Slow shutter speed.

[Disha Parekh]

So the next photo for the Onenightstand Challenge is a Slow shutter speed photo. I am fairly new to the technicalities of cameras and thought this might be a good reason to teach myself what these things mean so I've been doing some reading. I was interested in doing it in day-light and I understand so far that I have to pump my ISO to as low as it will go, increase the F to 32(which is the highest it will go on my camera). My question: Is it possible to take a show shutter speed photo on a bright sunny day without a ND filter? And if so, what am I doing wrong, because I am still getting massively overexposed photos for shutter speeds anything slower than 1/4.

[e.gad]

I am by no means an expert on the subject, but without an ND filter you will probably not be able to get a slow shutter speed in daylight as you have set your camera settings to the optimal settings.

I took this shot this weekend on a bright day in shade with ISO 100 and f/22 and an ND 8 and the longest shutter speed I could get was 2 seconds. It was still overexposed in spots so I had to bracket and process as an HDR.


I hope this helps.

[Karen H]

I'm thinking technically, this may be the hardest for those of us without fancy equipment.

[Leslie]

Is it legal to use exposure compensation or does that defeat the purpose of the exercise?

[Mr. T]

For the poor man's fix as well I have slowed down the speed just a hair by shooting through my polarized sunglasses also. Just for fun. Not an ND filter and closer to a CP but it still gave me a little bit slower speed and some neat colors too. Just an experiment. :)

[Disha Parekh]

@egad Ok thanks for the advice. I thought that may be the case so I might just stick to light painting until I get a filter :)

@tigerdreamer Indeed. Good luck! :)

@lesphoto I think it would have to be legal, unless it was expected that everyone did their slow shutters in the dark.

@geocacheking Ha that's a great idea. I just tried some out and got interesting results. Thank you!

[Bard]

@lesphoto If you use exposure compensation in Aperture priority mode, it will just increase the shutter speed, thus you won't have a slow shutter speed. If you do it in shutter priority there would be nothing wrong with that.

[Harry J Benson]

I am taking it to mean anything below 1/30 sec where you cannot hand hold without getting a blur. Some beautiful examples at http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/12/12/45-breathtaking-examples-of-slow-shutter-speed-photography.html

[Gabriel Siqueira]

@dishaparekh176 by your description you are doing everything alright.
If you want a longer exposure time, try it at night (traffic lights are great to try) or indoors. Or get an ND filter. Sadly there's no other way.

[Gabriel Siqueira]

Oh, and also don't forget to turn OFF the image stabilization on your lenses if possible.

[Peter de Graaff]

@dishaparekh176 @tigerdreamer A neutral density filter is useful but also placse like a waterfall or creek in a shady gully/canyon will also work especially in early morning. You will need a tripod.

[Karen H]

@gabrielklee Thanks for the reminder. I don't know if I can, but I will look for that.
@peterdegraaff Peter we don't all live in the beautiful area that you do, and some of us work. ;) thanks for the ideas. I will use the tripod for this one.

[Disha Parekh]

@gabrielklee @hjbenson Yeah that was another question, how slow is slow? I can get pretty decent shots at 1/30.. I might just try this one at night until I can figure out more. @peterdegraaff I don't have any like that around. And thanks for the tripod heads up. Been walking around with one! :)

[jerry plume]

I did this one with no filter or tripod. This was shot just after sunset and I set my camera on a post. If your camera has the option, I set the shutter speed to 1.3

[Disha Parekh]

@orangecrush That is a beautiful shot. It is still really bright outside so I'm going to wait for the sun to dim a little and experiment. If not, there is always light painting to fall back on.

[Gabriel Siqueira]

@dishaparekh176 slow is as slow as it pleases you. haha.
As long as it appears to be a slow shutter speed: for instance people blurred, trails of light, water flowing appearing silky, etc. Those are the hints that a picture had long exposure. :)

[Gabriel Siqueira]

I do several long exposures. I love it. See a few here:

Light trails




Motion blur (cars and people)




Night shots


"Silky water" effect

[e.gad]

@hjbenson those are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.

[jerry plume]

@gabrielklee Wow! These shots are amazing! Very inspirational!

[Michael Elliott]

@dishaparekh176 - I know what you mean. I have had iddues trying to do slow shutter during daylight but much easier at night:

[Patty]

Jerry, that's an amazing capture...really...it's breathtaking!!
@orangecrush

[Disha Parekh]

@gabrielklee Those are some amazing shots! Thank you for sharing :)
@michaelelliott Excellent night capture. I'm off to try mine.

[Stephane]

Hello all... I also want to test this technic during my next holidays. But still have a question... I bought a ND8 filter and a polarizing filter.. If I put the 2 filters on my camera what will be the indice of filtering (8 + ?) ?

Thanks for reply :)