Photographing Ghosts in New York Grand Central Station
Is Grand Central haunted? Long exposure photography turned New York commuters into ghostly traces of motion and light
New York City Photowalk - Ghosts?
My wife Lynn and I, along with our best child faithful companion Stan Lee, visited our daughter in New York City last week. It was a fun trip — seeing her, meeting her boyfriend’s mother (visiting from Australia), and catching up as a family.
For me the best part of the trip was… wait for it… NO BOOT!
For the first time in 4+ months, I’m free of casts and braces. I’m back to being a walking machine.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a Triptych with a quick look back at the parade of casts and boots I’ve been sporting these past months.
Highlights of the Trip
Aside from the joy of family time, three highlights stood out:
Experimenting with Long Exposure Photography — and discovering “ghosts” in NYC.
Walking 8+ miles on Saturday — in real shoes, no boot.
Building my Street Photography body of work in the heart of New York.
Inspiration: Ghosts in Photography
Over the past few years I’ve learned so much through workshops, webinars, and (yes) YouTube deep dives. One standout inspiration was Cole Thompson, who presented Why Black and White for the Photographic Society of America in November 2024.
His images — especially Ghosts of Auschwitz and The Angel Gabriel, — inspired me to experiment with long exposure work of my own.
The Ghosts of NY Grand Central Station
Grand Central’s iconic staircases are well-trodden by photographers, so I joined the ranks. Resting my camera on the marble railing, I began to play.
Experimenting with Exposure Time
My featured image was shot at 5 seconds, f/20, ISO 100 — aiming for tack-sharp focus across the hall without blowing out the end-window highlights.
The following pictures, I kept the ISO low, to keep noise to a minimum. F20 also enabled me to extend the exposure time while not blowing out the highlights from the windows at the end of the hall.
The next few images were experiments in length of exposure at F20 or 22, and exposures at 3.4 seconds and 11 seconds respectively.
As people move through the station, to get to their train or home, there are occasional stoppers. Every shot is different and unique.
Exploring Black and White Options
Cole Thompson is mainly a black and white photographer. So in tribute to his style, and for further experimentation, I converted several frames to black and white below.
Left image: 1/4 second @ f/22, ISO 6400 — pushing ISO to test noise and crowd texture.
Right image: 16 seconds @ f/20, ISO 100 — stronger contrast and brightness, with figures dissolving into motion.
Both are interesting, but different. I really like the contrast level of the right image and it appears somewhat brighter. However the left image has a different feel of bigger crowds and capturing the person with the backpack in the shadows.
What do you think? Can you share? Color or Black and White? Make your choice below and see what others think too!
About this Ghostly Series
The Grand Central images came from a set of 20 frames — unusually high for me, since I typically select maybe 1 keeper out of 100. I rested my camera firmly on the marble railing and held still. Here, several felt worth sharing.
I also spent some time in Lightroom processing these photos from their RAW foundations. I only shoot RAW, which out of the camera, can really be flat looking with tons of digital information about each pixel. I processed the images in color first and then shifted into black and white. Final tweaks brought out the vision I had in mind.
I’ll call them “interesting” rather than “great.” They’re a beginning. With more time, planning, and perhaps a tripod or Platypod, I expect the next round to yield stronger results.
Unfortunately, I had only a few minutes to spend there as I was on my way to a dinner. Any suggestions on refining the approach?
And if you could really be helpful, provide private feedback using the survey button below. Tell me, anonymously. Which ones are more interesting and impacting for you?
Back to My Photowalk
The joy of simply walking again was a gift. A 3+ mile route took me from where I was staying to dinner, with Grand Central as a midway stop. As I was leaving Grand Central, I took a few shots to round out my long exposure experimentation.
In the shot below, I wanted to capture the rush of the crowd, but not lose focus or show too much movement. So I pushed my ISO to 4000 and shot F4 at 1/125 second. This was my small 35MM F1.8 prime, which held up pretty well to keep movement to a minimum.
And heading south, outside the door from the station, I captured this shot. Perhaps nothing special, but I love the color and movement under the Park Avenue bridge.
And this shot was capture before I got to Grand Central. It was great to be walking and capturing people just hanging out in the Plazas at the base skyscraper buildings on Park Avenue.
See More of My Street Photography Here:
Another shot where I experimented with slower exposures to get more “blur.” This was shot at F8 at the end of the day, at 1/160 and ISO 400. I panned along with the rider.
I’ll be sharing more NYC street work, plus experiments with my new flash, in upcoming posts. Do you want to see them?
Summing it All Up
Being free from a cast or boot felt like stepping into summer again (finally).
While there’s still a slight limp, the return to movement — and photography — was liberating. Ahhhh, getting back to my photography journey and picking up my pace while I still have some summer left.
The long exposure techniques fascinate me — they’re opening new directions in my work. I will be adding this to my “Quirky” portfolio of images that include my ICM, light painting, reflection shots, among others. I look forward to what awaits.
Quick Note
Thanks to everyone who joined my recent survey — more than 25 readers weighed in! Your feedback helps shape these experiments. You are all amazing, Namaste 🙏.
I will update you in another post.
Lessons Learned 🧠
As always, here are some observations that struck me while preparing this post:
Planning matters. Long exposures need forethought — from composition to light angles. With more time, I could refine leading lines, framing and perspective.
Keep building the body. Photography is a numbers game. That “remarkable” frame — the one that surprises — is rare but worth chasing.
Never stop learning. There is so much I am learning about light, color, hues, saturation, shadows, highlights, and more that I keep experimenting with in Lightroom and occasionally Photoshop.
Endless possibilities. Photography doesn’t end with capture. Editing, printing, and presenting all extend the art into new forms. And its up to you to present accurate representations as you saw the scenes or create new images as you imagine them.
You get what you put into it.
Your Turn 🫵
How often do you play with shutter speed? Even on phones, its an option. Do you use Slo-mo?
Do you pan along with bikes or cars? Ever tried long exposures to make a busy street look empty?
Share your thoughts — I'm learning as much from these conversations as from the technical experimentation itself.
Please Note: Soon I’ll be starting a Chat on Substack so we can trade ideas in real time — quick reactions, photo tips, and shared experiments. Hope you’ll join me there.
Copyright Stuff
All photographs and images are copyrighted and created by me, David Rosen, unless otherwise noted. If you are interested in prints or using these images, simply reach out and ask at click@imagefrontiers.com.
He’s baaack! Well done.