Slow shutter speed effects?!

Question

I was messing around with my camera (Canon Rebel 400xti), and I set the shutter speed to 5 sec last night, turned off the lights, and moved a lighter around to look cool. Now, when the picture came out, it showed the light moving around (plan had worked).

Now, when I went out in the daylight today to do the same thing at the river, the exposure was PURE WHITE! I could not change the exposure on Manual mode for some reason. This would not work on any modes! I wanted the rocks, land, etc to be in focus, and the water to look soft and flowy, with a slow shutter speed.

I AM NEW TO DIGITAL SLRs, please be nice!

How do I do this effect in the day time, without having the picture come out pure white? like what aperture, exposure, ISO, etc. do I set??

Answer 1

The exposure time determines how much light is let into the camera.  If you set the exposure for 5 seconds in a really dark room, you will be able to see the details better, but if you do it in direct sunlight, it will make the entire picture over exposed.  If you want the water to be smooth, try coming back around sunset.  Try using a 1-2 second exposure and adjust the aperture as necessary.

As for the ISO, set it to the lowest setting to make the exposure time longer.  Try experimenting with different exposures and apertures until you find one that works.

Answer 2

For long exposures in daylight, you need a neutral density filter. The ND filter will cut down the amount of light hitting your sensor to compensate for the long exposure.

Also try decreasing the ISO to it's lowest setting, and if setting the aperture to its smallest setting (largest number).

Answer 3

what ky2k said

the lighter is so much dimmer than the sunlight it wont work

to get milky water try f45 or so, iso 100, and a ND filter or 2

a

Answer 4

Yeah, like they said.  

Answer 5

A long exposure works at night or indoors because of low lighting.  If you try to do it outside on a sunny day, you will overexpose the picture and that's why it came out white.  The picture was completely overexposed.  To compensate, you will have to use a very small aperture, like f-22 or f-32 if your camera will go down that low.  

You can also change the ISO.  The ISO is the light sensitivity of film, or the sensor in a digital camera.  A higher ISO number means a higher sensitivity to light.  So, for example, 400 ISO is more sensitive than 200 ISO.  If you want to try long exposures outside in sunlight, try a low ISO number, like maybe 50 ISO.

Also, you will need to set your camera to completely manual mode.  You should see a mode switch, select the "M" mode so you can set the aperture and shutter speed yourself.

Normally, for taking pictures with manual exposure, you would follow the "Sunny 16" rule.  This means that on a sunny day, you would set the aperture to f16, and your shutter speed to the same as the ISO, or the closest number.  So let's say the ISO was 200...then you would set the aperture to f16, and the shutter speed to 1/200.  Now the problem is that with long exposures, it doesn't quite work the same.  You'll have to use a bit of trial and error.  I have done long exposures with film, indoors with no flash, and outside with street lights.  Usually I would set the aperture to F8 and take maybe a 10 second exposure.  But if you take a long exposure during the day, there will be so much light that it will overexposure the picture.  So you will have to use a low ISO number, and a small aperture.

Read the manual for your camera and see how to set the camera to completely manual mode, and how to change the ISO and aperture.  The lower the ISO, the better.  Like maybe 50.  Then use a small aperture like f-22 or f-32 and see if that works.

Also, you will have to mount your camera on a tripod if you just want your subject to show motion blur and not the whole picture.

Answer 6

Not knowing your camera, I'm not sure what you would do to get the effect you want, but it makes sense that the exposure was pure white...the shutter was wide open and excess light poured in.

You really just have to play around with different settings.  It's always a good idea to bring a journal so you can jot down exactly what was set where, in order to re-create the effect.

Answer 7

Yes you do need a ND filter or two ... in any case ... ALWAYS use your light meter to determine the proper exposure ... you camera is not magic so you need to tell it what to do  ... it you tell it to do the wrong thing, it will do it.