Hi people. I was looking for some help with a problem. I have started taking pictures of rivers using a canon 350d and am a bit confused.i am trying to freeze the water to make it look misty. When i first started i had the camera in TV mode and could freeze the water from 30 secs to 5 secs. Recently i can only use 0.3 to 0.5 and then the picture is just too white. Please help as i am desperate to take some super pictures. Carl
help with over exposure
- Thread starter ruggers
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- Ken
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To get the misty effect of water that is moving rather than frozen in an instant you need long exposures, so for example if a normally exposed shot was 1/50 f2.8 ISO 100 then corresponding equivalent exposures would be
1/25 f4
1/12 f5.6
1/6 f8
1/3 f11
So you can see how all those setting would give the same exposure in light value hitting the sensor. Now exposures of several seconds is needed to get the effect you are after so you need to find a way to cut down the light still further, for this you need ND or neutral density filters (dark glass) which come in various strengths 1, 2, 3 stops which would help increase the exposure time.
1/25 f4
1/12 f5.6
1/6 f8
1/3 f11
So you can see how all those setting would give the same exposure in light value hitting the sensor. Now exposures of several seconds is needed to get the effect you are after so you need to find a way to cut down the light still further, for this you need ND or neutral density filters (dark glass) which come in various strengths 1, 2, 3 stops which would help increase the exposure time.
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- Derek
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If you don't have access to a ND filter, one way of setting the slowest shutter speed you can get away with for the prevailing light conditions is to set your ISO to the lowest setting, usually 100, put the camera in Av mode and select the smallest available aperture your lens is capable of, and these settings will give you the slowest possible shutter speed without risking overexposure. If you find that this doesn't give you the silky, misty effect you are after, you can either shoot when the ambient light level is a bit less bright, or invest in some ND filters.
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- Derek
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Just to add that your original post is a little confusing. You say that you want to freeze the water to get the misty effect. To freeze the water you would need to use a fast shutter speed, but this is the exact opposite of what you need to do if you are trying to achieve the misty effect. It's the movement of the water whilst the shutter is open that gives this effect, which is why you need along shuuter speed.