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Now you're in bulb mode. This means the camera will keep taking a picture until your finger comes off the shutter button. Bulb mode is mostly used for long exposures at night. No one in their right mind would stand next to the camera with their finger pressing down the shutter button for an ultra long exposure.

It is simply a wired remote control that allows the photographer to lock the shutter button to take LONG exposures without actually standing there and holding the button down. On the old school cameras, there was a pneumatic valve bulb that was used as a cable release for the camera. It looked somewhat similar to the little pump on a blood pressure cuff. It worked by sending a blast of air from the bulb.

As long as the bulb was pressed, the shutter would stay open. When the bulb was released, the shutter would close.

Nowadays, cable releases work differently. When you're ready to stop the exposure, you simply slide off the lock and the shutter ends. Bulb Mode Idea 1: Taking pictures of lightning. Bulb is great for shooting lightning because it allows the photographer to stop the exposure when needed based on changing conditions, without being locked into a 30 second exposure. When I shoot lightning, I set up the camera on a tripod, set the DSLR to bulb mode, plug in my shutter release, and start an exposure.

The camera keeps taking a picture as I watch the lightning and imagine how the different lightning bolts will appear on the final image. Once the picture in my head of the different strikes looks about right, I stop the exposure. This way I can end right after the last lightning bolt instead of waiting around for the 30 seconds to end and hoping another bolt doesn't strike in the same place as another one did.

Bulb Mode Tip 2: Star trails. Shooting star trails is really fun. Since the Earth rotates, the stars change their position in the sky. By using bulb mode and an exposure of 20 minutes or more, you can capture beautiful star trails at night. The stars look like they are all streaking falling stars.