Slow shutter speeds

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raythefab

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Theres a weir near me that i want to take some shots of and slow the water down, last time i tried it was a brilliant sunny day and i couldnt get the speed i wanted any tips please cheers...Ray:)
 
ND Filter could help to allow you to slow down your shutter.
 
raythefab said:
Theres a weir near me that i want to take some shots of and slow the water down, last time i tried it was a brilliant sunny day and i couldnt get the speed i wanted any tips please cheers...Ray:)
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Lowest ISO
Minimum aperture
Neutral Density filter(s) of suffient strength to permit shutter speed of 15th/1/8th 1/4 etc.
If you have a polariser stick that on and it will lose you about 2 stops.
You'll need to experiment to get the right filter strength that allows a slow shutter speed because you will not know how bright the light will be until you get on scene.
Tripod

Take several shots at different slow speeds because you cannot predict the effect beforehand.
 
This is all good advice. You could also try shooting early or late in the day, when the light is not so intense. The softer, slanting, light can be very effective.
 
A weir sounds like quite fast running water, so you would get a good amount of blurring using 1/4sec. As has been said, on a dull day you could get that with a high f/number and low ISO, but you'll need an ND filter to get a really misty effect with 1 sec. BTW, f/22 is bad news for diffraction especially with wide angle lenses - it kills sharpness.

There's another thread currently on here about fogging effects when using an ND filter. Basically, it's light leaking in through the viewfinder which finds its way on to the sensor by squeezing past the tiny gaps in the piggy-back mirror used for AF, into the mirror chamber and on to the sensor. It only shows up with very long exposures (several seconds) in bright ambient light, but make sure you cover the viewfinder, or at least shade it, during long exposures with an ND filter.

Edit: link to that fogging effect thread, when using ND filters. http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=130056
 
Thank you for all the advice, now its what to get ND2, ND4, ND8 or a Poloriser i dont want to buy the lot as they prob wont get used again cheers...Ray:)
 
HoppyUK said:
A weir sounds like quite fast running water, so you would get a good amount of blurring using 1/4sec. As has been said, on a dull day you could get that with a high f/number and low ISO, but you'll need an ND filter to get a really misty effect with 1 sec. BTW, f/22 is bad news for diffraction especially with wide angle lenses - it kills sharpness.

There's another thread currently on here about fogging effects when using an ND filter. Basically, it's light leaking in through the viewfinder which finds its way on to the sensor by squeezing past the tiny gaps in the piggy-back mirror used for AF, into the mirror chamber and on to the sensor. It only shows up with very long exposures (several seconds) in bright ambient light, but make sure you cover the viewfinder, or at least shade it, during long exposures with an ND filter.

Edit: link to that fogging effect thread, when using ND filters. http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=130056
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how do you guys know sooooooooooo much:thinking:
 
garymicheal said:
how do you guys know sooooooooooo much:thinking:
Click to expand...

Erm, I read a thread about it on here two days ago... ;)

As for which ND filter to go for, if you're going for the blurry water look, then you need a really dark one, 10 stops. Like this from B+W http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1013507 They also do a 6 stops version, but an ND8 (3 stops) is not enough. Those filters are generally intended for a completely different use, when you want to shoot with a very low f/number for shallow depth of field, in bright light.

I tend to use ISO400, which means my exposure on a bright sunny day is going to be around 1/1000sec at f/8. I want to get that down to around 1 sec, so that is a 10 stops difference. By juggling shutter speed, aperture and ISO, I could then easily change that to give me a range of shutter speeds from about 16 secs and 1/15sec. Perfect. And also very useable on duller days. You could probably get by with 6 stops pretty well though, especially on duller days or when you don't want total blurr.

Just a comment about blurring water, one effect that looks really good is to merge one sharp image with a blurred long exposure one in post processing. The link shows how this technique looks :) post #70 http://bbs.scoobynet.com/photograph...ography-calling-volunteers-3.html#post6267179
 
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