Cover Your Viewfinder to Avoid Light Leak

If you leave your shutter open for a long time, there’s a decent chance that light will leak into your image through your viewfinder (unless you’re shooting a mirrorless camera, in which case, you can skip this page altogether—this is a DSLR thing). Depending on which make and model of camera you’re using, you might have a little lever you can use that puts a cover over your viewfinder (it’s there for this exact purpose). If yours doesn’t have this feature, then you can simply cover it with . . . well . . . whatever. I’ve seen people slide a small piece of card stock over the opening, or a piece of black gaffer’s tape (see page 18), or (get this) some cameras have a little piece of plastic attached right to the camera strap (the one that came with the camera) that is designed to detach and fit right over the viewfinder to keep light out. It doesn’t matter which method you use, as long as you use one. By the way, I don’t recommend using the “I’ll just cover the viewfinder opening with my thumb” technique because you’ll run the risk of accidentally bumping the camera at some point and ruining your shot.