Daytime Long Exposures

[AvasMom]

So I was wondering if someone could help me. I dont understand how to do long exposure shots during the day. I see alot of waterfall pictures and such and I dont know what settings to use. Any time I have tried no matter how long or short the exposure my picture is just blown out white. I know this may seem quite silly, but I am still learning with my camera and wanted to know if someone could tell me how to do this.

Thanks in advance!

[Benphall]

I always wondered how photographer accomplished this as well when i was first starting out. look into ND (neuteral density) filters they are basicaly tinted glss filters that wil block out some of the sun from entering the lens thus allowing you to leave the shutter open for longer peionds of time. Another filter that you may want to look into is a circular polarizing filter. they are a tad pricey however if you doing photography involving ladscapes they are very helpfull as they will make clouds in the sky pop and make colors more viberant, this filter also lowers the camera by 1 -2 stops as well (helps with longer shutter speed.

Cheers

[teaking]

Yeah pretty much right, there isnt really a lot you can do about long exposures during the day, ND filters can help other than that its best to try Long exposures when its cloudy or early morning or later on in the day when the light is less harsh.

Although there was an article I read which pretty much said if you cant get long exposures try working with what you have sharp water can look good in the right composition, or black and white with the contrasts at lease you would still end up with a nice shot

[johassler]

Originally Posted by AvasMom

So I was wondering if someone could help me. I dont understand how to do long exposure shots during the day. I see alot of waterfall pictures and such and I dont know what settings to use. Any time I have tried no matter how long or short the exposure my picture is just blown out white. I know this may seem quite silly, but I am still learning with my camera and wanted to know if someone could tell me how to do this.

Thanks in advance!

I'm still learning my camera too, so I can relate.

The photos I took this weekend can all be found on my flickr feed.

It's definitely not perfect, but I think I'm headed in the right direction. What I did was go find a waterfall, bring my tripod and my Canon, and set up. I don't actually fully understand how to work in "full manual" mode - so I was working in TV mode (which means I was controlling the shutter speed, and the camera was making it's own choices regarding aperture and ISO). Beginning with a shutter speed of about 1/10 of a second and going to 2 seconds, I took pictures, moving to a longer shutter speed each time. I then repositioned and did it again, and again, and again. I probably took over 250 photographs, resulting in a few I liked.

Next time I go, I'm going to master the fully manual settings and try following the tips I was given by Grumby in another thread: "Now you've got the tripod, find some moving water that's partly shaded, go there on an overcast day when the light isn't so good, dial the ISO and aperture way down, and enforce longer exposures to really exaggerate that moving water effect - you've got everything you need - enjoy experimenting."

So, try experimenting a bit, and make notes when you see the results so you know what seems to be working, and what doesn't. I definitely had my share of WAY over exposed images - ones that were just blinding white and little else.

[OsmosisStudios]

Im looking into a B+W ND1000 filter: blocks out 10 stops of light. What this means is that if a "proper" exposure is, say, 1/125s, with the filter it would be something more like 8 seconds. There's a waterfall nearby that I shot at 15s a few years ago: and that was proper exposure. That means that I'd be able to get 8.5 HOURS. Assuming my power source lasted that long.

[mkhartman]

There are a couple of ways to help compensate for long exposures during the day. Setting your aperture, is the trick.

You can go about this in two ways. The first way, you can set your camera to shutter-priority ("Tv" on a Canon, "S" on a Nikon). This will allow you to select an extended exposure, say to maybe 1 or 2 seconds, manually; with the camera then assigning the proper aperture to compensate for the amount of light that passes through your lens. This will generally be the easiest technique for you. The second way, (a little more advanced) is to switch your camera over to manual mode, choose the desired shutter speed (1, 2, 3 seconds, etc.), then to choose a small aperture (maybe around around f/11 to, perhaps as low as f/20). The small aperture won't let as much light through the lens and will help in exposing your composition correctly.

If you take the manual approach, my best advice would be to simply play around with the settings to see what makes the best exposure. Then maybe to take note of it. That way the next time, you can try the same settings to see if they work best. Of course, every composition is different, so don't be surprised if you need to make small adjustments.

Just don't forget your tripod!

Good luck!

If you have any other questions, I'd be glad to help.