Slow Shutter Dilemna :(

DavidUK

DavidUK

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Well my photographic ego has taken a knockback today! :eyesup:

I was trying to take a shot of a water fountain at a local park with a slow shutter speed. I've not done this before, I'm doing it for my night class... we've to take shots to illustrate why we use slow/fast shutter speeds. I understand the principle, i.e. a slow shutter speed will produce a sense of motion in the picture, but I had some very strange results with my D70.. not at all what I was expecting and I'm hoping somebody might be able to point me in the right direction.

I had my camera mounted on a tripod..it was set to ISO200 and manual mode. I generally use the exposure meter in the viewfinder to guide me when taking shots in manual mode. I figured that in order to get the correct exposure with a slow shutter speed, I'd try around 1 second at F29. The problem I encounted was that when I changed my shutter speed setting, the nearer I got to 1 second the exposure meter just shot straight to the maximum or + side and showed "HI". Normally I would adjust the aperture until the exposure meter indicated the exposure was balanced (i.e. at 0 on the scale), but no matter what aperture I selected the meter remained the same. Taking a shot with this setting produced a completely white image.

I checked my settings, tried different metering modes with no effect.

Finally, after 'tinkering' with exposure compensation, I could get some detail in the shot, but not much, by setting the compensation to +5 step.

It was an average day, I wasn't shooting directly into the sun, my white balance was set to Auto, which is normally fine with the D70.. so all-in-all I'm stumped! :ponders:

I tried a desperate phone call to a friend who couldn't understand it either, but suggested I use an ND Filter.

Can anyone offer any suggestions!
 
Too much light?

Out of curiosity I set my 20D to 1 second (shutter priority) and 200 iso and pointing the camera at a window with quite low light on it the f32 the lens would go to was not enough. Indoors the camera would be choosing f16.

You need lower iso, a higher possible fstop and/or ND filter(s) to reduce the light.

I would have thought 1/4 sec would be slow enough for a fountain blur.
 
RobertP said:
Too much light?

Out of curiosity I set my 20D to 1 second (shutter priority) and 200 iso and pointing the camera at a window with quite low light on it the f32 the lens would go to was not enough. Indoors the camera would be choosing f16.

You need lower iso, a higher possible fstop and/or ND filter(s) to reduce the light.

I would have thought 1/4 sec would be slow enough for a fountain blur.
Click to expand...

..too much light most certainly!

I did try taking a reading from a darker object and recomposing but it didn't help. To be honest I'm not sure what shutter speeds are best for these results, that's the point of this exercise at college I think!

Incidently my D70 won't go any lower than ISO200... and as I remember the Lee filter kit with the ND filter which I've looked at before is a bit pricey!
 
was it full manual mode?
 
..certainly was. I've trusted the exposure meter before but now I'm not so sure. I tried it in Shutter Priorty and the meter was still maxed out at the + end.

I also thought it was odd that I got a little detail by setting compensation to +5, I thought this would make it even lighter?

...umm making basic mistakes I reckon :eyesup: ..but that's how we learn lol.

EosD said:
was it full manual mode?
Click to expand...
 
There's a hell of a lot of light in the outside. Overcast today at f8, ISO100 and it was still suggesting 1/500th odd speeds.

No great surprise that at 1 second it couldn't close the app enough to cope.
 
Why not use the lowest ISO if a slow shutter speed is what you're after? :)

Is it possible that your Manual Mode wont allow you to select a shutter speed longer than 1 sec? Aperture Priority normally allows an auto exposure as long as 30 seconds.
 
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