Diagnosis: The shader is blurred everything because something in the scene is moving (even your idle breathing animation). Fix: You need a Motion Mask. This is difficult in basic ReShade. Workarounds:
| Aspect | Manual Accumulation | Motion Vector Method | |--------|---------------------|----------------------| | Light Trails | Excessive ghosting | Smooth, accurate trails | | Performance | High memory bandwidth | Higher compute cost | | Artifacts | Heavy blur on static UI | Depth disocclusion errors | | Realism | Low (looks like fading) | Medium | reshade long exposure
Visual Example: In racing games, manual accumulation produces a "fading echo" of the car rather than a continuous light streak. The motion vector method better simulates a camera shutter open for 0.5 seconds. Workarounds: | Aspect | Manual Accumulation | Motion
ReShade can approximate long exposure photography but is fundamentally limited by lack of access to game engine motion vectors and the recursive nature of frame blending. For static camera + moving objects, manual accumulation works adequately. For realistic light trails, a game engine with explicit motion vector support is superior. However, ReShade remains the only tool for live long exposure simulation in unmodified commercial games. For static camera + moving objects, manual accumulation
There are two distinct ways to achieve a long exposure look. Knowing which one to use separates a novice from a pro.