The camera have to be held still for this time in order to obtain a sharp picture. The subjects also had to be still if their images to register properly on the film. Some early street scenes include blurred, transparent, ghostlike images of people wandered past while the scene was in the process of photographed.

Studio portraits from the late 1800s show people posed rigidly, often leaning against furniture, helped them to remain motionless. it was important to keep the head still, a support was often provided the neck. Bright studio lights, sometimes produced by fire to a strip of magnesium or a small pile of magnesium powder, helped reducing the required exposure time. These burned with an intensely blue flame that gave the necessary amount of light, the smoke was unpleasant and was also a risk of fire.

The problems associated long exposure were overcome by the introduction of faster, more sensitive photographic plates, and later, roll films. The development of smaller cameras led photography becoming a popular hobby. Nowadays, digital cameras have further revolutionised photography, enabling even the inexperienced of photographers to produce professional-looking pictures.