Cathedral from the Millenium Bridge : Canon 5D : EF17-40mm f/4L USM (40mm): 30 sec : f16 : Cokin ND10 neutral density and ND 3 graduated filters 

Having the Millenium Bridge as the lead-in device to St Paul’s can be great. However, the challenge, as anyone who visits the area frequently, will be aware, the bridge is almost always packed with tourists. Whilst having one or two figures on the bridge can be a real asset, having a throng of bustling tourists in-shot will more than likely destroy your best-laid image capture plans. 

In cases like these, an often overlooked solution is to use a long exposure (longer than 20 seconds), which tends to effectively remove the moving individuals caught in camera, leaving a few ghosted images of those who are not moving, giving the shot a sense of scale and depth.