The Landscape Photography Book

Why You’d Want to Lock Your Shutter Release

If you’re doing a really long exposure (let’s say 10 or 11 minutes), standing there and holding your shutter button down for 10 minutes is a drag. That’s why most shutter releases have a lock button on them, so you can press the shutter button, and then lock it in place without having to actually hold it down the whole time. With some models, you press the button, and then slide it upward to lock it in the open position (as seen above, where the yellow color under the slider lets you know your shutter is locked in the open position). I’ve been in long exposure shooting situations where I’m doing such ...