Long exposure shots

[kram]

I went for a walk to the park the other day and saw a flowing stream. I wanted to test a long exposure shot.

Tried various settings but all shots were a bit too bright and washed out.

When I set time, the camera maxes out aperture. From my end, I stepped down ISO to 100 and reduced exposure compensation to -2. My Fquestion is

- if the shot is still to bright, are there any other setting I can play with?

Or is the solution a hardware solution such as a polarizer or some such extra layer?

[tim]

Exposure compsenation doesn't work like that. The best thing you could have done was set ISO 100 and F22+, and leave the EC at 0 unless the histogram tells you to do otherwise. Alternately use a neutral density filter to cut the amount of light back, but try the first solution first.

There's a book called "understanding exposure" that might help you learn :)

[Angel_LCD]

Increase the f-stops ;) Then you get less light and still you can use long exposures without overexposing :)

[Dchemist]

The key is to reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor. You could use a polarizer which reduces the light roughly 50%, you can reduce the size of the aperture with the trade-off of increased depth of focus (so the background comes into focus instead of being blurred). There are neutral density filters that could be added to also reduce the intensity of light. Remember to consider a tripod as you reduce the light and the shutter speed gets longer.

[kram]

When I set camera to Tv mode and set the time, the aperture was already maxed out to f32 (on my Tamron 28-75). I did not use full manual mode.

Tim, I set EC lower after the first few shots were overexposed. I tried reducing the right shift of the histogram and by taking down EC - it seemed to help. Is there something wrong with this approach?

[tim]

When I set camera to Tv mode and set the time, the aperture was already maxed out to f32 (on my Tamron 28-75). I did not use full manual mode.

Tim, I set EC lower after the first few shots were overexposed. I tried reducing the right shift of the histogram and by taking down EC - it seemed to help. Is there something wrong with this approach?

You'll need a polarizer or a neutral density filter.

Reducing your EC means your shot will be underexposed, and hense noisy. Reducing the EC shouldn't have made any difference in the case, since your aperture was already at it's smallest.

[Tdragone]

Take a look at this picture:


http://www.pbase.com/tdragone/image/45502852

I took this on a tripod with a -2 Neutral Density filter and a polarizer stacked on top of each other (It was a really bright day out).

The exif data shows 2 seconds @ F 36.

If this is what you are trying to accomplish; I must say; use a tripod and practice a LOT; this is probably the first one I have considered good so far....

-Tom D.

[AdamG]

kram: The best way to take those shots is to do it very early in the morning or later in the afternoon, or on an overcast day. The light will be greatly reduced and will allow you to mess around with aperture and shutter speed to get the desired results. Like almost everyone mentioned here, if you use a small aperture, you will increase the shutter time for the flowing effect, but only if the light is right. In bright daylight, for example, even f22 or more may requires such a fast shutter speed that the flowing stream will come out static and frozen. I don't own any ND filters yet, but I use a polarizer for those types of shots, a tripod if at all possible, AND either a remote shutter release or self timer to eliminate shake.
The cool thing about shooting something like a stream is that it won't run away, so experiment with the time of the day for best results.

[kram]

True Adam, I will be back at the park reasonably soon to experiment :)

Thanx Tim for your comments - did some reading on EC and understood what it does. Looks like I changed something else when I stepped down EC - coz the aperture was maxed out at 32 and I kept the same time. Maybe it became cloudy??

Also, ND filters could be a great help for shots like these - but yes, it gets added as item 103 on my wishlist :)

[tim]

I'm not sure what EC would do if you're in Tv and F32. What did it do for you? Make it darker?

[kram]

Yes, I thought the picture became darker and I could see a shift in the histogram to the left. But then, when I look at how EC works, it could have done nothing - I had maxed out aperture to 32 and I controlled time.

I will probably go back to those snaps and see what changed.

[jfrancho]

The display would have a blinking value, indicating an error, and that that degree of EC was not possible at those settings. Just one question, was the histogram indicating clipping at the right? If not, it makes little sense to use EC, unless the camera's meter is being fooled by a remarkably contrasted subject/background.

[likophoto]

ND is your best and cheapest option if it's bright out and you want to take slow shutter pictures. Depending on your lens size a ND filter you can grab one of bhphoto for under 20 bucks. A 52mm is like 11.25

[kram]

JF, I reviwed the histogram and it was loaded way too much on the right - dont know if it was getting clipped. The second shot with the EC turned down looked better with the peak moving towards the left.

But as I said, I need to get back to the originals to see if it was change in external light levels that caused it. EC could not have possibly helped in this case is what I realize.