How do you get a perfect daytime long exposure??

Question

Hey

How do you get a perfect daytime long exposure, say if i was photographing a waterfall, and i wanted to show the water flowing,

But whenever i make the shutter speed longer, the photo is just really bright and white, and you cant see the subject

Please help me out :)

Thank you 4 help

Answer 1

Use a tripod

Set the cameras ISO to 100

Shoot waterfalls in the shade

Close the lens aperture to its smallest f/stop ... f/32 if your lens has it.

Use one or two ND filters until your shutter speed is around 1/2 to one second long

Answer 2

I would say exactly the same as above...

however, pay attention, you may experience side effects with small apertures : physical phenomenon called diffraction

you can also use f-stop filter. these are kind on neutral gray filters, you have 1 up to 3 stops filters. each stop means multiplying the exposure time by 2 for the captor to receive the same amount of light

one other solution (never experienced actually), use 2 polaroid filters (one on top of the other), spin them to reduce the amount of light going through them (you shall control incoming light from 0% to 50% just by turning one of the filter by 90°)

hope it helps!

Answer 3

The easiest way to do this is to set your camera to shutter speed priority... you choose the shutter speed, the camera chooses the rest.

In manual mode, you would have to compesate for the light gain... for every stop you add to your shutter speed, you need to subtract from your aperture.

Answer 4

That is because you are over exposing your picture.

Set a tripod and add an ND difuser filter, a polarizer filter or a combination of both to reduce the amount of light coming in (You can do this to mak a daylight shot look like night).

Set your aperture as small as possible (F22 or F32) and begin playing with the exposure time.  Try shooting at 1 second and then look at the result... you might have to shoot slower or faster to show movement and adjust the F-stop to control depth of field and amount of light coming in

Good luck!

Answer 5

Use the lowest ISO, stop the lens down to its smallest aperture (using aperture priority - mode "A"), and if necessary use an ND or CP filter. The filters are important, my quantaray CP filter adds a 1 and a half stop filter factor to my exposure. And try to shoot early in the morning when the sun isn't so high and bright in the sky.

Answer 6

Put down the ISO to as low as it can go, and close the aperture to the highest it can go, like f/22, if it's still bright, wait for the clouds to cover the sun. Sometimes you can't do anything about it

Answer 7

Photoace above nailed it on the head. ND filters are your waterfall taking friends.... I had the same problem as you - and the ND filters sorted it out.

Answer 8

First of all you need to use the light meter in your camera. A long exposure wil make your photos to bright (overexposed) without a corresponding reduction in the aperture (F stop). In the center of your viewfinder is a light meter make sure the line is in the middle.

As to how to make the water have that flowing or cloudy effect. Set your camera on a tripod. Set the ISO to 100. Set your aperture to the highest number (smallest opening). Now set your shutter speed so that the line in the light meter is in the middle. Your shutter speed should be at least 1/2 second preferably longer. If it is not you have two options.

1. Wait until it is not so bright out. Not the best option

2. Use one or more ND (neutral density) filters. These are filters that s***w on to the front of your lens. They act like sunglasses for your camera but do not effect the color. They simply block a certain amount of light from entering the camera.

If you use ND filters you should still rely on your light meter.  

Answer 9

Nikon D80, is a great camera,  setting the camera like fhotoace told ya