F-stop question...

[cgratti]

I was trying to shoot some snow falling, with the shutter opened for a blur effect on th efalling flakes.
I used a 300D.

The problem I see is that I had overexposure. I set the camera to manual, shutter speed to 1 sec, and the apeture to 20. It was still overexposed?

Any ideas?

[kanwingshing]

You don't need 1 sec of exposure to get the blur effect. Try set it to faster speed. Turn the mode to Tv instead and see what kind of reading you get for f-stop. Start with 1/60 sec and slow it down if you think the effect is not enough, then decrease the shutter speed step by step.

[scottbergerphoto]

You have to keep in mind that shutter speed and aperture must be matched to give a correct exposure. Once you determine the proper exposure for a scene you can use any number of equivalent f stop, shutter speed combinations. For example, on a bright snowy day at f/8 you might show 1/250 sec on your meter. Correcting for the bright white, you would add 2 f stops so your snow doesn't look grey. That gives f/4 and 1/250. That is equivalent to: f/5.6, 1/125; f/8, 1/60; f/11, 1/30. You get the idea? If you find yourself in a situation that is too bright to get the shutter speed slow enough as you've run out of f stops to close down, and your Iso is at its lowest, that's the place for a Neutral Densty filter.
Scott

[robertwgross]

I was trying to shoot some snow falling, with the shutter opened for a blur effect on th efalling flakes.
I used a 300D.

The problem I see is that I had overexposure. I set the camera to manual, shutter speed to 1 sec, and the apeture to 20. It was still overexposed?

Any ideas?

Any time that you shoot in manual mode, you had better know what you are doing. If your shot was overexposed, then this suggests a problem. Your metering should indicate to you how far off the metering level your shutter and aperture choices are taking you. Again, if your choices are taking you far off the metering point, then you had better know what you are doing.

Suggestion. Why don't you try one of the more automatic modes, e.g. Tv? See what aperture it wants to do for the shutter you feel you need. Shoot one that way, and then try manual mode with the same settings, and then fool around from there.

---Bob Gross---

[cgratti]

I was trying to shoot some snow falling, with the shutter opened for a blur effect on th efalling flakes.
I used a 300D.

The problem I see is that I had overexposure. I set the camera to manual, shutter speed to 1 sec, and the apeture to 20. It was still overexposed?

Any ideas?

Any time that you shoot in manual mode, you had better know what you are doing. If your shot was overexposed, then this suggests a problem. Your metering should indicate to you how far off the metering level your shutter and aperture choices are taking you. Again, if your choices are taking you far off the metering point, then you had better know what you are doing.

Suggestion. Why don't you try one of the more automatic modes, e.g. Tv? See what aperture it wants to do for the shutter you feel you need. Shoot one that way, and then try manual mode with the same settings, and then fool around from there.

---Bob Gross---

Yes, I went out and did that, and got much better results.
Thanks for the imput....